Monthly Archives: May 2016

The Hotel Del Coronado (Legend)

My informant is Natalie. Natalie is a 19-year-old female student at USC. She is half-Mexican, half-white, speaks fluent Spanish and English and grew up in San Diego.

 

Natalie: “So in San Diego there’s this really famous hotel called the hotel Del Coronado and it’s really pretty and stuff. I guess there was a murder in one of the rooms awhile ago and supposedly it’s haunted.”

The whole hotel?

Natalie: “Not the whole hotel just that room but I’ve never been to the room or stayed there because I’m from San Diego but I’ve been there and some of the hotel like the lobby feels really old so you get the vibe but then there are newer parts where it’s normal”

Do you think the murdered peoples ghost is there?

Natalie: “I think it’s a woman, and um…I don’t know if it’s the spirit or ghost but I would definitely be afraid to go in that room even though I don’t know which one it is. I have it in my head”

Do you know when you first heard the story?

Natalie: “No I was very little”

Is it a well known legend in San Diego?

Natalie: “Yeah most everyone I know knows about the hotel and being haunted but I don’t know who believes it”

Is this significant to you?

Natalie: “Well it’s pretty cool how my city has a ghost story and yeah I’m a little afraid of it but I won’t ever go in that room so it doesn’t bother me”

 

This is a legend in San Diego but it lacks a lot of detail. All Natalie really knows is that someone died in the hotel room and now it’s haunted. I think the lack of detail like how they were killed or stories about the haunted room or other information to help paint a full picture takes away from the legend as a whole. To Natalie it is significant and even scares her but that’s because she heard this story at a young age and applies to a familiar place unlike those not from San Diego.

 

See different version here:

“Ghostly Goings-On at the Hotel Del Coronado – Hotel Del Coronado.” Hotel Del Coronado. Hotel Del Coronado, 2016. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.

Blonde, Brunette, and Redhead (Joke)

Age: 19
Primary Language: English

My informant is Jackson, a 19-year-old male student at USC. Jackson is white and of Danish and Irish descent and grew up in a suburb outside of Los Angeles called Palos Verdes.

 

Jackson: “There’s a blonde, brunette, and a redhead and they are about to get executed by a firing squad. I’m not sure what they did but they messed up big time. They line them up against the wall and talk to each one. They ask the brunette first,

“Do you have any last words before we execute you?”

The Brunette responds, “Tornado!”, and as the firing squad turns around looking for the tornado she runs away and escapes. Next they call up the redhead and ask her if she had any last words. The red head screams “Hurricane!” and again they turn around and the red head escapes. Finally, they bring out the blonde and ask her for her last words. She looks at them all and yells at the top of her lungs “FIRE!”

Where did you first hear this joke?

Jackson: “Ohhh god I don’t even know probably like third grade. Everyone was telling blonde joke that’s just the only one I remember”

Did you pass it along?

Jackson: “Yeah I told people but back then everyone knew them so it was hard finding on no one had heard”

 

I find jokes are the easiest folklore to get out of people because although it takes time to remember a whole story or even a proverb, almost everyone has a joke they know. It is fitting that it was a blonde joke because these kind of jokes seem to have a format. There is a blonde, brunette, and red head and the blonde always ends up doing something stupid and being the butt of the joke. The variation comes from what the actual dumb thing is and what situation they are in but I grew up hearing many blonde jokes.

Shark Hats (Magic – Contagious)

Age: 19
Occupation: student
Primary Language: English

My informant is Jackson, a 19-year-old male student at USC. Jackson is white and of Danish and Irish descent and grew up in a suburb outside of Los Angeles called Palos Verdes.

 

Jackson didn’t you say something about a superstitious act you did in baseball?

Jackson: “Ah yes, it’s known as the shark-hats. Basically if you’re down by any runs in the late innings of a baseball game you all get out your shark hats, throw them on just like a shark. On the side with the brim facing straight up”

What was the goal of the shark-hats?

Jackson: “Basically the goal was that the shark-hats would start a rally and we would get hot and get hits and come back from behind”

Would you guys yell anything?

Jackson: “Ohh all we would yell was get out your shark hats right before the inning started and everyone would sit in the dugout with their shark-hats on”

What inning would it mainly start in?

Jackson: “The sixth or seventh but we only played seven innings”

When did it start? When was the first time you experienced the shark-hat?

Jackson: “Probably when I was eleven, just when I was playing baseball”

Do you now who started it?

Jackson: “No it was just something I had seen around my little league so guys before us must have done it too”

Would you find that it worked?

Jackson: “Well when it worked we would say it was because the shark-hats but it probably didn’t work more than it worked”

Does this have any meaning to you?

Jackson: “It just reminds me of my childhood and baseball”

 

This is an interesting superstition, however not surprising as superstitions are often found in sports, and in my studies especially baseball. The Shark-hat is a form of contagious magic, those in the dugout wearing the shark-hats to send good luck and success to the batter at the moment. When people are losing or down they reach for something supernatural as an aid or guidance to come back and in this case it is the Shark-hat. Although I had never heard of the Shark-hat, I am familiar with a similar form of this call for good luck but we called them rally-caps. Similarly, it would be in the bottom innings of a game when we were down and someone got a hit we would all wear are hats inside out to help spark a rally. Jackson admits to not believing his teams success ever stemmed from the shark-hats and he did not believe they would actually work but he still did them every time and credited the wins to the shark-hats whenever they came along. I think there was also a fear of if he doesn’t wear the shark-hat then he will be the reason they didn’t work. To Jackson it was a silly thing but he still did it every time maybe in hopes it work, maybe in fear of what would happen if he didn’t, or maybe just in the tradition in spirit of baseball.

 

Dabbing (Dance)

Nationality: Persian
Age: 19
Primary Language: English

My informant is Grant, a 19-year-old male student at USC. Grant was born and raised in Los Angeles, however his father is from Iran and his mother is from Japan. Both of these cultures influence his life in different ways. This piece of folklore is a tradition performed on a holiday.

Do you know any folkdance or a form of dance you’ve learned from others?

Grant: “Does dabbing count? (laughing)”

Yeah you can talk about dabbing! So explain it what is “dabbing”?

Grant: “Yeah dabbing, its like popular now in hip-hop and rap that made it famous. You just kind of bend your arm like a chicken wing and drop your head to your elbow”

That’s a dance move?

Grant: “Yeah a lot of rappers do it but celebrities really made it famous and you see it all over twitter and other social media”

Was there anyone specific that started this dance move or do you know the origins?

Grant: “I don’t know exactly but I know it became popular because of Cam Newton. He would dab during all his football games when he scored or even when he had a good play he would just celebrate. I also know the move comes from taking a “dab” which is like smoking but harsher so you have to cough afterwards. The dab is like a cough but as a dance move”

Do you think people know it originated from smoking?

Grant: “I don’t think so, I think it started out that way but once celebrities made it common and little kids and parents started doing it and I definitely don’t think they know it came from smoking”

So would you say all age groups do it?

Grant: “Yeah you see little kids doing it all the time on tv and twitter and even grandparents but I don’t think they know what they’re doing”

 

I like this piece of folklore because it began as a dance started by popular culture about smoking drugs but through the mass use of the dance move by celebrities and then by their followers it turned into an innocent dance move almost known by everyone.

Kick the Can (Game)

Nationality: Persian
Age: 19
Primary Language: English

My informant is Grant, a 19-year-old male student at USC. Grant was born and raised in Los Angeles, however his father is from Iran and his mother is from Japan. Both of these cultures influence his life in different ways. This piece of folklore is a tradition performed on a holiday.

Grant: “So uh as a kid I would used to play ‘Kick the Can’ in my neighborhood. Did you play that?”

No I never did how do you play?

Grant: “You would get a can or like a carton and we’d put it in the middle of the street and then you have like, only one person defending the can and everyone else would disperse and hide from different angles. So usually we would put it in the middle of a cul-de-sac so it would be easier to defend and everyone would spread out and go to different angles and you would like coordinate with people and run at the middle and try and actually kick the can while the defender tries to tag you”

So would the guy defending the can be allowed to be right next to it the whole time or did he have to move around?

Grant: “Oh you can’t really puppy-guard. Like probably can’t be within 10 feet of the can until someone comes running”

How do you win?

Grant: “You kick the can you get a point but if you get tagged you have to be in the middle and defend the can now”

Was this a big game in your childhood?

Grant: “Yeah, I would say so. I used to play it all the time with my neighbors”

Did you play this game at school?

Grant: “Yeah, we used to play it sometimes at recess”

Do you know who taught you the game?

Grant: “I don’t know, I think one kid must have come out and explained it and said let’s play this game and it just took off from there”

When did you start playing this game?

Grant: “I was like seven or eight”

When was the last time you played?

Grant: “Probably like 10, we went through a phase of it where we would play a lot”

 

I think Grant gave me a really typical example of a childhood game. Like most childhood games, kick the can requires very little specific gear to play the game, on the contrary, merely an old can or empty carton will suffice. Grant isn’t sure where he first learned the game but assumes one kid just offered the game, explaining the rules, then proceeding to get everyone to play. Thus the transfer of folklore and now more people know the game and as they play with other children they in turn teach the game, transferring folklore. Grant played this game with his friends at school and his friends from his neighborhood. It may very well have been him being the bridge bringing the game from the schoolyard to the backyard or vice versa. It is just interesting how explaining a fun game to children is a way of communicating folklore.

 

For alternate rules and explanation see here:

 

“The Rules of Kick the Can /.” Project Play. Project Play Books, 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.