Monthly Archives: May 2015

Sugar Creek Smallmouth Bass

Nationality: USA
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: April 19, 2015
Primary Language: English

“There’s a creek that goes through my hometown of Crawfordsville, Indiana called Sugar Creek, and they say it has best smallmouth bass fishing in the country. Apparently in the 80s, some high school kid went down to the Creek after school and caught four 8lb smallmouths, and a massive 12 pounder in an hour. Ever since kids always go down there to try to catch some huge ones, and I’ve caught a couple big ones myself, but nowhere near the 12 pounder he caught.”

 

This is from my friend who comes from a small town in Indiana with a lot of folklore traditions. He’s lived there all of his life, and apparently there are a lot of these little local stories legends about his town which is awesome. He said that this one particularly resonates with him and gives him a sense of nostalgia because it reminds him of his times fishing during his childhood and looking for legendary bass.

 

Vardavar

Nationality: Armenian-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: April 15, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Armenian, Russian

“So Vardavar is an Armenian holiday that dates back from the pagan times, and back then they worshipped a god Astghik who was the goddess of fertility and love and water. Since Armenia is pretty arid, they celebrate the harvest time with water mostly. Originally, people would collect flowers like roses and vartivers, some kind of yellow flower, and throw them everywhere. The flower thing kind of died out, but they also had a ceremony of just pouring water everywhere, just dumping it on random people. That’s the big part of it today, and you can douse children, women, men, anyone, and they all enjoy it. It’s basically a way to celebrate Armenian cultural history and remember where we came from.”

 

This is from my roommate who was born in Yerevan, Armenia, but he and his family moved to the U.S. in the late 1990s, before he was even five years old. However, he has spent most of his summers back in Armenia, visiting family and whatnot. He is fluent in Armenian and speaks it at home. He grew up with Vardavar because of those summers spent in Armenia with relatives, so he always participated in it. To him, it’s a celebration of his culture and history, and just a fun holiday, and for him it brings back memories from his childhood summers.

 

The Night Marchers

Nationality: USA
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: April 28, 2015
Primary Language: English

“The legend of the Night Marchers takes place on the west coast of Oahu, on a beach called Keawa-Ula Bay. Basically, a few days of the year the spirits of dead Native Hawaiians march from the mountains to the ocean in order to somehow reach the afterlife. They pound their drums and carry torches, and anyone who gets in the way of their march is never seen again, so people are supposed to stay inside if they ever hear the marching. My parents told this one to me when I was a kid, and they taught about it in elementary school too. I think it’s mostly used by parents to warn their kids from going outside at night, at least that’s how it was for me.”

 

The person I got this from is one of my 19-year-old friends at USC. He’s lived all of his live in Hawaii, and even though he isn’t racially Hawaiian (half Japanese, half Guatemalan), he and his family are very immersed in Hawaiian culture. To him, this legend evokes memories of his home and childhood, and it reminds him of his cultural

background.

Special Dumpling

Nationality: USA
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: USA
Performance Date: April 23, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Informant was a 20 year old male who was born in North Carolina and moved to Santa Monica at an early age. He attends the University of San Diego and is an old family friend that came to visit.

Tradition:

There’s this Chinese New Year tradition that a bunch of dumplings are made and a coin or a peanut is placed into one of them. Everyone knows that one of the dumplings has a coin or peanut, but nobody knows which one. Whoever gets the special dumpling supposedly has good luck for the entire new year.

Collector: Is it true?

Informant: The luck? I don’t know, I’ve never found the coin, but I think it’s probably bullshit.

Collector: So you’ve done this several times?

Informant: Yeah, at a friend’s house. Only my mom is Chinese, but she doesn’t really celebrate the Chinese New Year. My friend’s family does, though, and I think it’s kind of fun to just go over there and participate.

Collector: So it’s a real Chinese tradition, this dumpling thing? Not just a family tradition?

Informant: So I’ve been told. Since my friend is the only one I know who does this I’m not sure. I think my mom has said that it is, but I don’t really remember…I should probably listen to her more (laughs).

Collector: Does it have to be dumplings?

Informant: Yes. I think.

I believe that the informant is trying to connect with his Chinese heritage by participating in this New Year tradition. It’s that whole ethnic identity thing. Since he’s half Chinese, he probably feels like he should participate, although, it does seem like it’s something that he enjoys doing. I know of several traditions that are similar to this one (one involving having money in one’s pocket at the stroke of midnight, and another involving running around with a purse) which indicates to me that many people truly believe that there is something magical about the new year. It’s a liminal line of sorts that requires a ritual in order to pass successfully.

The Field

Nationality: USA
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: USA
Performance Date: April 23, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Informant was a 20 year old male who was born in North Carolina and moved to Santa Monica at an early age. He attends the University of San Diego and is an old family friend that came to visit.

Collector: Do you have any legends you may have heard about? Some story someone has told you?

Informant: Well, in elementary school we had the Katherine D. Vickes field, and one day the principal came up to me during recess and said it was named after a woman who had died there twenty years ago.

Collector: Really? Did he tell you how she died?

Informant: Yeah, but it’s actually really weird and I’m not sure he was telling the truth.

Collector: So it could be considered….a legend?

Informant: I guess. Well, he said that there was a little girl who used to go to the school, like 8 years old or something like that, and she had a mom who worked in a nuclear power plant. The lady got irradiated and died and she started to haunt the field at her daughter’s school. He said it was so she could keep an eye on her, but I don’t really know. This was a long time ago. (In a conspiratorial whisper)  Some people still think they can hear her voice, gently murmuring, on particularly still nights.

Collector: Jeez, what school did you go to, sounds crazy as hell.

Informant: Grant Elementary.

So, this story is pretty odd, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt since most legends don’t make a lot of sense either. I assume the principal was merely attempting to make friendly chatter with my informant by divulging this story he knew. The fact that it is so weird leads me to believe that this is a highly passed along narrative, since the more a story is passed along, the less sense it starts to make and the crazier the details become. Variation, indeed.