Author Archives: Hayden Duncan

US Navy Shellbacks

Informant: My dad was in the US Navy for 4  years

Original Script: To become a shellback in the US Navy you have to cross the equator. Legend has it that King Neptune lives on the equator and if you cross it you become a shellback. When you become a shellback there is a ceremony were a someone dresses up as King Neptune and gives you a shellback card.

Background: A shellback is a sort of fraternity in the Navy, Navy men give respect to shellback backs because you have to sail for a long time to be able to cross the equator, some Navy men that spent 20 years in the Navy has never crossed the equator.

Thoughts: I thought the ceremony was comical, the idea that someone dresses up as King Neptune show dedication to their tradition. The shellbacks get really into it and show respect to those who made an accomplishment that goes unnoticed to a civilian.

Howard University Graduation

Informant: My sister spent a semester as a transfer student at Howard University.

Original Script: At Howard University it is declared as the Mecca for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. At the Mecca graduating senior must sign their name on the clock tower on the 12th floor of the library. Venturing out to find the clock tower in the library is half the battle but getting up there is worth the journey and the view is amazing. Every midnight the day before graduation seniors find their way to the tower write their names and chant “ HU you know!”

Background: My sister and seniors that went to Howard were taking about what their traditions were when graduating.

Thoughts: I like the tradition of the university because it bonds together the students that made it  through the 4 years of college and you are apart of a ritual that is shared from those in the past. Traditions create memories that can be passed down to generations of students to keep the positive attitude to make it through the 4 years of college, so you can join the tradition.

Don’t split the pole

Informant: My mother was told by her friend when they were teens

Original Script: ” When me and my friend Judy were walking and I walked on the opposite side of a lamppost, and continued to walk. Judy stopped and said you have to go back and walk on the same side of the I did. I just laughed and kept walking. Judy went all the back and went around the same side of the pole i walked and said it was bad luck to split the pole.”

Background: Used  for superstition 

Thoughts: It shows how seriously people take superstition even doing the oddest task. People just expect that splitting the pole means bad luck without an actually reasoning behind it.

Orange peel remedy

Informant: My uncle who was told by his mother from Arkansas

Original Script: “When you are sick, eat a orange peel because the acid eliminate the germs in the body”

Background: When you eat an orange peel the acidic properties of the peel kill of the germs in your body

The pink dolphin

Informant: My friend who is from Brazil

Original Script: ” In the amazon rainforest there is a myth of the pink dolphin that lives there that transforms into a handsome man that sleeps with woman at night and during the day is a dolphin again”

Background: A myth in the Amazon rainforest

Thoughts: There are many different variations of this story in the countries near the Amazon rainforest, the were-dolphin is a known character that circulates in this area.