...from overhead, they could hear a skritch, skritch, skritch from something scratching the roof of the car...
OH YEAH.
Man, urban legend ghost stories always got me just as badly as legend-ghost stories, and possibly moreso because the urban kinds of stories had things I knew where present in everyday life: cars, microwaves, old swimming pools. Potential for scariness everywhere!
Which just means that I think the kind of exposure you get to stories, as a kid, also influences your perception of 'folklore' -- like if grandparents tell you something (ie old wives' tales) versus what your peers tell you (urban legends). Seeing how most of my cousins were older, and they would sometimes repeat the same stuff my grandparents said, I guess I put grandparent-stories in the same category as peer-stories (in terms of immediate-ness), so I grew up with a sense that just because something was old didn't mean it wasn't still true.
Then again, the more a kid reads, too, the more the kid's breadth of folklore will stretch... which is yet another reason I think exposure to international fairy tales and myths is of immeasurable worth. It really helps a person grow up with a sense of cultural values, both in themselves and in seeing the value in others. A subtle way to learn respect, maybe? ...while having the wits scared out of you, in some cases. Heh.
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Date: 21 Sep 2010 10:39 pm (UTC)OH YEAH.
Man, urban legend ghost stories always got me just as badly as legend-ghost stories, and possibly moreso because the urban kinds of stories had things I knew where present in everyday life: cars, microwaves, old swimming pools. Potential for scariness everywhere!
Which just means that I think the kind of exposure you get to stories, as a kid, also influences your perception of 'folklore' -- like if grandparents tell you something (ie old wives' tales) versus what your peers tell you (urban legends). Seeing how most of my cousins were older, and they would sometimes repeat the same stuff my grandparents said, I guess I put grandparent-stories in the same category as peer-stories (in terms of immediate-ness), so I grew up with a sense that just because something was old didn't mean it wasn't still true.
Then again, the more a kid reads, too, the more the kid's breadth of folklore will stretch... which is yet another reason I think exposure to international fairy tales and myths is of immeasurable worth. It really helps a person grow up with a sense of cultural values, both in themselves and in seeing the value in others. A subtle way to learn respect, maybe? ...while having the wits scared out of you, in some cases. Heh.