Author Archives: Grace Carballo

The Annual Bike Parade and Block Party

Every year, everybody decorates their bikes for the bike parade. We actually did this with my cousins every summer in Hovokan, Wisconsin.

So I did block parties as a kid and we always played the same games so I wanted to bring them to our neighborhood for you guys to play. You remember, right? The egg on the spoon race, the three-legged race, the pudding eating contest, and the egg toss…

And yeah, that first block party, that first time is was just six families and now I think last year forty families came. I’m not in charge of it anymore, but I think it was forty.

Now they even make invitations for it. Generally the moms in their 30s in the neighborhood plan it and then, when your kids get to be a certain age…you don’t do it anymore.

But yeah, it started as more of a picnic. Mr. Russel was always the Keebler Elf of the parade Remember that? He used to get that costume from Jewel.

But the tradition of the bike parade, I also brought back from when I was a kid. So all the neighborhood kids now get their bikes or scooters and decorate them and then do a parade around the neighborhood to start off the block party. And we always used to put playing cards with clothes pins in the spokes to get it to click, so you guys do that too. And streamers are big, too.

context: 

I went home, where these traditions all occur, for Easter this year. The informant, my mother, and I discussed the neighborhood tradition of the block party, which happens every summer, one on one.

thoughts: 

I was familiar with all the games and the bike parade tradition, because I took all of them very seriously but I never knew the context or that the history behind it came from my mom’s childhood, as well.

It is interesting how the leadership changes depending on the ages of the kids of the moms involved.

“You’re My Best Friend…”

(In an Irish accent) “You’re my best friend and I don’t care what they say about ya.”

Papa always used to say that. He said it to me the most, I think. The best part is there was not context. As he was leaving our house, he just gave me a kiss and hug goodbye and always said it.

I guess he used it as a greeting, sometimes, but usually as a farewell.

 

context:

The informant told this little snippet as we were discussing what our family members say frequently one on one. She had a particularly close relationship with her grandfather, “Papa”, who passed away a few months ago.

thoughts:

It’s a great backhanded compliment and very funny, especially with how frequently he seemed to use it. It also is interesting that the informant felt compelled to indicated that he said it most frequently to her, perhaps because she wanted to prove she was his closest “best friend” or grandchild, especially after his passing.

The Senior Bugaloo

So I guess there is one that is always passed down. The rest, each year, every village comes up with their own. All the kids, we uh, you grow up at the camp. And the seniors, sing this cheer, and inadvertently you learn it ‘cus you hear it so many times.

Senior campers are the best,

we party while the others rest

we continue to rock, we continue to roll

because we’ve got spirit and we’ve got soul
all day long we’re hanging around
all night long we’re partying down
senior campers are really cool
we don’t have to go in the pool
Mohawk boys are really lame
Seneca girls always complain
Cayuga cubs you better run
Onondoga girls are no fun
some walk high and some walk low
but senior spirits gonna really something something
with an R U L and a big fat E
gonna rule this camp til we’re CITs
we’re number one,
so we can’t be number 2
now cmon everybody let’s do the senior bugaloo
context of the performance:
I asked the informant, one-on-one, if he had any camp songs that were passed down, knowing how much this camp was a part of his life, and this was the one he immediately thought of. He couldn’t remember it all at first, and had to sort of pause, close his eyes and think a few times, but was very excited when he got it.
thoughts on the performance:
Seniority is a big part of a lot of teams, and apparently this camp as well. The younger campers seem to look up to the older ones and, as the informant, learn their cheer inadvertently, but never speak it until they are of that age. He explained after how the group that cheers this is the oldest group of campers before you can apply to be on the staff.

I Once Knew A Little Boy Who…

So I don’t know if this counts, but my mom when we were younger always told us these stories about a little boy she once knew whenever she didn’t want us to do something.

Like she would say things like “I once knew a little boy who lied to his parents and then he peed the bed.”

Or “I once knew a boy who snuck food from the table and didn’t finish meal and…” I don’t remember that one.

We were never allowed to go on trampolines because Mom ‘once knew a boy who jumped on a trampoline and he broke his neck and died.”

Oh and we couldn’t have keychains! Because she once knew a boy who had so many keychains on his backpack that the school bus door closed on it and he fell off and was dragged to death. Or maybe he got run over. So we weren’t allowed to have keychains on our backpack.

WHY DO YOU THINK SHE TOLD YOU ABOUT THIS BOY?

To get us from doing it, whatever she wanted us to do.

DID SHE SAY SHE ONCE KNEW A GIRL WHEN SHE TALKED TO YOUR SISTER?

Nope. It was always a little boy. I guess Samantha (his younger sister) wasn’t as threatened.

DID YOU LISTEN TO HER?

I don’t know (laughs). I know we didn’t have any keychains.

She just made up this kid, never gave a name or anything.

context of the performance:

In a one on one conversation, while we were studying together, the informant explained this family legend, which now he and his siblings find humorous.

thoughts on the performance:

It was really funny to watch how funny the informant found the examples his mom used to say about the little boy she once knew, especially the key chain one, which seems pretty arbitrary and definitely escalated quickly.  It’s also funny how, as kids, they just accepted this boy without specificity as truth, especially when he died or was injured in most of the stories.

Troy Camp Pine Cone Dedication

On the very last day of camp we do this thing called Pine Cone dedication. Every cabin finds the biggest, best pinecone they can and they all bring them to the campfire that night.

So…20 cabins each have their own pine cone and we bring them to campfire, um and so every cabin goes up one at a time with the kids and cabin counselors and all the other counsleors that like that cabin and we go around and, um, say who we want to dedicate the pine cone to.

So “the kids in the cabin” or “this counselor who we love” or “blue team” or anyone who we want to dedicate to um and all the counselors who are up with that cabin, they go down the line and they reveal their real name.  And a lot of the time, the kids don’t remember it even though they always try to guess it. But they don’t call you that, a lot of the time, ‘cus they’ve been calling me Diglett all week

So we say, “Here people call me Diglett, but when I’m home and my mom gets really mad at me she calls me Andie.”

So all the counselors reveal their real names and all the kids go “I KNEW it” but they totally didn’t (laughs).

So …we go through all of the cabins…all 20 cabins do that.

And then you throw the pine cone in the fire when you’re done. And we have this song that you sing and then everyone’s done and goes back to there seat. And we have this song called Purple Lights and two counselors come up with a guitar and everyone sings it with them.

And we have this special clap that we do and everyone goes like this (shakes hands back and forth- like jazz hands) and what we’re doing is like reflecting the fire back at each other. We say we’re reflecting the light of the fire back to our friends.

The counselors lead the song so they sing a line, and then the kids sing a line and that’s how you learn it.

Context: The informant, my roommate, is very involved with Troy Camp and was eager to share some of what makes the organization so special. This ritual takes place every summer, but this was the first time she had explained it to me. I already knew, however, that they all have “camp names” and hers is Diglett. Each name has a story, usually embarrassing behind it.

Thoughts:  Troy Camp is such a tight-knit group and so it did not surprise me that they had a lot of traditions and rituals in their organization. This one, in particular, concludes the week of the actual camp very nicely.