"One night a woman went out for drinks with her girlfriends. She left the bar fairly late at night, got in her car and onto the deserted highway. She noticed a lone pair of headlights in her rear-view mirror, approaching at a pace just slightly quicker than hers. As the car pulled up behind her she glanced and saw the turn signal on — the car was going to pass — when suddenly it swerved back behind her, pulled up dangerously close to her tailgate and the brights flashed. Now she was getting nervous. The lights dimmed for a moment and then the brights came back on and the car behind her surged forward. The frightened woman struggled to keep her eyes on the road and fought the urge to look at the car behind her. Finally, her exit approached but the car continued to follow, flashing the brights periodically. Through every stoplight and turn, it followed her until she pulled into her driveway. She figured her only hope was to make a mad dash into the house and call the police. As she flew from the car, so did the driver of the car behind her — and he screamed, "Lock the door and call the police! Call 911!" When the police arrived the horrible truth was finally revealed to the woman. The man in the car had been trying to save her. As he pulled up behind her and his headlights illuminated her car, he saw the silhouette of a man with a butcher knife rising up from the back seat to stab her, so he flashed his brights and the figure crouched back down.
The moral of the story: Always check the back seat!*"
*In another common variant of this legend, the imperiled female (and it's
always a female, please note) pulls into a gas station and is frightened by the odd behavior of the attendant, who keeps trying to get her to leave the car and join him in the office. It turns out he has glimpsed a knife-wielding murderer in the backseat and is trying to save her life!*
Urban Legends are so cool, and as it is almost Halloween, I thought it was the perfect time to visit upon them. The story you read above is one that freaks me out the most, and makes me check the backseat whenever I am reminded of it!! I find Urban Legends so fascinating!
Like the one where it says you should NEVER flash your lights at anyone, because it is a gang initiation and they will turn around and go after anyone who flashes their lights...cool right?! And the origin is interesting too.
Some believe it was inspired by the story of a Stockton, California school secretary named Kelly Freed, who was a passenger in a car whose driver signaled at a car full of teenagers to inform them that their headlights were off. Mistaking the hand signal as an insult, one of the teens fired a gun at the car and Freed was killed. Police determined none of the teens were gang members, nor was the incident connected with a gang initiation. Because of this urban legend that most say has NO origin to be based after, many law enforcement agencies, DO, however, tell people Not to flash their lights, as a precautionary measure...ooooohhhhhoooohhhhh!
I admit I hadn't heard of the "Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn on the Light?" legend until the movie
Urban Legends, and it has bothered me SINCE! I mean stuff like this could happen! I know it's a warning to adolescents, but it is not like this could NOT happen. In college, people probably go back to a darkened dorm room and don't want to wake their roommates so they go straight to bed...if I had been a regular college girl...I SO would have needed to put on A light...to make sure I was safe and so was my roomie!! And NO, I would never leave my dorm room UNLOCKED, at ANY time. That is actually a huge thing colleges are trying to get across to students, Lock your rooms. For Many reasons! *shudders* And this one is basically an inspiration for "Humans Can Lick Too"...people make SURE it is your dog licking your hand, that's all I gotta say!
And let's take a look at the "Buried Alive" legend. Yes maybe it is quite unlikely that a person not really dead would be buried alive, screaming to be let out as they claw at the roof of their coffin. But I took the Psychology of Death & Dying, and this was a common fear back in the 19th Century, and was plausible. That was why people were often buried with a string attached to their finger, which led to a bell above ground. This way, if they ended up not being dead, they could ring a bell, and the Father at that cemetery could run out and save them. I found that fascinating!! And with all the weird shows I watch where someone uses a drug that fakes out even M.E.'s, it makes me want the BELL, when I die. Seriously I have seen it on CSI, NCIS, etc. It was even a Stephen King short story...ewww that one was freaky...FEELING your own autopsy...as I recall you probably DON'T want to know how they figured out he was alive...I think King ewwwwed me out.
I actually like the lessons most of these urban legends teach. Make sure your room or car is secure. Don't be out partying late or.....else. Don't pick up hitchhikers, don't take things from strangers. Let's face it, these are the folk tales of OUR generation. Yeah they are scary, but they DO teach us! A big lesson I think all the "man with the hook" and it's variants were supposed to teach? Don't go parking, LOL! And yes, Urban Legends are NOT just about the scary, there are ones about politicians, food, everything...but the scary ones are the most fun!! Go on, there are some great sites out there...even about.com has plenty!
I shall leave you with one more I just found...THIS is another reason for me to FEAR
clowns!!
The Clown Statue as read on About.Com
"So-and-so’s friend, a girl in her teens, is babysitting for a family in Newport Beach, Ca. The family is wealthy and has a very large house -- you know the sort, with a ridiculous amount of rooms; I mean, come on, if a house is big enough to have "wings," then you know the house is larger than it probably needs to be.
Anyways, the parents are going out for a late dinner/movie. The father tells the babysitter that once the children are in bed she should go into this specific room (he doesn’t really want her wandering around the house) and watch TV there.
The parents take off and soon she gets the kids into bed and goes to the room to watch TV. She tries watching TV, but she is disturbed by a clown statue in the corner of the room. She tries to ignore it for as long as possible, but it starts freaking her out so much that she can’t handle it.
She resorts to calling the father and asks, "Hey, the kids are in bed, but is it okay if I switch rooms? This clown statue is really creeping me out."
The father says seriously, "Get the kids, go next door and call 911."
She asks, "What’s going on?"
He responds, "Just go next door and once you call the police, call me back."
She gets the kids, goes next door, and calls the police. When the police are on the way, she calls the father back and asks, "So, really, what’s going on?"
He responds, "We don’t HAVE a clown statue." He then further explains that the children have been complaining about a clown watching them as they sleep. He and his wife had just blown it off, assuming that they were having nightmares.
The police arrive and apprehend the "clown," who turns out to be a midget. A midget clown! I guess he was some homeless person dressed as a clown, who somehow got into the house and had been living there for several weeks. He would come into the kids’ rooms at nights and watch them while they slept. As the house was so large, he was able to avoid detection, surviving off their food, etc. He had been in the TV room right before the babysitter came in there. When she entered he didn't have enough time to hide, so he just froze in place and pretended to be a statue."
Happy Halloween!! Bwahahahaha!
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I even linked the above picture to the Amazon page!
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