Baby Train

For the movement of orphans to the west in the late 19th century, see Orphan Train and Catholic sisters and nuns in the United States#Baby trains.

The Baby Train is a popular urban legend, told in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.[1] According to the rumor, a certain small town had an unusually high birth rate. It seems that a freight train would pass through the town at 5:00 am and blow 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 find other ways to amuse themselves in bed. This resulted in the mini-baby boom.[1]

The story is related to the rumor that birth rates spiked nine months after the Northeast Blackout of 1965, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and certain natural disasters and similar events.

Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand published a book The Baby Train & Other Lusty Urban Legends in 1993.[1][2] The Baby Train was Brunvand's fifth in a series of books that set out to document, and occasionally debunk,[2] urban legends such as "Cactus and Spiders,"[3] "The Slasher Under the Car," and "Car Theft during Earth Quake," along with the "Baby Train."[1] Many of the stories were collected from readers of Brunvand's syndicated newspaper column, Urban Legend.[4] Like Brunvand's previous urban legend books, stories in The Baby Train are divided into common themes: automobiles, animals, horror, accidents, sex and scandals, crime, business and professional, government, celebrity rumors, and academic legends.[1]

Books

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 Molyneux, Michael (12 February 1995). "New & Noteworthy Paperbacks". The New York Times (Late Edition-Final). p. 36, section 7, column 1.
  3. ↑ Claiborne, Ray C. (30 November 1993). "Q&A". The New York Times (Late Edition–Final). p. 11; Section C; Column 1.
  4. ↑ 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.
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