Monthly Archives: April 2015

You Girls Back Again?!

Well this was in Wisconsin… me and and all my sisters went to the bar… it’s called Jacobi’s now. What was it called then?

Informant 2 (her husband, Howard, age 84)- Hiawatha.

Right so the Hiawatha, then. And so my sister, Janet, and my sister, Rita, went to the bar.

The boys, Howard and Dennis, were out fishing. So we decided to go down to the Hiawatha a drink.

Well, the boys came back and we’d already come back from the bar and they felt bad for leaving us all alone in the cabin all night while they were out having fun and fishing. And they decided to be nice and take us to get a drink and we said sure… we’d already gone but we didn’t say anything.

But when we got back to the Hiawatha, the bartender (laughing), the bartender says, “Are you girls here AGAIN?!”

context: 

The informants, Grandma, and with a little help with name recognition from Papa, told me this story over the phone, but it was certainly not the first time I’d heard it. Typically, Papa tells it once or twice a summer when our whole family returns to those cabins in Wisconsin whenever we go to that bar/restaurant, now called Jacobi’s. They both find it really funny and don’t try to hide it.

thoughts:

I think this story has been told and retold because it is sort of out of character for Grandma to hide the truth or bend it from Papa and the fact that the bartender blew her cover makes it even better. Both of them have told it on multiple occasions and knowing them, I’m sure they’ve told it to a number of waiters and bartenders upon returning to that establishment. They’re very friendly in that way.

 

 

Day of the Dead

“Una de las tradiciones que es muy popular en la universidad donde estudié mi licenciatura (la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) se celebra cada primero de noviembre, el día de los muertos. Una de las actividades que se efectúan en esta festividad es la de construir altares y ofrendas para honrar a los muertos. En esta universidad las ofrendas son especialmente gigantescas. Se acostumbra a que los estudiantes de diferentes facultades se reúnan para construir enormes calaveras con adornos artísticos usando flores de cempasúchil.”

 

“One of the traditions that is very popular in the university where I did my undergraduate work (the National Autonomous University of Mexico) happens every first of November, when the day of the dead is celebrated. One of the activities that includes this festivity is to build offerings or altars honoring the deceased. In this university the offerings are famous for being gigantic. It’s very common for students from every school to get together to create enormous skulls along with artistic decorations using marigolds.”

 

The informant is a PhD student at the University of California, studying Electrical Engineering. He is from Mexico City, Mexico, where he was born and lived most of his life. His native tongue is Spanish, but he is fluent in English, as well. He got his undergraduate degree at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, which he graduated from in 2012. He enjoys ballroom dancing in his free time.

 

The informant was asked to send the collector a description of a holiday celebrated in Mexico that has a particular tradition associated with it. He typed it first in Spanish, then was kind enough to translate it. As he says, this tradition was practiced at his undergraduate university, though he had celebrated the holiday all his life.

 

The Day of the Dead is celebrated on the first day of November. The holiday’s main purpose is the gathering of friends and family to pray for loved ones who have died. The holiday originated in Mexico, and originally was celebrated at the beginning of the summer, but was moved after the colonization of the Spanish to correspond with All Saints’ Day and All Souls Day. The celebration can often last three days, beginning on All Hallows’ day to make the alters; Day of Innocents, to pray for dead children’ and Day of the Dead, for lost adults.

The altars are the main focus of the holiday. On them, people will place memorabilia from the dead person, whether it is pictures or their favorite food or sometimes they will play their favorite music. toys can be brought for children. Often times, there will be marigolds, the traditional flower in Mexico to honor the dead. Altars can be located at the cemetery where the deceased is buried, or within people’s homes if they are far away from the cemetery.  Family members can spend all night at the altar, praying. Most public schools create their own altars, avoiding religious symbols that might exist on other altars.

The informant’s university also builds its own altars. It is famous for building especially large altars in comparison to other schools, and that is a source of pride for the university (showing how important this holiday is). The students get together to decorate skulls, a major symbol for the holiday. In some places, people wear skull masks or make chocolate or sugar skulls for the day. At the informant’s university, the skulls become works of art, decorated with marigolds to show respect for the dead.

Aunt Pat and the Shelayley vs Bullies

So, as you know, when I was a kid, we moved from the south side to Palos Park. And outside some bullies in the neighborhood…uh, chased me home.

And Aunt Pat was standing by the window and she looked outside and saw the bullies chasing me. So she ran and grabbed my mom’s shelayley, which is like this Irish cane…I don’t know how to spell it but you can just look it up…

And she just chased after these guys! And they ran away! They thought they were real tough and then Aunt Pat, you know, who’s a woman, just made them run away.

Why do we tell and retell this story?

Just, you know, to show, you know, uh that to tell a story about Aunt Pat. And show how she, you know, protected her brother. Good over evil, you know, that kind of thing.

context:

I went home this year for Easter. The informant, my dad, or one of his siblings tells this story at most family parties. They used to tell it with an umbrella as the weapon of fear but Aunt Pat changed it to shelayley. He told this to me one-on-one, otherwise there probably would be a bit more flare to it, if his siblings contributed.

thoughts:

It’s funny that his interpretation of why we tell and retell it is because it shows how good triumphs over evil. I personally think it is more to paint his sister as a heroine, especially when she is down. All of the cousins know it and can and do tell it.

Dunkin Donuts Robbery version 2

You know this story. I don’t get what the point of this is.

I can’t collect folklore from myself.

Can you just have Vince tell it?

I did but it will be cool to have two versions to compare. Please!

Okay. So this is the story of Dad and Dunkin Donuts. So Dad was studying and Dunkin Donuts was robbed…at gunpoint. And the cops came in and asked him, “What happened. What did the guy look like?” and he didn’t know. Dad didn’t even notice the entire thing happening.

Why do you think we tell this tale so often?

‘Cus it’s funny… you should ask Vince to tell you the story of when Frankie pooped on the roof.

Yeah, maybe. Thanks!

 

Context:

I went home for Easter this year, where my younger brother still lives because he is in high school. In a one-on-one, obviously not super stimulating conversation with my younger brother, he told this family tale. There is another version of this same tale with a bit more to it also in this folklore collection told completely separately by my older brother.

Thoughts:

It would be interesting to have another version of this tale by the same informant but in a good mood.

 

Band laps

“You take a lap. You have to, like, run around the entire band and if, like, Bartner, or something happens that is about you, related to your name, where you’re from any like quirky traits you have, activities you do. [The purpose:] to point out that you have associations with that.”

 

The informant is a member of the University of Southern California Spirit of Troy. She is a sophomore, both in the school and in the band ranks, studying Computer Science and Computer Engineering. She plays alto saxophone and has travelled with the band to the Weekender and to Notre Dame.

 

Th informant was asked of any band traditions that take place during a practice. She had first learned and experienced this tradition at her first full band practice, and has participated in it ever since.

 

The first thing to know about the marching band is that usually a week or two after joining the band, every one is given a band name, often referred to as their “real name.” For some people, that becomes the name they are known by for the rest of their time in band. The are often only a few words long, but some have been as long as the verse of song. They are often based on traits that the person has or something that they did, and they often tie back to some kind of popular culture, like a movie or book. Some people are even given two names, in which case they are “so-and-so” AKA “something-else.” There are a lot of traditions that are attached to these band names, including taking a band lap.

Practices can be long and kind of boring, at least for rowdy college students, so there are many band traditions that are meant to pass the time and release restless energy in order to get more work done during practice. The band is a group of volunteers, so it is important to keep people entertained enough to keep coming back. One custom, meant to entertain, is taking a band lap. Everyone must constantly be on the look out for an excuse to take a lap, or to make someone else take a lap. The most common reasons to do so are if leadership says something related to someone’s band name, saying the city or state where someone is from, or some clearly identifying feature or characteristic of the person, like “chorus” (in reference to the location of the song, but pertaining to choral people) or “sexy” (anyone who thinks they’re sexy takes a lap). There was one time, the informant shared, where the band was playing “Play That Funky Music” and the director starting singing the main line: “Play that funky music, white boy…” and all of the white males in the band had to take a lap. That kept the band pacified and laughing enough to finish playing the song without outbursts.

Another purpose for taking a lap is to condition the band. A lot of stamina is required to survive a game day, where a band member may be on their feet for up to 12 hours at a time with little to no sitting down. Taking laps periodically during practice keeps band members in shape and more able to stand for such an extended period of time. Also, as the informant mentions, laps just point out that you have an association to that trait or name. It is possible to see who else in the band is Irish by seeing who takes and Irish lap (in the case of “Beat the irish” for notre dame [opposing teams and their mascots do not earn the respect of having capital letters]) with you. It is a way to bring people, who might never have met in the more than three-hundred person band, closer together and encourages connections with other sections.

There are also particular ways to take a lap. Under normal circumstances—mostly during music practice but under other instances, as well—the person whose name, characteristic, or home state was mentioned takes a lap around the entire band, including directors, silks, and all of the instruments, but not including twirlers or prop crew (if they are far away). This is always done in a counter-clockwise rotation. If the band is working on drill for a show, or during a gig when it would not be prudent to run around to the confusion of the audience, then a lap is taken in place, still counter-clockwise. If the band is at attention, then no laps are taken until after the band is put at ease. Then people can do make-up laps for the time when they were at attention. If a band member is sitting down or it is physically impossible to take a lap, but the band is not at attention, the they will do a “finger lap” and point their right index finger to the sky and move their hand in a counter-clockwise direction. There are also more local instances for taking a lap. The informant had a section leader, for example, who would encourage “Galen Center laps” during basketball and volleyball games. The band member would then have to run around the inside of the Galen Center. This is not a band-wide occurrence, just a section-wide one. Other sections have their own special lap circumstances. The flutes, for example, take laps whenever the first letter of their name is called. Since the marching band divides its music into sections with “A,B,C, etc.” letters get mentioned a lot.