Author Archives: RPM

The Elephant Walk

So this is an initiation ascribed to no fraternity in particular retold by a informant who neither experienced it as a pledge nor heard it from a direct participant.

“Everyone gets in a circle

And then you have to put your thumb up the guy in front of you’s ass. And it’s like…brotherhood.

I heard this from a friend. He was like, ‘Don’t do a frat man, they’ll make you do the elephant walk.’ ”

Although my informant maintained that this story “had been well documented” I suggest that even if it is true its indiscriminate spread is more than anything an attempted deterrent for joining fraternities.  Despite the fact that they are supposed to be secret, many stories circulate about initiations and other greek system rituals. Some of these contribute to a greater sense of mystery and lore that attracts many people to the system. There are also definitely dedicated to warning about ever joining. Stories of initiation such as this one are great at revealing what people may have to endure during hazing, whether or not it is true. However, the most important reason for telling it is not a truthful depiction but voicing a disapproval of joining to others.

The Ice Cream Truck

Ice cream trucks were a common sight any time of day in North Long Beach neighbors. There was one very special truck that supposedly made its rounds during the late 90s/early 2000s.

“It was just an ice cream truck. It came up to your house & you would just go to it. Your parents would give you some money if it was the weekend to go to the truck.

And the guy would just know. Just by looking at you he would know if you were talking about some ice cream or not.

And each ice cream or whatever meant something else. It was like a secret menu.

Where you ordered a fucking big stick you either got a big stick or you got some heroin.

The only thing I never saw there was LSD.

It was crazy when he got busted. He got busted, but then people started copying his idea. And now there’s way more and it’s way shittier than when it was just him.”

According to my brother and friends of his generation, the ice cream truck truly existed and sold drugs. I could not find any official records of its bust although they also maintain this happened. Parents, at least in our neighborhood, seemed to be familiar with the story. During the time that the truck narrative was most popular parents started banning children from going to ice cream trucks that drove into the neighborhoods. Every once in a while parents who had to refuse their children allowance money  on the weekends would say it was because they were just going to waste it all on the ice cream truck. This accusation was enough to keep children from arguing if both parent and child were familiar with this story.

This story was fascinating to most of the children because of it’s ingenious business model, and many grew up admiring its creativity regardless of truthfulness. Parents on the other hand were genuinely disturbed by the prospect of drugs sneaking into even the most innocent activities of their children.

Coachella Car Painting

The Coachella Valley Music Festival attracts increasing crowds every year, in fact this year was the first the festival had to be recreated a second weekend to meet demand (and still sold out). The popularity of the festival encourages participation in many ritualized customs pertaining to the experience of Coachella.

One Coachella-specific ritual is the painting of cars that are going to be driven to Coachella. The ritual is so popular that the organizers and promoters themselves have recognized it as an iconic part of the festival experience. They host a “Carpoolchella” contest which rewards those who participate in painting their cars for Coachella, and their website hosts a gallery of car paintings.

One frequent Coachella-goer explains the ritual:

“Basically the main reason people do that now is competition. But people did it before, and of course not everyone even has a shot of winning so some people still just to do it as a big part of their trip.

It also represent where you came from. A lot of people are from out of state and they paint their cars to show how far they’ve driven just for Coachella. Like, carpoolchella-OHIO or something. I’ve seen a big giant New Mexico flag as the background for the Coachella landscape.

There’s people who go all out for this because they really associate it with their trip and getting to Coachella. Like sure you might win passes for life – but probably not. Some people just have always done it so they’re going to do it every year. It’s part of the checklist: stuff to survive the heat, survive the cold, drugs, food, first aid, car gear…car paint.”

 

This ritual first of all represents an establishment of Coachella culture. As the festival explodes in popularity festival goers want to show that they are a legitimate part of the festival experience. Those who have a longer tradition of going to the festival often have a traditional aspect to their car painting through which they can proclaim their veteran status. Those who are new to the festival want to make sure their experience is complete by enacting rituals.

There is also a slight superstition, especially for those who have made a habit out of car painting. Car painting becomes a necessary step in preparing for the festival, which if ignored could have as disastrous results as forgetting any other basic necessity. Since there is no necessity that car painting explicitly fulfills it can be seen as a sign of protection, especially for those who make longer roadtrips.

De Forest Crack

This legend is about a park in North Long Beach called DeForest Park. As kids we always just referred to it as DeForest which made many of the younger kids believe it was our North Long Beach version of a forest. The park is intended to be a nature park and also runs along the length of the Los Angeles River bank. It is shrouded in mystery because of its vastness and notoriously sketchy population.

My brother told this legend about DeForest from when we were in middle school:

“So they say that in some parts of De Forest there was a crack den. These people made this special strain of crack there that was the most addictive.

The reason it was so addictive is cause they used homeless people. They would take the homeless people from like off the train tracks and kill them in De Forest. Then they would cut up the poor old hobos and cook them up. They would boil them in with the crack.

The den was located right where the river is …the little river bed that’s in De Forest it was right by there.

That’s where they manufactured it and like broke it down n shit.

They were selling it to like middle schools so they could all grow up addicted. To whoever had money.”

Around the time this legend became popular North Long Beach had a notoriously bad reputation. It was known for drug houses and dens and high incidence of violence. DeForest was truly a spot where people knew they could find drugs that would otherwise be off the mainstream drug market of North Long Beach. DeForest was also known as the stomping grounds for middle schoolers and high schoolers trying drugs for the first time.

Due to the truly dangerous nature of DeForest this narrative acts as a practical warning for residents and especially non-residents to stay out of the “park”. It could also warn non-residents in general from venturing to North Long Beach. It was implied around this time that people who ventured into this area did so for drugs and there was a strong culture of fear surrounding drug use.

For those who were actually from North Long Beach, DeForest was an often sad reality.  This story was not frightening to them because drug use in the area existed, but because it was suggested that the practice was so fatal for everyone in the community. Crack’s production required unsuspecting lives and it’s consumption was somehow cannibalistic and gruesome. This says a lot about the anxieties of North Long Beach residents at the time – not only preoccupied with the reality of drugs in the community but to the costs imposed on the community by those who profited the most.

 

Evil Eye Bracelet

My friend has a bracelet she wears constantly. It is a charm bracelet of blue eyes inside intricate golden hands. She talks about how she acquired it and what it means to her:

“I got it with my mommy  – she [her mother] actually isn’t sure how she feels about it… Evil eyes are blue eyes & she gets upset cause she has blue-green eyes.

I think it’s supposed to be intentions more than blue eyes. I think it’s blue because it originated in India or something & it originated during the time whites were coming in.

I had this little girl at the Getty [Museum] giving me the extra-evil eye & I decided I needed protection.

And I dont know how much I really believe – but I kinda do or I wouldnt be wearing the bracelet.

I lost it for a bit and I told my mom and she freaked out cause she thought it would be really bad luck. She also freaked out cause one of the ojos [eyes] fell out.”

worn constantly to ward off the evil eye

 

The Evil Eye is a belief held by various groups, some since antiquity. Charms such as this bracelet are a common attempt to ward off the evils of an envious eye. The circular blue beads or eyes are a common representation of the Evil Eye.

A 1902 entry in Folklore Journal by Charlotte S. Burns on a similar charm reads as follows :

” ‘They are used by natives as charms to nullify the effects of the Evil Eye; a beautiful child, a valuable horse, or even a tree, is often adorned by one of these beads for this purpose. They are always blue.’ (Cf. Folklore, vol. xii., p. 268.) A Syrian woman, a native of Jerusalem, but living at Haifa, frequently (1899-19oo00) told Miss Bunbury
that people with blue eyes, or with teeth wide apart, have the Evil Eye. This is also noticed by Mr. Frederick Sessions (Folklore, vol. ix., p. io). The use of blue beads as a charm against it is then evidently a piece of sympathetic magic, while the ascription of the power (in an Eastern country) to blue- eyed people looks like a racial superstition.”

Much literature is written about the existence of the Evil Eye in various cultures, the source of the evil and how to combat it. Benjamin L. Gordon explains the Evil Eye as : “an eye believed to have the power of inflicting various diseases and evils on persons by a mere glance, without the fascinator’s coming in contact with them or without his administering anything to them. This belief has been persistent throughout the ages from remote antiquity. It has been recognized alike by sacred writers, classical authors, fathers of the Church, rabbis of the Talmud, philosophers and ancient and medieval physicians.” He writes about the history of the Evil Eye superstition, fear of disease and examples from various cultures in his “OCULUS FASCINUS (FASCINATION, EVIL EYE)” Arch Ophthal. 1937;17(2):290-319.