Author Archives: Reece McIntyre

Kick The Can and Other Old Kids Games

Intro

The following is a game called kick the can from my grandpa that played the game when he was a kid. My grandpa grew up in the northwest United States and went into the Navy when he was 18. He is now 74 years old. I was told about this game when asking about any possible stories that his family had when he was growing up, as he had lived an exciting life, doing many crazy things with his time. He now enjoys fishing and gold mining. I recorded him via phone call. This is a direct transcribed script of what was said in the story, with the various “umm’s” and “uhh’s” omitted.

The Game

“Oh we used to play kick the can all the time. There was rules for it. There was one person who was the can-master, you might say. And in order to be safe, there were another four or five guys and one who was the can-master, and the other four or five guys would go hide. And then the can-master had to go out and find these four or five guys. Well, if he was looking for one person and someone else came up and kicked the can then that guy was safe. And so he would set the can back up and he would go back out. And if he was able to find somebody then come back to the can and he kicked the can then that other guy would now be the can-master. We also would play stickball in the alley, we didn’t have baseball bats. We had some old baseballs though. 

There was a lot of kids in my neighborhood. We were all the generation after the war. And so most of the women got pregnant and had a lot of kids. So we had a lot of kids around there and we would play together. We had another game we would play and that, these alleys were like three blocks and they weren’t paved or anything. We would pull up the dirt clods and throw em at each other, we had wars. One of the rules was that we had to make sure that when you’re making the dirt balls, you had to make sure that there was no rocks or glass or anything like that. And so this one afternoon, we paired off, there must’ve been six or seven to a side, and we’d make all these dirt clumps and we’d rush at one another and throw them suckerrs at each other. There was this kid about my age, his name was [name], he rolled this dirt clod up and threw it at me and it hit me right in the head, whack, and right when it hit me I knew there was something in there. So I went running after him. I was gonna punch his lights out. I went running after him and got about five feet from him and blood started dripping down my forehead and I put my hand up to my forehead and there was blood. And I started running and yelling. I was like, ‘mom look at my head!’ And I had to go to the hospital and get stitches in my head. So we didn’t play that game that much anymore.”

Analysis

I always knew the game kick the can growing up and knew that people actually played it. But for me it was also just that game that parents always told their kids to go play but nobody actually knew what it was. Hearing my grandpa tell me that he played it as a kid was cool because it sounds like it was just a general game that kids around the country all knew how to play. I’m not sure how different or similar his rules of the game are to the rest of the world, but I would imagine that they aren’t too far off, the name of the game is like one of the only rules after all. 

The second half of the piece is not as much folk games as it is just things kids did outside back in the day. I find it interesting how much fun kids were able to have with so little stuff. I mean, they threw dirt around in the roads. Nowadays I can’t drive in my neighborhood without seeing a children at play sign. Where did all the fun of just making up your own games go?

Pigs Eat Everything

Intro

The following is a folk story from my grandpa. My grandpa grew up in the northwest United States, and went into the Navy when he was 18. He is now 74 years old. I was told this story when asking about any possible stories that his family had when he was growing up, as he had lived an exciting life, doing many crazy things with his time. He now enjoys fishing and gold mining. I recorded him via phone call. This is a direct transcribed script of what was said in the story, with the various “umm’s” and “uhh’s” omitted.

Story

“One thing that I always was told was that pigs, they’ll eat anything. Oh, here’s a story. In 1939 the war started. In 1942 I think the Japanese got into the war. On the west coast, they decided to develop… At least I’m told this was the story (he had heard the story in his days in the Navy), Terminal Island was just a big open gigantic field before it became a port for the government. The army took it over and they built all these port facilities, they had to ship out all this equipment to the people fighting the war against Japan. And so Terminal Island at the time was nothing but a sage brush sticker bush desert. It was full of rattlesnakes, and so how they got rid of the rattlesnakes was they turned pigs loose. Rattlesnakes can’t hurt pigs because they got too much fat. Doesn’t get into the bloodstream. And the pigs would stomp the rattlesnakes and eat em. So whether that’s true or not I don’t know.

But I do know something that happened up here where I live a number of years ago. There was this crazy lady that had these two guys working for her. They got into some kind of conflict and she killed both of them. She chopped up their bodies and fed her pigs. That’s what I’ve been told, I don’t know if it’s true or not. But they say she fed her pigs with the two guys that worked for her. They haven’t been able to find them. So when you hear a story about a pig will eat anything… it will eat anything.”

Analysis

Hearing this weird thing from my grandpa was very interesting. I have no idea how the conversation even came up, I think he might have just remembered a story from his Navy days. But this claim that pigs eat anything is also one that I haven’t heard before. This story has three folklore pieces wrapped into one. The first is the fact about pigs. The second is the story about Terminal Island. And the third is the story about the crazy lady that fed her workers to her pigs. The claim that pigs eat anything is one that I could find many other sources saying similar things. As for the second piece, I couldn’t find any evidence that they actually used pigs to clear out all the snakes. However, it is entirely possible. Terminal Island at one time was called Rattlesnake Island so there were indeed a lot of snakes there. Pigs have also been known to kill snakes out of instinct so the story could be true. The third one I couldn’t find any evidence for being true but that makes sense as it seems like more of a local legend. It was difficult getting stories out of my grandpa that he didn’t experience himself, but when I finally did get some, they proved to be just as wacky as I thought they’d be.

The Leprechaun

Intro

The following is a description and story about Leprechauns in Ireland. My friend first heard the story from his parents, specifically his dad who is Irish. I have known this friend since elementary school. I knew that he had heard many stories about where his parents are from so I asked him to tell me about a few of them. I recorded this over the phone as he was very busy and couldn’t find a time to meet up (also COVID). This is a direct transcribed script of what was said in the story, with the various “umm’s” and “uhh’s” omitted.

Story

“Leprechauns are, they’re like, think of them as like fairies. And you know, a lot of them are like Central European and Northern European, not considering the UK or Norway or Sweden. They have fairies and that’s kinda where you get your traditional Lord of the Rings, type fairies, like D&D and that kind of stuff. But basically Leprechauns are Irish fairies. Traditionally they’re shoemakers or distillers, so they make shoes or they make drinks. And the Leprechaun, at least from my knowledge, it started, at least the folklore and myths of them used to come up more and more during the Irish famine. The reason for that is because during that time the middle class and Ireland was really heavily affected because that was their whole thing. They were just potato farmers. And the great Irish famine happened with the potatoes so they had this idealistic thing that represents in my way of seeing it, the famine. And it’s kind of because, I don’t know what you know about Leprechauns, but it’s basically how they’re inherently evil creatures. They try to trick you and it’s kinda like a Rumplestiltskin type thing. So basically what happens is… the whole tradition of finding the pot at the end of the rainbow, that type meme, that’s where Leprechauns keep all their gold, keep all their wealth. They come out during nighttime, and typically they are like, more known with kids. And kids were told this story because during this time it was really really hard in Ireland. And they wanted to give their children, parents wanted to give their children hope for this. So they’re like ‘hey, the only way to get what you want in life is to outsmart people.’ And that’s kinda where this traditional Leprechaun story came from. It’s like, there’s gonna be really bad people in life, that happens and they’re gonna try and trick you, so you have to be smarter. And that’s kinda where the heart of the Leprechaun story comes from. 

I’m just gonna go ahead and do a brief thing of what the story was like when I was younger. Basically it’s, when you’re a kid, you can get visited by this Leprechaun, or you can get visited by many Leprechauns. They’ll come to you in the middle of the night when you’re sleeping and you’ll wake up and you’ll see it, and then it would go off into the garden or into the forest. And typically the kid would chase it. So they chase it and find this little hut. In the hut they would be either making shoes or brewing, brewing beer or whatever. Since this is some sort of magical creature the kid would be like ‘what kind of magical powers do you have. Or what can you offer me. So the Leprechaun tells the kid about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But then there’s like favors involved. They’re like, ‘oh I need leather so I can make more shoes or I need wheat and barley so I can brew more beer.’ So it’s an exchange of sort, but the exchange goes back to hard working mentality, like everything comes with a price. But it also comes to outsmarting the person you’re working with, in this case the Leprechaun. It is really a story about the real world. And it is flavored in this fun-loving and semi-dark fairy tale. In the end sometimes the Leprechaun will die, or he will get murdered by the kid or something. But that’s the story of the Leprechaun.”

Analysis

Hearing what Leprechauns actually were to the Irish people was really fascinating for many reasons. For one, I never thought of Leprechauns as anything more than Saint Patrick’s Day, rainbows, and Lucky Charms (though I did know they had significance to the Irish, I’m not that ignorant). Learning how Leprechauns were actually the Irish version of fairies and the handful of lessons that they taught to kids was really interesting. I think a creature like this and the non-specific of the story would classify it as a myth. I also thought it was funny how my friend threw in the part about the kids killing the Leprechauns so casually. Stories like this are probably important to him because they were probably stories he heard a lot growing up.

Sidhe Fae

Intro

The following is a description of the Sidhe Fae ritual in Ireland. My friend first heard the tradition from his parents, specifically his dad who is Irish. I have known this friend since elementary school. I knew that he had heard many stories about where his parents are from so I asked him to tell me about a few of them. I recorded this over the phone as he was very busy and couldn’t find a time to meet up (also COVID). This is a direct transcribed script of what was said in the story, with the various “umm’s” and “uhh’s” omitted.

Description

“Okay so I’m probably going to butcher the pronunciation of this, but this is kinda like a story, not so much a story as it is important to Irish history. More like Celtic and Gaelic stuff. So basically there’s this thing called See-uh-duh-fae, Sidhe Fae, and they’re kinda like these burial mounds. This was a pretty big religious ceremony back in Ireland, and Celtic and Gaelic stuff. It’s a religious ceremony for burials. And they’re commonly referred to like an afterlife transitioning thing. And it’s, it’s kind of like their way of honoring the dead a little bit, in that… what am I thinking of, in that there is different versions of the ritual depending on what you did in life. Like a lot of Celtic and… mainly Celtic stuff back then referred to dying in combat being super honorable and like farmers and what you did in life represents where you’ll be at in the afterlife. Kind of like a Valhalla thing. So they had these ceremonies and they would have different ceremonies that would represent what the person did in life. And at the end of the ceremony they would always wish the best for the person to be granted access into Valhalla. Or I don’t know if Valhalla is specifically it but they would always ask and pray. So basically they would ask like ‘hey, please give this person the best in the afterlife.’ 

Analysis

Hearing this tradition from Ireland from my friend was interesting because I have never heard that much about Irish traditions or anything about Irish religion. The burial ritual (pronounced she-fay) was a pretty simple thing compared to other cultures’ burial rituals, but still maintained the same level of importance. This type of ritual is one that revolves around the life cycle, specifically death. What I thought was especially interesting was the different rituals depending on what kind of life the person lived. I wonder what kind of ritual was performed for criminals versus for great heroes. I also wonder if they still wished the best for literally every person that was buried there. The Celts had reach in a lot of Europe, so I would imagine that these rituals worked their way into many different types of households, not just those in Ireland. Though the Celtic people did leave a large impression on Ireland so it makes sense that my friend learned this from his Irish father. 

Chinese Dragons

Intro

The following is a description of Chinese Dragons and their importance to the people. My friend first heard the tradition from his parents, specifically his mom who is Chinese. I have known this friend since elementary school. I knew that he had heard many stories about where his parents are from so I asked him to tell me about a few of them. I recorded this over the phone as he was very busy and couldn’t find a time to meet up (also COVID). This is a direct transcribed script of what was said in the story, with the various “umm’s” and “uhh’s” omitted.

Description

“Ok so, there’s a common thing with Chinese Dragons. First off, they don’t have wings. Second, they have four legs and a head. And they are often associated holding balls in their left or right hand. They are normally made out of either wood or clay and they can be seen holding balls. The reason they are holding balls is because it represents the sun, or fire. And basically in China and in Chinese folklore the sun was seen as this omnipotent thing, or this overarching power. Because back in like, you know like f*****’ 200 AD no one knew what the sun was. So they’re like okay this thing provides good crops, it provides warmth and all these things so the Chinese people really respected this thing, the sun. And they’re like so one of the most important things in our history, the dragon, is going to be seen holding this thing, because they can harness the power of the sun. And it is associated with wisdom and intelligence. And it represents how the dragon is like the overarching thing of the chinese zodiac. So, ya that’s just a little thing about Chinese folklore.”

Analysis

I always knew that dragons had importance in China but I didn’t know that they were seen as such powerful creatures. My friend described dragons as other cultures describe their deities, which I didn’t know was how they were viewed. I also thought it was interesting that they were depicted holding the sun. 

My friend heard all this from his mother, who I believe is 100% Chinese. I know the family doesn’t really have a lot of rituals or anything that they still perform from China (they’re actually all Christians), but I do know that the mother likes to let her kids know the culture that they came from. I don’t know what kind of significance the dragons might have in their life, or if it was just told as a story to the kids.