I still think that my favorite urban legend/folklore fact is that there are certain areas in New Orleans where you cannot get a taxi late at night not because it isn’t safe, but because taxi companies have had recurring problems of picking up ghosts in those areas who are not aware that they are dead and disappearing from the cab before reaching the destination and therefore stiffing the driver on the fare causing a loss for the company.
An occupational hazard of cab driving I had not previously considered
I love that the nola problem here is not “ghosts in my taxi cab,” but “ghosts are FUCKING BROKE DEAD BASTARDS & I GOT BILLS”
Horror is when ghosts get into cabs and scare drivers Magical realism is when cab companies have to develop policies to prevent ghastly fare-theft
In a book about the tsunami in Japan in 2011, the writer talked about how there was a huge increase in reports of ghostly activity. Apparently in Japan treating ghosts rudely is basically considered the stupidest thing you could possibly do. For months after the tsunami, taxi drivers would pick up a passenger only to have them give an address in one of the devastated areas. The cab driver often looked up halfway to the destination to find their fare had disappeared. Not wanting to be impolite to the person (even if they were dead) they’d drive to the address, open the door to let them out, then drive away.
Yeah this all checks out
i need y'all to know this isn’t just a NOLA thing; it’s more or less statewide. my and my sibling both grew up in southcentral louisiana, and they were listening to a paranormal podcast where a listener was telling a personal story about going through his dead grandma’s stuff with his mom, his mom asking if he knew where a key to something was, and that night the listener had a dream his grandma told him where to find the key.
my sibling pointed out that if this happened to someone from louisiana, it would hardly be noteworthy. it would be shared with the immediate family, someone would comment “well thank god she felt like talking to someone! she couldn’t have written it down and made it easy? [insert cajun french expression of exasperation]” and that would be the end of it.
i even had my own experience with hearing noises in the room my mom died in while i was home alone. i just left tea at the door, told her/whoever was in there to enjoy, and left it be. it never happened again, and when i tell the story around here no one is that surprised.
something about cajun culture makes us so so chill about ghosts, as long as they’re not being weird about it. brings good tourism.
