The stories are called urban legends, and they are tall tales that have appeared around the world.
Have you heard the one about the tourist who went down to Mexico and brought a lovely chihuahua home with her only to be told by her veterinarian that the dear beast was a rat? That's an urban legend, and Jan Harold Brunvand, a professor at the University of Utah, has dedicated his life to tracking down these modern myths and often finding their origins.An urban legend can be a harmless story told in a bar or it can cause a giant scare. In the mid-1980s, for example, a massive wave of fear hit the nation's college campuses. As the story went, a psychic had appeared on television and said a serial killer would go on a massive murder spree on a college campus on Halloween Night. Even though no psychic had been on TV, thousands of students were convinced their lives were endangered.
"The Baby Train" is Brunvand's fourth collection of urban legends, and it's fascinating. It's hard to believe some of the wild tales collected here actually were widely believed, but many of these stories were published in generally respectable publications.
While Brunvand says some urban legends are based on factual events and then exaggerated to ridiculous proportions, many of them are nothing more than fabrications.
Others involve well-known sayings that have become accepted as true and have appeared in many books. For instance, most people believe that when noted pianist Fats Waller was once asked, "What is jazz?" he answered, "If you don't know, don't mess with it." But Brunvand points out there is no evidence that Waller said this.
Many of these stories have appeared throughout the country and, indeed, the world. The title tale for example involves a train that came through town in the middle of the night. This train is supposed to have awakened many married couples in the area and, for obvious reasons, caused the birth rates in those areas to rise sharply.
This story has been told in such varied locales as Utah, Australia, South Africa and rural England. Despite the popularity of the tale, however, Brunvand was unable to find any truth to it.
While some urban legends have been in circulation for years, others involve current events. For example, following the earthquake in San Francisco a few years back, a tale emerged about a car thief who was flattened by falling debris. While the thief was usually described as black, he in fact never existed. Brunvand points out that the mythical criminals involved in these tales are usually black.
Sometimes urban legends become news in and of themselves, like the tale that made network news several years ago about a new drug epidemic. It was widely reported that college students began licking a certain variety of toad. While Brunvand did discover a species of toad with narcotic properties, he was unable to find any evidence of a single college student licking one for a high.
As fascinating as this book is, it's very similar to Brunvand's other books. Unless you are utterly compelled by urban legends, one of Brunvand's books is enough. If you're a newcomer to the world of urban legends, however, "The Baby Train" is worth checking out.