Author Archives: Lily Lundine

How 420 Became the Stoner Number

Main Piece

OK so pretty much what the story of the Waldos is the story of how four twenty became the stoner time as well as the stoner number. And pretty much, there was this group of high school students in San Francisco that every day- well like a small part of San Francisco- where every day at 4:20 after school they would meet at this one statue to smoke weed and shit. And that was just because like that was the most convenient time to like go home, get your stuff, come back, and smoke weed with your homies. And pretty much because of the Deadheads that were following around the Talking Heads? the Grateful Dead? and stuff at the time pretty much they met those kids and picked up that lingo from them, and it got spread across the entire country. And now 420 is the stoner time. Congratulations, you now have a piece of stoner folklore.

 

Background

The informant is well-versed in stoner culture, to say the least.

 

Nationality: American

 

Location: Los Angeles, CA

 

Context

I was talking about the collection assignment and they had talked to someone about it before and wanted to tell me their favorite piece of folklore.

 

Notes

This is a textbook legend, and a really fun one at that. It’s obviously taking place in our world, because you have the Grateful Dead and the Talking Heads, but it’s unclear if it’s true of not. Would those huge bands ever really have the chance to talk to some high school kids long enough to pick up their lingo? Who knows, and doesn’t matter!

 

Awkward Silences are Called Tumbleweeds

Z is the informant, L is interviewer

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Z: So in Texas, when there’s an akward silence or an awkward moment, we call it a tumbleweed.

 

L: So when a tumbleweed happens, what do you do?

 

Z: We don’t really call it a tumbleweed until after it’s happened. Like if we’re referencing a different awkward moment we’ll be like “oh that was a tumbleweed.” Now that I think about it, that’s so southern, oh my god. But yeah, it would be very weird if an awkward silence was happening and someone was just like, “oh this is a tumbleweed.” Like, it’s never a thing that’s mentioned at the time, it’s always in reference to it.

 

L: Do you know why?

 

Z: I think it had something to do with the fact that before the cowboys did their gun-dueling thing, like when they paused and waited to like, do the thing, there would be like, a tumbleweed that went by in the movies. I think that’s where it came from. It’s very Texan.

 

Background

The informant is from Dallas, Texas.

 

Nationality: American

 

Location: Los Angeles, CA

 

Context

I asked if she had any very Texan folklore

 

Notes

This story reminded me a lot of “awkward turtle” from back in grade school. I think there’s folklore surrounding awkwardness in social interactions because we evolved as social beings. Without social interactions, we would quite literally die, so anything that implies poor social standing or interactions, such as an awkward silence, feels intimidating. Being able to break the tension with shared folklore is a great way to counteract the negative social effects.

 

Tunnel Folk Belief

J is informant, L is interviewer

Main Piece

J: If we drive through tunnels you have to hold your breath from the beginning of the tunnel until the end. And I- literally my grandpa, because he’s a psychopath as we have already discovered, his explanation to [my mom] was that literally some crane would come down and swipe your head off. So I don’t know what my grandpa was trying to teach us, but yeah.

 

L: So you hold your breath because you don’t want to get hit by a crane?

 

J: Yeah apparently. But obviously, you know that that doesn’t happen, because you’re not dumb. Because you look around and you see that there’s no crane in the tunnel because it is tiny and- anyway, it just doesn’t make sense.

 

Yeah. So but I still do it and like sometimes I mean I obviously don’t force myself, if I’m gonna die, like, yeah you know we’re good. But it’s still something that I think about when I go into town.

 

Background

The informant is Brazilian-American, and currently lives in America. Half of her family still lives in Brazil, the other half is from the U.S.

 

Nationality: Brazilian-American

 

Location: Los Angeles, CA

 

Context:

I asked about any superstitions people had.

 

Notes

I would categorize this as a homeopathic folk belief, but I’m unsure. It’s a protective/preventative belief. You perform and action in order to prevent something from happening. Very similar to knocking on wood. Although the informant doesn’t believe a crane is going to swipe her head off, she still does it, just in case. And for tradition, as well, as it was one that she shared with her grandfather.

 

Cars and tunnels are both dangerous, which can lead to a lot of folklore about them. Especially considering how much time is spent in cars by Americans, it’s no wonder that there’s so much folklore surrounding the two.