Author Archives: Amanda Miller

Soul Train Line

The tradition: “At wedding receptions, the guests form 2 lines facing each other, men on one side and women on the other. The 2 at the front of the line dance down the aisle together and go to their sides when they reach the end. Then the next 2 dance all the way down and so on. It’s comes from the 70s and 80s dance show, Soul Train. It’s called the Soul Train Line.”

The informant (my mom) is a black American woman who grew up in Tennessee. Soul Train aired in 1971, and was the first all-black show on national television when it moved from Chicago to Los Angeles. So my mom (and dad) basically grew up watching Soul Train almost everyday after school, learning the dances and watching the various R&B performers through the 70s and 80s, when they were children and teens. The Soul Train line became famous from the TV show, and now it’s a popular practice at African-American weddings; it’s almost a staple. My mom says it happens at basically every black wedding she goes to, in addition to “lots of line dancing: wobble, Cupid Shuffle, 2 stomps…” in her words. Improvisation and line dancing are huge parts of black folk dance in America. The Soul Train line combines both, and emulates the practices done on the show itself. People go down the line in pairs, improvising and feeding off of one another. Every move is choreographed in the moment, feeding off the energy of the crowd. I think the emergence of Soul Train in the 70s was very important for young black children in America, to see their community represented onscreen. It made them excited, and want to imitate the dance practices they saw on TV. That generation (my mom’s generation) is the generation that mostly practices, or starts, these Soul Train lines. I was at my cousin’s wedding last summer, who is in her thirties, and it was the older adults who began chanting to start a Soul Train line. They’re fun and energetic, and a good way to interact with people you may not even know well through dance.

Memphis in May Barbecue Fest

The festival: “Teams of cooks enter the huge contest every May in Memphis. They have a big cook-off that’s judged to see who has the best ribs or pulled pork. Memphis is the slow cooked barbecue capital of the world. It’s a very exciting time in our city. You have to know someone in order to enter the tents and eat the food.”

The informant is my mom, who has lived in Memphis since college. Barbecue Fest is huge in Memphis, and anyone who cooks enters the contest. It is usually the second weekend in May; the festival is part of the bigger Memphis in May celebration that focuses on a different country every year to raise international cultural awareness. You have to know someone in the contest to get into the fest, but since so many people from all across the city enter, a lot of guests end up being let in. Memphians are proud of their good barbecue, and will shut down anyone who says that another city or state is known for the best barbecue in the world. They’ll even avoid eating barbecue outside of Memphis. The Barbecue Fest is a way for Memphians to celebrate themselves and their food and enjoy each other’s company. It’s also just a place to relax after a hard week at work and meet other cooks and try their food.

Pepe the Frog

The meme: “It’s like a frog cartoon that…people use as a reaction image…I don’t know??? Some people use it to express sadness.”

The informant is a college student who gets on Tumblr every day, regardless of having a love-hate relationship with it; the website is where she first encountered Pepe the Frog, but she says that she sees it used on Twitter as well. When I asked her what she thought when she first saw it, she said, “That it was another dumb meme.” I then asked her if she knew the exact origin of Pepe the Frog, to which she responded, “No, Amanda.” Further research on the website KnowYourMeme.com shows that “Pepe the Frog is an anthropomorphic frog character from the comic series Boy’s Club by Matt Furie. On 4chan, various illustrations of the frog creature have been used as reaction faces, including Feels Good Man, Sad Frog, Angry Pepe, Smug Frog and Well Meme’d.” The meme has spread very rapidly in the last year. This is probably due to the popularity of Twitter, Tumblr, and Reddit recently. Even if people don’t know the exact origin, they find it funny and worthy of using. The Internet is a weird place.

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A watched pot…

The proverb: “A watched pot never boils.”

The informant is an American college student in Arkansas. She thinks she first heard the proverb from her mom. The proverb is pretty straightforward. On a literal level, the proverb isn’t fully true, because the pot will eventually boil. What it means is that a watched pot seems like it never boils, because it boils so slowly that it isn’t noticeable. The proverb’s message is that you shouldn’t be caught up with waiting around for things to happen; if you are patient, your prayers/wishes will be answered/come true–Be patient. Since the informant first heard it from her mother, I imagine her mom wanted her to be patient for something in her life that she was anxious about at the time.

La Befana

The legend: “In Italy theres this old woman called La Befana who has magical powers and she gives children gifts on January 5th. If you’re nice you get gifts but if you’re mean you get coal. January 5th is the Epiphany Day, I don’t know what it is but it’s some type of like God revelation or something.”

The informant is half-Italian (mom) and half-German (dad) and grew up in Belgium. She moved to the United States at 11 years old, and now resides in Canada where she attends a university. She heard this legend growing up from her mom and Nonna (her grandmother). I asked her if she ever believed in La Befana’s existence, and she said that she “did at one point because once Nonna brought it up and I was scared of her because she’s a scary old woman witch.” La Befana sounds like other gift-giving figures around the Winter Solstice, such as Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, etc. January 5th is just around Christmas, so it matches with other Winter Solstice celebrations. People already celebrated the Winter Solstice, before Christianity made it a Christian holiday, so it makes sense for Italy to have its own version of the celebration. It’s also just after New Year’s Day, which means that Epiphany Day also represents a celebration of new beginnings; good children can celebrate the past year by receiving gifts and going forward into the next year being good again. Bad children can reflect on their bad decisions in the past year in order to strive for better in the coming year. Although La Befana can be a benevolent figure, she is presented as an old witch, which scares children into being “good,” reflected by the informant’s fear of the witch.