Myths and Legends

Bizarre Stories and Folktales that will Blow you Away

Alligators in the Sewer
Photo by [Michael Elliott] FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Every generation has always had bizarre stories and folktales that are told as either jokes or as interesting conversation pieces. Some of which will blow you away with how strange and unusual they are. But they are told in just a way that they are almost believable.

That being said, I wanted to share a few very bizarre stories and folktales that I have come across. Please keep in mind, these are only stories or folktales and to the best of my knowledge, there is no truth to what you are about to read. I think you will either enjoy the crazy twists of some of these folktales or the stories will blow you away…

The Not so Tasty Meal

As the story goes… A couple from Europe were vacationing in Hong Kong. Of course there was quite a language barrier that they had to struggle with. But after all it was vacation, so that’s sometimes part of it.

Anyway, they were starving and decided to visit a restaurant to grab a bite to eat. They had quite a bit of difficulty in conveying their order to the waiter. But using a lot of sign language type gestures and struggling, they felt they finally got their order across.

They had the family dog with them and of course he was hungry too. So they attempted to get the message across that they needed a meal for their dog. So they pointed toward their dog and then to their mouths to say they needed food for the dog as well.

So the waiter took the leash and led the dog away to the kitchen. They felt good that they had gotten the message across and sat waiting for their dinner to arrive as the dog ate.

A while later, the main course of their meal arrived and they were anxious as the cover was removed from the dish. As the meal became visible, they realized that lying on the dish was their dog, finely roasted!

Where did Grandmother Go?

This story kind of reminds me of a strange twist from the movie, National Lampoon’s Vacation with Chevy Chase. And it’s no doubt this folktale is probably where the screen writers got the idea for this scene.

So, there was a British family that were vacationing in Europe. It was the mother and father, their children and their grandmother that were along for the fun…

During their vacation, grandmother passed away, but they couldn’t bear the thought of burying her in a foreign country, and couldn’t afford to have her shipped back home. So they got a crazy idea to keep the corpse of dead grandmother with them until their vacation was over.

So they wrapped her up in a rug and strapped her to the luggage rack on top of the car.

At some point they decided to stop and have lunch at a restaurant. When they returned from having lunch, they were shocked to see their car, and grandmother, had been stolen from the parking lot. They never saw the car, or grandmother again!

Stories of Alligators in the Sewer

This is probably one of the most famous of folktales and I’m sure everyone has heard this story at some time or another.

The 1930’s marked a time for a strange craze that supposedly swept across the U.S. Everyone wanted to have a pet alligator. So tons of folks were buying these baby alligators, but soon they would be growing up and getting larger and more aggressive.

So as the newness wore off and the alligators became more and more unmanageable, people started to flush the baby gators down their toilets.

So naturally after thinking about how many of these alligators were flushed into the sewers, people began telling tales of a giant race of alligators thriving in the sewers, that were feeding on sewage.

Of course this story has no merit and there never was a large population of giant alligators living in the sewer networks. But in New York City, during the 1930’s there were in fact a few small alligators found in the sewers, but they were quickly relocated and no more were ever found.

This is a prime example of how small amounts of truth can be stretched into fabulous tall tales, stories and folktales. But boy they sure are fun to tell to the little ones and see just how big their eyes can really get.

If you’ve got any more great bizarre stories and folktales that will blow you away, I’d love for you to share them in the comments below!
 


Similar Posts