Urban legends are usually laughed at, or looked upon as a campfire story. What people don’t know is that we can learn some very important morals from urban legends. They can differ in story, but they usually have one thing in common, they have a moral to the story. Whether it be true, or false, the morals of urban legends can benefit you in your daily life. Urban legends have been passed down from generation to generation, and over time the stories change but the morals stay the same. Some of the things you learn from your parents as a kid comes from morals that are also tied into urban legends, such as; not trusting strangers, picking up hitch hikers, and wandering off on your own. The average child growing up, doesn’t know right from wrong, and is accepting of almost anyone they come by. Therefore, they don’t understand the concept of why you shouldn’t trust strangers. As we grow older we tend to forget the little things, there is an urban legend that has a moral that helps remind us of why we shouldn’t trust strangers. The urban legend is about a woman who went in the mall to go shopping, and when she returned to her car she realized that one of her tires was flat. So she puts her shopping bags in the car and grabs the jack out of her trunk and prepared herself to change the flat. Moments after she begins to change the flat a man who is dressed in a suit and tie wielding a briefcase approaches the car, and says to the lady, "I noticed you're changing a flat tire. Would you like me to take care of it for you?" Gratefully the woman says yes. As the man finishes up replacing the tire he dusts off his hands and puts his briefcase and the jack into the trunk of her car. He then asks the lady if she would give him a ride to the other side of the parking lot to his car. The lady begins to arise with suspicion on why he is on the other side of the parking lot then where his car is. The lady replies back to him and says “I’d be happy to drive you around to your car, but I just remembered one last thing that I needed to buy.” So she told him to wait in the car and that she would be right back. So she went into the mall and told the security guard her situation and had him go with her to the car. As the make their way back to her car the man was gone. They then took his briefcase to the police, where they opened it to find a rope, duct tape, and knives. It was then that the lady realized that she had escaped being kidnapped. If she would of trusted the stranger, she would have been next weeks head line in the local news paper. The moral of this urban legend is to just not trust strangers, but even if the person looks trustworthy, doesn’t mean they can be trusted. It’s never a good idea to pick up a hitchhiker. Going back to the first urban legend, that it’s never safe to trust a stranger, none the less pick up a stranger from the side of the road. You never know what a person who is hitchhiking is up to, and what they could have on them. There is plenty of urban legends on hitch hikers, but this specific legend, the hitch hiker is a middle aged man who is wearing tuxedo pants, and dress shoes with a white t-shirt, walking in the rain. A woman who is also middle aged, is driving down the road when she sees the man walking on the shoulder of the road. She decides to stop and give the man a lift to his desired destination. As he hops in the car the woman asks him why he is walking in the rain, and his response is “I walked out of my wedding early, if you could please take me to the nearest gas station that would be fine.” The lady then begins to regret stopping to give the man a ride, but she continues onward. Throughout the entire ride the woman notices the man shuffling with his hands every now and then. Once they arrive at the gas station, the man gestures to shake her hand, and as she grabs his hand he stabbed her in the gut multiple times. As the woman slowly fades to her demise the man gets out of the car, and begins walking down the road in the rain. This urban legend has been tossed around for years, and those who have heard it remember the dangers, and usually refrain from picking up hitchhikers in the future.
Last but not least the moral that can be learned from “The boyfriends death” urban legend is if you go wandering off alone, there’s no telling on what kind of catastrophe could happen. The worst thing that could happen is that no one would be around to save you. In this legend there is a couple parked in the woods trying to find some privacy at night. They begin to kiss each other passionately in the car. As they finish the boyfriend steps out to go pee, as the girlfriend waits in the safety of the car. After waiting for about five minutes the girl steps out the car in search of her boyfriend, he wasn’t in sight. Scared she gets back in the car and begins to hear a “squeak… squeak… squeak…” Panicked and scared, the girl decides she has no choice but to drive off. She begins to press on the gas and realizes she can’t drive because someone tied a rope from the back of the car to a tree. The squeak begins to be louder now “SQUEAK… SQUEAK… SQUEAK…” now the girl is even more frightened and slams on the gas driving forward, as she does so she hears a loud scream, followed by a snapping sound. She steps outside the car to see a rope tied around her boyfriends neck, as he was hanging from the tree above the car and the other end of the rope tied to the car. The moral of this story is to never wander off alone. Terrible things can happen to people who are found out alone in the middle of no where. Urban legends, aren’t just stories, directors have turned them into movies, and authors have turned them into books. However, at the end, wherever you get an urban legend from the moral you learn from it can always be put to good use. The next time you come across a situation where you are going to trust someone you don’t know, give a hitchhiker a ride, or wander off alone, make sure you think twice and remember your morals, or maybe you can become the next urban legend we read about.