Urban Legends.

[LordOfThe5Rings]

I know I've been hogging the boards the last few days, but I don't care :P Just been curious on other peoples opinions on things.

I didn't know where to put this, so I apologise if it's in the wrong category.

I was wondering what everyones favourite Urban Legend/Cautionary Tale was. I have been fascinated in them for pretty much forever, due to so many meanings and of course expressing the nations fears.

So what are your favourites? Feel free to share the UL with us! :)

I just read the July winner story and it was nasty but I am at all the comments after it that say call the police

I'm not reading that then!

I can't work out that reddit thing, it all seems to be mod posts. Am I looking at the wrong bit?

You lot would HATE my house: there is a locked room!

Pluto - what's inside?

I started to read that July winners one but as soon as it mentioned a baby I stopped.

Aaargh! Pluto,what's on the locked room? Spill?

A lot of the landlords' things, which we can see through the window (terrible taste, mostly naff vases), most saliently a so-far silent grandfather clock

We stay in a farmhouse with a locked room. I think its probably full of linen and the little soaps that they leave in the bathrooms though

It is a very old building

The 3 Men and a Baby ghost story scared me so much as a child that I actually slept with the light on in my room for months (seriously!)

Having reluctantly Googled it for this thread, there is an explanation:

here

But having reluctantly studied the close-up Ted Danson cut out and the 'boy' behind the curtains, it doesn't look like the same person.

~ ~ ~ ~ Woooowooooowoooooo ~ ~ ~ ~

Now you have mentioned Ted Danson, it reminds me of another mystery - when he was in Cheers I thought it was commonly known that he was badly receding and wore a hairpiece at the front. Now he is in CSI he seems to have a full head of grey hair

Back to the dawn of civilisation with that ur-Bald Myth.

Do you want me to find another screamer link?

"A 12 yr old girl was walking home from her friend's house alone. She had spent a long time with the friend and it was getting late. Although it was a residential area, there was nobody around. It was getting dark, too. She heard footsteps following her, turned around, but nobody was there. She started walking again, heard the footsteps again, and convinced that somebody was definately after her. Then she found a public telephone (it was before the time mobile was used), the telephone box was brightly lit and looked safe. She went into the box and phoned her mum at home. "Mum, I think somebody is following me. Can you please collect me from the telephone box?" Mum said 'Sorry, but I'm cooking now and I can't leave the oven unattended. Can you just ran home from there? It's not so far from home.' So she had no choice but to leave the tel box and dash. The footsteps were still following her and getting closer. Finally she arrived at her house, turnd around at the door, then found a man in a black coat just behind her. Suddenly the man brought an axe down on her neck and she was brutally killed.

She then woke up and realised it was a dream. Although she was really freaked out by the nightmare, soon forgot about it and never talked about it to anybody.

Fast forward, she became 14 yr now, and it's NOT a dream this time. She was walking home from her friend's house alone. She had spent a long time with the friend and it was getting late. Although it was a residential area, there was nobody around. It was getting dark, too. She heard footsteps following her, turned around, but nobody was there. At this point, she realised that the situation was quite similar to the nightmare she had had 2 years ago. She hurried, but footsteps were getting closer. Then she found a telephone box. She made a call to her mum and said 'Collect me from the tel box.' Mum said, 'OK, I'll be there as soon as possible.' Mum came to see her, so they left the tel box. Mum also heard the footsteps, got scared, so they ran and ran to their house. At the door, they turned around, and found a man in a black coat, who said to the girl 'Lucky this time, huh?' Then he left"

DP has asked me to point out that he worked for many years in a hospital that was built as a victorian asylum. He was there at all hours as he got called out in the night and would have to walk up and down really long empty corridors where the footsteps echoed on the victorian tiling, and the trees outside cast unearthly shadows. The strangest thing he saw was Ian Hislop walking around when it was virtually closed down. He was doing a documentary

I have had to get up and close the curtains. Thank god dh is home now.

And I am not clicking on any more bloody links.

The story of someone clawing their way out of a coffin is quite a common historical reality. Not the part about predicting it - that's super spooky. A very old set of graves in my hometown in Wales needed to be rebuilt due to collapse and they found a coffin partially opened. It must have been much harder to recognise comas or such in the old days perhaps?

We used to shit each other up as kids on school trips in Devon about the "hairy hand of Dartmoor". If you heard a storm and saw clouds the hand would come out of the sky and sweep you away in the fog! Did anyone else ever hear of this, or did we make it up?

I've been searching for this thread for ages so I need t mark my place (sorry) so. Don't lose it again.

oh bugger, not just me then!

Although PMSL about the hairy hands trying to get into a caravan.