Author Archives: Laurel Van Patten

Folk Medicine – Los Angeles, California

Cure for Hiccups

To cure hiccups, one spoonful of malt vinegar.

According to the informant, “It really works!” but he doesn’t know why.  His guess was that the malt vinegar serves as a shock to the taste buds and that this overwhelming sour taste distracts one from the hiccups and makes them go away.

I think that perhaps Geoff is correct with his assertion that the vinegar works because it shocks the taste buds.  It might work much like the other folk remedy I’ve found common: to surprise or scare someone to make their hiccups go away.  In both cases, the remedy is shock to one’s body that immediately takes the person’s mind off the hiccups.  I think the cure could be both physical and psychological.  Because it physically shocks the body, and psychologically takes one’s mind off the hiccups.

Game – Los Angeles, California

Rabbit Game

1st day of month you win the game if you are the first person to say rabbits

The informant said that this is a game within his family and he thinks it’s from his father, who is from England, so that it might be English.

I’m not certain on the significance of the game, but I know that rabbit is a much more popular food overseas in England, than it is here in America.  England also has a booming rabbit population and rabbit hunting is quite popular.  So, perhaps, this game represents a rabbit sighting, which would lead to a rabbit dinner.  In saying “rabbits!” one may expect to see rabbits, which could then be hunted.  Therefore they win because the sighting would lead to a tasty dinner for the family.

Folk Ritual/Superstition – Los Angeles

Softball Clothes Ritual

While on the softball team, it was customary that, after the team had won a few games, for each individual player to dress in the same clothes and in the same way each game.  We had to wear the same uniform, socks, shoes, underwear, and sports bras (of course all these things could be washed for each game).  For example, I (the informant), would put on underwear and bra first, then yellow compression or sliding shorts, and then put red mesh shorts on over those shorts.  Then I would put on my jersey, right sock first, then left sock.  The right sock was red, “red for right,” and the left sock was yellow, “lellow for left.”  Then I would put my sliders on, right then left.  Then shoes, right then left.  Then she had to braid her hair in pigtails and put one red ribbon and one yellow ribbon on each pigtail.

The informant did this age ten to twelve before softball games.  She believes it to be superstition and thought that dressing the same way each time would bring good luck.  Since they had won dressed in a certain way once, they thought dressing in that same way would help win more games.  According to the informant, her team won the nationals when she was ten, and got second place when she was twelve, so, something must have been working.  The informant went on to explain how she thought the ritual was more of a mental preparation: “As long as you feel like you’re prepared for the game, and you think you’re lucky, then you will make your own luck and play well because you think you’re going to play well.  It might have been a mental thing, but it seemed to work for us.”

I agree with a lot of what my informant thought about the superstition.  Often superstitions act as self-fulfilling prophecies, and this softball ritual for winning is a good example.  Having the ritual probably helped give the team confidence which would help the team play at their best and give it their all.  After winning in the same clothes, with the same ritual several times, it’s clear that the players think the clothes had some kind of power and doing the ritual right would help win games.  However, alternately, the ritual also gives the players something to blame if they do badly.  They could qualify a lose and think, “oh, it’s not my fault, maybe I just accidentally put my left sock on before my right sock, which ruined my luck for the whole game.”  So, the ritual acts both as a confidence booster and a scapegoat, displaying one of many ways in which a person may try to rationalize good and bad things that happen to them.

See Also:

Burger, Jerry M and Lynn, Amy L.  “Superstitious Behavior Among American and Japanese Professional Baseball Players.”  Basic and Applied Social Psychology.  Vol 27.  Issue 1. Page 71.

Folk Song/Cheer – Los Angeles, California

Softball Cheer

Cheer is meant to be said by leader line by line, with the rest of the team repeating after the leader line by line.  It is also supposed to get progressively louder.  Regular text represents the leader, where italicized text represents the rest of the team.

“Icky la Boom Ba, Icky la Boom Ba”

“Icky la Ticky Wicky, Icky la Ticky Wicky”

“Ohfa Toefa Roefa, Ohfa Toefa Roefa”

“Oompa Chi Ahhhh, Oompa Chi Ahhhh”

“Icky la Boom Ba, Icky la Boom Ba”

This was a cheer used during softball games when the informant was age eight to fourteen.  The leader was usually the informant because her sister had introduced the cheer to the team.  This cheer was used to pump up the batter and get the team excited, as well as, to annoy or antagonize the opposing team (hence the repetition and loud volume).  It encouraged their teammates to do well and let them know they were cheering for them.

The cheer seems like almost a special language her team has.  Since the cheer is comprised of rhymes that aren’t even real words, this shows how only her team shares this unique rhyme and brings them together.  The cheer probably reminds the batter that they share this common tie with their team and this familiarity and this bond makes her want to succeed for the sake of not only herself, but for the whole team.

Folk Ritual – Los Angeles, California

Sportsmanship Ritual

At the end of the game, whether the team had won or lost it was customary to give high fives to the other team and say good job.  Typically, guys shake hands, whereas, girls high five or slap hands.  The team lines up at home plate in a line and walk past one another, slapping hands and saying good game.

The informant said that doing this after a game exhibited good sportsmanship.  However, sometimes when they played their rivals, some of the girls would just walk past and not slap hands or say good game.  This said that they were bad losers—doing that was very unsportsmanlike, and the coaches would often get angry.

I see this tradition in a lot of sports and I think it’s very interesting how disrespectful and controversial it is to not give that final word of good game and the physical high five.  Someone in another culture might be baffled by this, wondering why it’s such a big deal that someone doesn’t give a high five.  I believe this physical and verbal assurance at the end of a game is important in establishing a comradery and understanding between the teams, an understanding that they were playing a game and that it was purely for fun.  The tradition emphasizes the idea that there should be no losers if everyone played well and had fun, which is a very child-like concept that many are taught from a young age.  While a competitive spirit is fostered in America, children are also taught to find a balance and remember that winning is not everything.  This tradition is just one reminder of that lesson.

See also:

Chandler, John and Fletcher, Jeff.  “Schools Dump No-Handshake Sports Policy.”  Los Angeles Times.  April 20 1994.  Page 1.