Date Collected
Fall 12-3-2018
Place item was collected
Logan, Utah
Informant
Blaine Bills
Point of Discovery/Informant Bio
Blaine Bills, is my dad, he is currently 49 years old. He grew up in the Nephi, Spanish Fork area, in the 70s, with his parents and two siblings, Duane and Cathy. Both of his parents and his brother have since passed away. He went to school at Dixie for the first two years of his schooling, and then moved to Logan to go to USU for the rest. He got his degree in industrial hygiene, but has also gone through the police academy, and has been working for the state of Utah as an adult probation and parole officer for 23 years. He has been a member of the Church of Latter Days Saints, for most of his life.
Context
For Christmas last year, my brother, as a joke, gave me a Ouija board. My dad freaked out a little bit, and made me promise never to use it. I have used it, but nothing happened, I think they are utter bullshit, and he knows that. I interviewed him, sitting on the couch in our TV room, with the recorder on my phone turned on. He was relaxed, reclining in his chair. His dog, a Chihuahua, was on his lap, and my dog, a small poodle mix was on mine. Coincidentally, the Ouija board game, I had gotten for Christmas, was in the room, but hidden behind another game. No evil was sensed.
Text
This is a story that my seminary teacher, he was seminary teacher in Spanish Fork. [Uh] when I was a sophomore in high school at Spanish Fork High school. He was, I can’t remember his name. But he was a really funny seminary teacher, I really like him. He [Uh] had some stories to tell. And [uh] one of the stories, he was from Las Vegas, I guess when he first got married he, [uh] when he was a new seminary teacher, he [uh] came home from work one day and he said he felt like just pure evil when he entered his house. So he asked his wife what she did that day and he said that she told him that she went to a yard sale and bought some board games. And he asked her if he could see it, and [uh] so when he looked through the board games he found a Ouija board. And then, kinda the Mormon, Ouija board is kind of [uh, takes pause.]
[Taboo?]
Like a taboo, like I’ve heard stories from Ouija Boards from when I was a kid. So when he said that he asked her what she did. And he found that she had bought this Ouija Board, so he [uh] somehow went and threw it away and he said the next morning when he woke up, went outside and found that it was on his front porch. That gave me like goosebumps and stuff. So I don’t think he lied, he was a seminary teacher, so [takes pause]
[Trustworthy]
Texture
I had my dad tell me three stories in one sitting. This was the last of the three. He spoke faster in the recording than he had for the previous two, he was probably rushing, so he could get it over with and leave. Or maybe he just didn’t like talking about Ouija boards. After I ended the recording, he told me that was why he didn’t like that I had gotten a Ouija board, even though he’s told me that before.
Course
ENGL 2210
Instructor
Dr. Lynne McNeal
Semester and year
Fall 2018
Theme
G7: Games of the Supernatural
EAD Number
2.4.1.4.1
Recommended Citation
Bills, Alexa, "There’s Evil Sitting on the Porch" (2018). USU Student Folklore Fieldwork. Paper 321.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/student_folklore_all/321