Author Archives: Kate-Malorie McCall

Post-Bodily Emissions Game

Informant: If anybody burped and you didn’t say ‘safety’ after you burped, people could go ‘doorknob’ and just start hitting you until you touched a doorknob. And if you farted and you didn’t say ‘safety,’ it would be ‘lightbulb’ and people would keep hitting them until they touched a lightbulb.

The informant enjoyed watching other kids participate but says she never had any bodily emissions at school that caused her to be a victim of it. She only played along at home with her little brother who had bodily emissions quite often.

Collector: When would you use this phrase? In front of adults? In a group or one-on-one?

Informant: I don’t think we were afraid to use it with adults but usually it happened with a group of kids…in a classroom, at recess, at a sleepover or birthday party, or among siblings.

Collector: Could you say safety at any time, or did it have to be said before the first person hit you?

Informant: You had to say it before the person hit you. Most people said it right away to avoid being hit.

Collector: Was it viewed as a game or as something else?

Informant: Good question. I think it was more of a ritual and an occasional amusement. It was a game though, in the sense that the burper or farter technically lost if they didn’t say ‘safety’ and someone though to hit them.

Collector: Why do you think that a doorknob and a lightbulb were the “home free” objects? Did anyone ever use some other object?

Informant: No, it’s always been a doorknob and a lightbulb. I think it’s because they’re always accessible but not always in front of you.

The informant says it was mostly the boys at her school who played the game. This is not surprising as it’s become almost expected of boys to be entertained by bodily emissions and other ‘gross’ human actions. As a child, concepts of gender are internalized that lead girls to often feel pressured to be more pure and pristine whereas boys are more pressured to be attracted to dirty things.

This is also a case of taking something they perceive from adults and converting it into a game. Kids learn from adults that bodily emissions in public are inappropriate. In a way, this game reinforces this by adding a punishment to those who do burp or fart in public.

Cross-Eyed Warning

Informant: If you cross your eyes and someone hits you, your eyes will be stuck like that forever.

As a child, the informant was told that if someone hit her while she crossed her eyes, they would get stuck like that.

She was first told this after she started to learn and practice crossing her eyes. Various family members and adults told her this and she became very conscious of who was around when she crossed her eyes. She wouldn’t cross her eyes when her brother was around because he was likely to hit her to see if they would get stuck.

Collector: When you say “hit”, do you mean hard, like a punishment, or just a tap?

Informant: Definitely something more playful. Not like a punishment or anything designed to cause physical pain.

Collector: why do you think that this warning didn’t make you stop crossing your eyes?

Informant: I was so proud of myself that I could cross my eyes that I didn’t want to stop. Instead, I just thought I’d keel a look out for anyone prowling around trying to slap me.

The informant says that this warning did not stop her from crossing her eyes, she became very guarded whenever she did practice the act.

It seems that in many warnings children are told, adults choose to use a threat of supernatural or exaggerated levels. In this case, the adults in the informant’s life chose to exaggerate what would happen. One possible explanation is that children are less concerned with scientific reasoning or societal etiquette and must be influenced controlled by more embellished reasoning that speak to their childhood imagination and creativity.

By using the phrase hitting instead of touching or some other gentler form of contact, adults reinforce childhood violence as well as adding an extra sense of fear. It also can seem more realistic to children that a violent hitting would cause something in your body to make your eyes stick whereas just a gentle touch would be less plausible to have an impact.

Bloody Mary

Informant: “You’d have to close your eyes and do the Bloody Mary which was just like ‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.’ While you were closing your eyes, spinning around in circles in the bathroom and then when you stopped like after you did it ten times you were supposed to see bloody Mary in the mirror staring at you.”

The informant never performed the ritual herself as she was too afraid. However, she watched many of her peers perform it.

Collector: Why did your friends do this chant and spin? What was it for?

Informant: I think it was all for the buildup of intensity. Spinning and chanting just made everything feel really cinematic.

Collector: How would you describe the situations when your friends did this?

Informant: It usually came out of some kind of boredom or stasis when hanging out or having sleepovers. It would usually start with someone suggesting it and then we’d turn off all the lights to get into the mood.

Collector: Did your friends who did this have a common background or religious upbringing?

Informant: I think loosely. But nothing too intense…most of my friends had a protestant or catholic background. At the time, I think most of the people I did this with had Catholic backgrounds.

Collector: What did bloody Mary look like? Anything particular about her?

Informant: I think that it was kind of up to the individual. But I think for the most part, she was expected to have a plain face, in her Virgin Mary headdress, covered in blood.

Collector: Do you have any ideas about the origins of this chant?

Informant: No idea. Maybe some frustrated Catholic school kids who wanted to scare each other.

In this case, bloody Mary refers to the Virgin Mary. The informant says she was expected to appear in her headdress drenched in blood.

In my own experience of this piece of folklore, bloody Mary referred to Mary, Queen of Scots. The change from Mary, Queen of Scots to the Virgin Mary is an interesting one. Mary, Queen of Scots is nicknamed Bloody Mary for her ordered murder of many people but the Virgin Mary is always described as the personification of purity and innocence.

The informant explained that while it was very clear that Bloody Mary referred to the Virgin Mary, she still detached that reference of the Virgin Mary from the biblical one. This ritual did not impact the informant’s religious stance at all.

It’s possible that like many other children’s chants and rituals (i.e. ring around the rosie and London Bridge), Bloody Mary originated from a historical aspect. In the cases of Bloody Mary being based off of Mary, Queen of Scots, it’s even more likely as the Queen was literally nicknamed Bloody Mary for her perceived brutal nature.

Apart from their names and their historical status, each Mary seems to be as opposite from the other as possible. I would speculate that the change from one Mary to the other was a situation of lost in translation.

This ritual is an example of how children love to scare themselves and others. It also coincides with the desire to prove oneself. By creating a ritual that has a scary consequence, it allows children to step up and be brave by performing it.

Snow Day Ritual

Informant: I grew up in a place where there was a lot of snow and snow days so like on nights when we thought we would have a snow day, we would all like put our pajamas on inside out and flush ice cubes down the toilet.

The ritual was done in hopes of bringing a blizzard so bad that it would cancel school. The informant learned the ritual from her peers in elementary school as the children would always talk about it during times of cold weather. The informant herself passed the superstition on to her younger siblings with whom she continued performing the ritual.

Collector: Did you perform these actions when the weather was looking bad to in hopes of making it worse, or when the weather was not so bad in order to change it?

Informant: We definitely did it when there was already a threat of bad weather. We weren’t trying to create bad weather out of good weather. We just wanted to intensify the bad weather resulting in a snow day!

Collector: What is the significance of turning your pajamas inside out?

Informant: I think it was a symbolic gesture. To bring the luck with us as we slept.

Collector: Did both actions have to take place together in order for this to work?

Informant: I don’t think so. I think the most common snow day ritual was the pajamas but my family did the ice cubes for added effect.

Collector: Why do you think this ritual came about if there were already plenty of snow days? What were the children trying to do? Was this an attempt to influence the weather or a way to celebrate what they thought was going to happen.

Informant: I think it was a way to unite in spirit when anticipating a possible snow day. It was an exclamation of excitement and anticipation. Of course, there were times we did it which did not result in a snow day, but it was a fun ritual that united us all.

I would speculate that this ritual came about as an attempt by children to take control. As children, everything from daily schedule, outfits and meals are decided for children by various adults. Rituals like this provide them the idea that they can control some aspect. By creating a ritual that is meant to control the weather, and as a result, whether or not school occurs, children can feel as if their taking control and have a say in matters.

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo

Informant: Eeny meeny miny mo, catch a tiger by the toe, if he hollers let him go, my mom picked the very best one and you are it.

The informant first heard the counting out song when she was in elementary school on the playground. This song was used to determine who would be ‘it’ in games. The person deciding would point to each person sequentially changing the selected person at each new word until the song ended and a person was chosen to be ‘it.’

The song is a standard among counting out rhymes but the interesting aspect of the informant’s version is that it’s the basic version. In many cases, people remember add-ons or additional lines that make the song unique.

Collector: Did you ever hear anyone tell variations of this?

Informant: Yes, but we only used them when we didn’t want to choose the person we were about to land on so we added on the next part to choose the next person.

When variation is allowed, kids could add whatever they wanted to the end and more syllables meant they could use them to their advantage and choose whom they wanted to be ‘it.’

This example of counting out songs shows an inherent need for order. The anarchy of allowing someone to choose whomever they wanted to be ‘it’ with no system would allow for favoritism. By following the rules of the counting out songs that children themselves placed, they regulated themselves into an almost democratic like state.