Baby Train

Last updated

The Baby Train, or simply Baby Train, is an urban legend told in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. [1] The legend first appeared in Christopher Morley's 1939 novel Kitty Foyle . [2] According to the legend, a certain small town had an unusually high birth rate. This was allegedly caused by a freight train passing through the town and blowing its whistle, waking up all the residents. Since it was too late to go back to sleep and too early to get up, couples would have sex. This resulted in a mini-baby boom. [1]

Contents

Legend

One version of the myth, as written down by the Australian author and folklorist Bill Scott in The Long & The Short & The Tall: a collection of Australian yarns tells the story of a little town on the coast, not too far north of Sydney, where the birth rate was three times the average for all the rest of Australia. This was so unusual the Government sent someone out to the town to investigate the cause for the high birth rate.

When the official arrived, he found children everywhere he looked. "Even the local school had those temporary classrooms all over the place to fit them in and they had a special maternity wing at the local hospital." [3] The man was mystified for a while. The people there did not seem different from people in other small towns, so he couldn't understand why they got three times as many children. After a few nights in the town, the man figured it out.

This particular town was right by the main railway line. The train was delivering mail right past the town, and thus blew its whistle when it stopped. Since it was too early to get up and it was too late to go back to sleep again, the adults had to find something to do in bed while waiting. This then led to the very high birth rates.

Other versions of the myth vary to different degrees. Sometimes the small town is in America or England, and one version tells of noisy foghorns rather a than train whistle. [2]

Similar myths and actual events

The story is related to the rumour that birth rates spiked nine months after the Northeast Blackout of 1965 [4] , the actual birthrate increase in Boston after February 1969 nor'easter, [5] the September 11 attacks [6] , and other natural disasters and similar events. [7] [8] [9] It is based on the premise that when regular life is disrupted adults will resort to sex as occupation without regard for family planning or protection.

Background

Further reading

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urban legend</span> Form of modern folklore

Urban legends is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoax</span> Widespread deliberate fabrication presented as truth

A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into putting up the highest possible social currency in support of the hoax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legend</span> Genre of storytelling that involves heroic humans

A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. Legend, for its active and passive participants, may include miracles. Legends may be transformed over time to keep them fresh and vital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legend tripping</span> Visits to sites associated with urban legends

Legend tripping is a name bestowed by folklorists and anthropologists on an adolescent practice in which a usually furtive nocturnal pilgrimage is made to a site which is alleged to have been the scene of some tragic, horrific, and possibly supernatural event or haunting. The practice mostly involves the visiting of sites endemic to locations identified in local urban legends. Legend tripping has been documented most thoroughly to date in the United States.

<i>Snopes</i> Fact-checking website

Snopes, formerly known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source for both validating and debunking urban legends and similar stories in American popular culture.

The vanishing hitchhiker is an urban legend in which people travelling by vehicle, meet with or are accompanied by a hitchhiker who subsequently vanishes without explanation, often from a moving vehicle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faxlore</span> Urban legends that spread via fax machine

Faxlore is a sort of folklore: humorous texts, folk poetry, folk art, and urban legends that are circulated, not by word of mouth, but by fax machine. Xeroxlore or photocopylore is similar material circulated by photocopying; compare samizdat in Soviet-bloc countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue star tattoo legend</span> Drug urban legend

The blue star tattoo legend is an urban legend which states that a temporary lick-and-stick tattoo soaked in LSD and made in the form of a blue star, or of popular children's cartoon characters, is being distributed to unknowing children in any given area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Harold Brunvand</span> American folklorist (born 1933)

Jan Harold Brunvand is an American retired folklorist, researcher, writer, public speaker, and professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah.

The Hook, or the Hookman, is an urban legend about a killer with a pirate-like hook for a hand attacking a couple in a parked car. In many versions of the story, the killer is typically portrayed as a faceless, silhouetted old man wearing a raincoat and rain hat that conceals most of his features, especially his face.

The killer in the backseat is an urban legend from the United States and United Kingdom. It was first noted by folklorist Carlos Drake in 1968 in texts collected by Indiana University students.

The Choking Doberman is an urban legend that originated in the United States. The story involves a protective pet found by its owner gagging on human fingers lodged in its throat. As the story unfolds, the dog's owner discovers an intruder whose hand is bleeding from the dog bite.

Traditional stories, or stories about traditions, differ from both fiction and nonfiction in that the importance of transmitting the story's worldview is generally understood to transcend an immediate need to establish its categorization as imaginary or factual. In the academic circles of literature, religion, history, and anthropology, categories of traditional story are important terminology to identify and interpret stories more precisely. Some stories belong in multiple categories and some stories do not fit into any category.

In West Virginian folklore, the Mothman is a humanoid creature reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area from November 15, 1966, to December 15, 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register, dated November 16, 1966, titled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird ... Creature ... Something". The national press soon picked up the reports and helped spread the story across the United States. The source of the legend is believed to have originated from sightings of out-of-migration sandhill cranes or herons.

The tale known as "The Poison Dress" or "Embalmed Alive" features a dress that has in some way been poisoned. This is a recurring theme throughout legends and folktales of various cultures, including ancient Greece, Mughal India, and the United States. Although lacking evidence suggesting that some American urban legends are directly linked to the classical tales, they share several common motifs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerbilling</span> Unsubstantiated sexual practice

Gerbilling, also known as gerbil stuffing or gerbil shooting, is an urban legend description of a fictitious sexual practice of inserting small live animals into one's rectum to obtain stimulation. Some variations of reports suggest that the rodent be covered in a psychoactive substance such as heroin prior to being inserted. There is no evidence that the practice has ever occurred in real life, and its existence remains highly dubious, as all rodents have long nails and teeth for digging or burrowing and naturally try to burrow out of any small spaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Spider Bite</span> Urban legend

The Spider Bite or The Red Spot is a modern urban legend that emerged in England during the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian folklore</span> Traditional folklore of Canada

Canadian folklore is the traditional material that Canadians pass down from generation to generation, either as oral literature or "by custom or practice". It includes songs, legends, jokes, rhymes, proverbs, weather lore, superstitions, and practices such as traditional food-making and craft-making. The largest bodies of folklore in Canada belong to the aboriginal and French-Canadian cultures. English-Canadian folklore and the folklore of recent immigrant groups have added to the country's folk.

William Albert "Bert" Wilson was a scholar of Mormon folklore. The "father of Mormon folklore" helped found and organize folklore archives at both Utah State University (USU) and Brigham Young University (BYU). He directed the folklore archive at USU from 1978 to 1985, and chaired the English department at BYU from 1985 to 1991. He and his students collected jokes, legends, stories, songs, and other information to add to the Mormon folklore archives.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Nicolaisen, W.F.H. (1997). "The Baby Train and Other Lusty Urban Legends by Jan Harold Brunvand". Folklore. Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. 108: 134–135. JSTOR   1260739.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Baby Train". Snopes. 17 May 2001. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Scott, Bill (1985). The Long & The Short & The Tall: a collection of Australian yarns. Western Plains Publishers. pp. 250–251. ISBN   094946001X.
  4. ↑ "From Here to Maternity". Snopes. 31 July 2009. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "Calendar Studied After Birth Surge". Philadelphia Inquirer. Associated Press. 22 Nov 1969 – via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
  6. ↑ "Baby Boom". Snopes. 2 September 2002. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  7. ↑ Levs, Josh (24 July 2013). "Is the post-Sandy baby boom real?". CNN. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  8. ↑ Henley, Jon (28 January 2012). "Sex, lies and natural disasters". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  9. ↑ O'Connor, Anahad (2 November 2012). "Really? Natural Disasters Can Influence Birthrates". The New York Times Blogs. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  10. ↑ Grayson (1944). The New Anecdota Americana : Five Hundred Stories for America's Amusement. Grayson Publishing. p. 37.
  11. 1 2 Cerf, Bennett (1946). Anything For A Laugh, a collection of jokes and anecdotes that you, too, can tell and probably have. Grosset & Dunlap. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  12. ↑ Cunningham, Frank (1946). Big Dan: The Story Of A Colorful Railroader. pp. 257–258. ISBN   978-1163154670.
  13. ↑ Party Jokes. Playboy. December 1956. p. 48.
  14. ↑ Reader's Digest. July 1967. p. 74.
  15. 1 2 Molyneux, Michael (12 February 1995). "New & Noteworthy Paperbacks". The New York Times. No. Late Edition-Final. p. 36, section 7, column 1.
  16. ↑ Mikkelson, David (5 December 1998). "Spiders in Cactus". Snopes.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  17. ↑ Claiborne, Ray C. (30 November 1993). "Q&A". The New York Times. No. Late Edition–Final. p. 11; Section C; Column 1.
  18. ↑ Mikkelson, David (29 March 2011). "Slasher Under the Car". Snopes.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  19. ↑ Mikkelson, David (17 October 2014). "Car Thief Dies in Earthquake". Snopes.com. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  20. ↑ Null, Elizabeth F.; Mcneil, W.K.; Pifer, Lynn (October–December 1988). "The Journal's Editors". The Journal of American Folklore. American Folklore Society. 101 (402): 20–49. JSTOR   540385.
  21. ↑ Brunvand, Jan Harold (1993). The Baby Train and Other Lusty Urban Legends . New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN   978-0-393-03438-7. OCLC   25508604.
  22. ↑ Boyd, Robert F.; Fleming, Robert Loren (1994). The Big Book of Urban Legends: Adapted from the Works of Jan Harold . New York: Paradox Press. p.  126. ISBN   1-56389-165-4.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.