Monthly Archives: May 2015

Awkward Turtle

Nationality: polish
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My informant is a 20-year-old College Student. She has a predominantly Polish heritage.

I was interested in asking my informant if she knew about any specific gestures that she had learned over the years that had some significance to her. She could not think of any with any real special significance, but she did inform me about the “awkward turtle”.

Informant: “Awkward turtle is just for awkward situations. When something awkward happens, you throw up the awkward turtle. You just put one hand flat on the other and wiggle your thumbs like turtle fins. I first saw it when I was at a battle of the bands in Toledo, Ohio. One of the drummers of a band dropped his stick and screwed up the whole song. They ended up having to stop playing and the lead singer was like, “ooh awkward turtle”, and did the gesture. The whole crowd then put their “hand turtles” in the air and did it with him. It was really weird because I was left out of this weirdness but I quickly put my hands up and conformed even though I had no idea what was going on. I still use the turtle today, it’s really funny for situations that are awkward because you don’t have to say anything, you just make the awkward turtle and other people catch onto it.”

Analysis: This piece is really interesting because of the way that the informant learned about it. She was in a large crowd and she only did it because she was mimicking what everyone else was doing. I think this says something about our society as Americans. We want to be grouped together and we are such social creatures that acceptance is the main goal. Even when we don’t know what we are doing, we go with the crowd so we don’t stand out. My informant was on the outside of this knowledge circle until she made her own awkward turtle and then she was inside the circle of this shared knowledge.

Sore Throat Remedy

Nationality: yugoslavian, spanish, croatian
Age: 53
Occupation: real estate
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My mother seems to know a remedy for everything when it comes to being sick. She always has some kind of alternative medicine solution to these problems. She doesn’t always implore me to use them, but she gives me the option. I asked her what as one thing she learned from her mother in regards to alternative medicine. She told me a trick for sore throats that involves vinegar cider.

Informant: “My mother grew up in the 60’s, so her parents were all about these hippy recipes. She knew so many ways to cure anything and that’s where I get all this stuff. When we would have a sore throat, she would tell us to gargle this vinegar cider. We would gargle it over the toilet and it was disgusting. The worst part was that she made us swallow the last sip. I never made you or your brothers do it because although sometimes it worked, it is just ridiculous, I think a cough drop is the equivalent these days, so feel like you’re sucking on a cherry candy rather than gargling vinegar cider.”

Analysis: This piece is interesting because this type of folklore is diminishing quickly. With modern medicine becoming so popular and advancing so rapidly, these types of remedies will soon disappear. It is also interesting that my mother only knows all of these recipes because my grandma grew up in a specific time where these types of remedies were almost more widely used that pharmaceuticals. It may only be a few generations until this fully disappears because I know that I will not be making my children use any of these types of alternative medicine when they are sick.

Yugoslavian Strudel Recipe

Nationality: yugoslavian, spanish
Age: 76
Occupation: real estate
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My Grandmother is 76 years old and she is predominantly Yugoslavian and Spanish. She has lived her whole life in the United States.

My grandmother’s mother was very Yugoslavian, she came over to this country from Yugoslavia when she was a young girl. With her she brought many of the recipes that she learned from her hometown. My grandmother is a very good cook and loves to bake, so the first piece of folklore she could think of was a recipe for strudel that her mother taught her how to make.

Informant: “I learned how to make it from my mother and she learned from hers and so on, who knows how long it has been in the family, but it’s damn good. You make it with really thin dough and the other ingredients can be variables, but it always has cinnamon sugar. She could make it so thin and then would cut it into pieces and then bake them until they were perfect golden brown. I am telling you it is the best thing you would ever taste. I still don’t think I can make it like her, there is something about the way that your mother makes something that is almost impossible to recreate. She would always make the strudel on Sundays because she didn’t like going to church so it was sort of her way out. I always go to church but because she always made it on Sundays, Sunday is the only time I ever make it. I don’t know why but it just doesn’t feel right if I made it on any other day. I guess it kind of celebrates her life in a way. I think about her whenever I make it and this recipe is something I hold very dear to my heart”.

Analysis: In many cultures, food is something that is very important. Culturally, a group of people can be known specifically for their specific types of food they make. It is one of the most important elements for the obvious reason that it keeps us alive, so whatever a culture is making, is important and becomes a part of their identity. The strudel represents a part of my grandmother and a part of her Yugoslavian heritage. It may seem a bit silly, but things like this can be very important to people because it helps them stay connected to their roots. Things like food create identity and bond people together who share this specific identity.

The Ant and the Grasshopper

Nationality: Yugoslavian, croatian, spanish
Age: 53
Occupation: real estate
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My informant is my mother. She is 53 years old and is Spanish, Croatian, and Yugoslavian. She was born and raised in Florida, but keeps up many of her ancestors’ traditions from these countries.

I asked my mom to tell me any story that her dad had told her. Her dad was a very clever man and seemed to always bend the rules and switch things around to make them humorous. I asked her if he told any stories that had some moral context in the end. She told me “The Story of the Ant and the Grasshopper”, as told by her father.

Informant: “The ant was very hardworking. He spent all year collecting food so that when winter came around he had enough supplies to live. The grasshopper on the other hand was always messing around. The ant would warn the grasshopper that he was going to be in danger when the winter came. Well, winter came and the ant was ready for the harsh weather but the grasshopper was screwed. The ant looked at the grasshopper and told him, “I told you so”. So the grasshopper ate the ant and took all his food. My dad did stuff like this all the time, he would always twist endings like this and we thought it was hilarious. The real ending is that the grasshopper dies and the ant flourishes because he had worked hard, but this was my dad’s take on the story. I still remember the story because of the element of humor, I don’t think I would remember it if it was told the normal way.”

Analysis: This piece is interesting because it offers a view on the anti-climactic story. Many of these stories are popular in America. The story seems to be leading you somewhere and then it just drops off and takes itself in a whole new direction. It is also interesting to note the presence of work ethic again in these stories told by Americans. It seems as if this is a reoccurring theme in America because of the heavy influence of the “hard worker” ideal. From the vastness of these stories come these variations with anti climactic endings that offer a more humorous ending to these stories that are supposed to give some moral lesson by the end.

Legend of Paddy Murphy

Nationality: irish, dutch, english, italian
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4/30/15
Primary Language: English

My informant who is in the SAE fraternity shared another piece of frat folklore with me when I sat down and interviewed him. He explained to me that before you are initiated into the fraternity, you are expected to know many stories about the legends of SAE. He told me one of the most widely known SAE stories, and it is the one that you will most likely hear first if you are rushing this fraternity. He told me it was called, “The Story of Paddy Murphy”.

Informant: “The story is kind of long and there are a lot of details but I will give you the main parts. So Paddy Murphy was an SAE and he ended up being Al Capone’s right hand man in the 1920’s. They did everything together and bootlegged booze all over the place. They became well known and there was this famous detective who was trying to put them in jail. This detective stole evidence from Capone’s office and took it back to his place. Capone knew where this guy lived, so they went to his apartment. Paddy had the man in his sights from across the building at another rooftop. Capone loaded a gun and told him to shoot the detective. Paddy noticed that the detective had an SAE pin on his shirt and decided that he couldn’t kill the man. Capone told him to choose the detective or himself. Paddy said he couldn’t kill a brother, so Capone shot him. The detective heard the gunshot and ran over to them. Capone fled but as Paddy took his last breath, he looked at the detective and said “Phi Alpha”, and then gave him the SAE grip, which is like a handshake. This story is special to anyone in SAE because it is about loyalty to your fraternity. This is one of the things that we hold most important to our fraternity.”

Analysis: I thought this piece was very interesting because it is like a myth of SAE. This story that they have is used to govern the fraternity. Through the actions of Paddy Murphy, the fraternity is given a model of how to be a correct SAE. This means that loyalty goes as far as taking your life in order to save another “brother’s” life. I thought this was a little extreme because I am not in a fraternity, but it seems like they take loyalty very serious. Many stories like this give an outline for people to follow, and although this Paddy Murphy character is a legend and these events are undocumented, the men in SAE hold this to be true and live their lives by this story.