Monthly Archives: May 2018

Puff Puff Pass

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: N/A
Performance Date: 4/13/18
Primary Language: English
Language: N/A

Informant: My next thing is a tradition.

Interviewer: Sure..

Informant: Ok… so, this is more of a tradition in smoking. I was taught it by my friend, he was taught it by his friend, who was taught it by his friend… that sorta chain goes on and on. Everyone knows it, and if you don’t know it, someone you’re chilling with will know it and tell you.

Interviewer: Cool.

Informant: Yeah.. so, basically, when you’re smoking with your homies, you want to, like, make sure everyone is having a good time, right? Don’t want a smoke hog. So somewhere along the line, probably years and years ago at this point, some dude comes up with this idea,, “Puff puff pass”. Basically, you to take two hits of the “j” or bong or pipe or whatever, and then pass it along. Make sure everyone gets a chance. As soon as someone says puff puff pass, everyone in the circle starts doing it.

Interviewer: What happens when everyone has smoked?

Informant: Keep passing. It goes around and around till it’s done.

Context: My informant is a twenty one year old from a midwestern town bordering a legal marijuana state and an illegal marijuana state. This story was told while sitting around a table in a college dorm common room – my informant sat across from me and told me his story in person.

Background: The informant likes this tradition because it perpetuates a culture of sharing – everyone is taken care of in a smoke circle, to the point where a common tradition has arisen to allow greater sharing within these groups.

Analysis: Puff Puff Pass is a really cool example of the power of oral tradition and community thought. Like my informant described, the tradition arose from those a mutual want within the smoker community for a way to more easily and fairly share smokables amongst themselves. Furthermore, the tradition, like any other piece of folklore, was spread by word of mouth – which is the most impressive part of it to me, as it is a remarkably well recognized custom within the community of smokers. Everyone learns Puff-Puff-Pass from someone else at some point or another.

 

Annotation: To see another example of Puff-Puff-Pass, see this source:

Crane, Travis. “Puff Puff Pass: The Etiquette of the Smoke Circle.” My 420 Tours, My 420 Tours, 19 Dec. 2017, my420tours.com/puff-puff-pass/.

Though this source doesn’t differ in its interpretation of the puff puff pass tradition, it does stress the importance of equality within the circle – everyone is supposed to smoke an equal amount. Again, it’s really interesting to see how this tradition of parity has become a de facto law within the smoking community.


Legend of the White Lighter

Nationality: Falcone
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: N/A
Performance Date: 4/13/18
Primary Language: English
Language: N/A

 

Informant: You know those groups of musicians that die before the age of 24?

Interviewer: Sure

Informant: I think there’s like one person who died with like the story of using a white lighter so there’s always that curse… you know, don’t use that white lighter. It’s cursed. Something bad is going to happen, it’s bad luck. Literally, like, smoking with my friends, one of them, we were smoking at his house – he thought his parents weren’t going to be there for a while. We were like “oh man, only lighter we have is this white lighter, let’s use that” We use it and his parents come back wayy earlier than expected and were like “oh we left something here” and saw us in the middle of our smoke session outside.

Interviewer: Any others?

Informant: One of my friends was looking in his car for a lighter and the only one in his car was a white one in the glovebox or whatever. I guess this house or parking lot he was at called the cops and they came up and arrested him. Pretty sure he ended up with a possession charge.

Interviewer: Oh wow…

Informant: Yeah man stay away from those white lighters.

Context: My informant is a twenty one year old from a midwestern town bordering a legal marijuana state and an illegal marijuana state. This story was told while sitting around a table in a college dorm common room – my informant sat across from me and told me his story in person.

Background: My informant knows this story because it’s been passed between nearly everyone he knows who smokes – white lighters are never good luck. To him, it simply means to never use a white lighter – he admitted after our interview that he still makes a point of avoiding white lighters.

Analysis: The Story of the White Lighter is a classic example of an urban legend. Though my informant cannot necessarily verify its authenticity, his story nonetheless takes place in recent history. Interestingly, we can see here the actual evolution of the story. Not only does the interviewee sum up the general origin of the story and the gist of it, he also adds his own experience to it – one in which he himself was also cursed by the white lighter, thus adding further legitimacy to the story. Anyone who has a bad experience with a white lighter can add their own run-in with its curse to the story relatively easily, thus allowing the legend to more easily spread.

Baptism: They way to heaven

Nationality: Guatemalian
Performance Date: 4-22-18
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: 

Bryan : A baptism is like um something your parents are supposed to do before you turn one. You have to um um get baptized when you are young so they can wash away all the sins away and you can start a Christian life. If your parents wait to get you baptized its pretty much like bad because um babies can get a lot of bad vibes and I just know something bad happens. This is why my mom would always tell my brother to not take out my niece to places far away because they can get sick and stuff. And then if you don’t get baptized they say you are no Christian and can’t do any of the communions or even a quincenera. They literally would make you get baptized so you can do everything else. So getting baptized is a must in my family.

 

Before you turn one year old, you need to get baptized. When you are born you need to get washed.

Context:  I arranged an interview with Bryan at a Starbucks. It was loud and their seemed to be a business meeting a few tables away. Bryan was talking loudly so I could hear. Background: Bryan was born in Guatemala but came to the Unites States when he was a baby. He was raised in a predominately Hispanic community. He is currently attending California State Long Beach where he is studying Philosophy  Analysis: Bryan’s version of a common religious practice is informal and vague; however, it still shows a common myth. Although, it is not completely sacred to Bryan, you can tell by the manner in which he spoke about the subject that it is taken with seriousness by his parents and the church. This part of the religious belief influenced the manner in which my mother took care of a child. It also influenced the churches decision in not allowing anyone to practice the catholic religion without being baptized first.

Hazing

Nationality: Guatemalian
Performance Date: 4-22-18
Primary Language: English

 Main Piece: So in the wrestling team we also did kinda have like another ritual. I mean it was kinda hazing but everyone had to do it or else they wouldn’t really be considered part of the team. It wasn’t like harassment or anything (he said this with a joking tone and giggling at the same time). Well after… each year after tryouts whoever made the team would have to get the old singlets from like people who had been in the team and wear them for an entire day. It’s like a tradition we have… well more like an initiation. For us it symbolized like following in the footsteps of more senior teammates. I am pretty sure though it is also for fun. Context:  I arranged with Bryan at a Starbucks. It was pretty loud and their seemed to be a business meeting a few tables away. Bryan was talking loudly so I could hear. Background: Bryan was born in Guatemala but came to the Unites States when he was a baby. He was raised in a predominately Hispanic community. He is currently attending California State Long Beach where he is studying Philosophy.  Analysis: In Bryan example of hazing, we can see a type of folk ritual called initiation. Before any person is accepted to the team, the need to be initiated by symbolic tradition. It is very similar to other types of initiations in which a person must pledge themselves by doing some kind of an embarrassing act. For example, this ritual is similar to sororities initiations that allow them to be part of their group.             

18 Help Me

Nationality: Salvadorian
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Performance Date: 4-17-18
Primary Language: English

Main context: Me: Are there any other games you learned from a friend or just other people in general? Kevin: Let me think… oh ok got it. When I was a kid I learned how to play a game called 18 help me. Me: Oh cool. What is the game about. Kevin: Essentially, it’s a different variation of tag. You would try to get 18 players but usually you could not so I always just played with whatever number of people we had. So first you had to choose someone to be it. We would all put one foot into a circle and choose one foot to start at and up to 18 around the feet and whoever had 18 land on their foot was it… After I remember we would have 18 seconds to run before whoever was it would chase us. To win the game you had to get everyone but each person you got would then help you. Essentially you would have to put your hand on the other person and say 18 help me. If you did not say everything while touching them then you wouldn’t have got them. When you do get them they go and help you get the rest of the people until everyone has been tagged. After that then everyone would huddle again and whoever was tagged first in the last game would now be it. Then again you had 18 seconds to run before getting chased again and the game would be played over and over again until we uh were exhausted… or until fell and got hurt. Me: Sounds fun. What does the game mean to you? Kevin: Now that I really think about it, it is actually pretty important. I remember playing 18 help me every time I would go over to my tia’s (aunt) house. I have a lot a good memories hanging out with all my cousins. It somewhat like brought us together but now that we are all in college… we really don’t see each other that often. Background: Kevin is a 20 year old attending California State University Los Angeles. Both his parents are from El Salvador but he was born and raised in Huntington Park, California. Context: Kevin and I were playing video games and when we took a break to eat I asked him if he could help me with my collection of folklore. He agreed and allowed me to record the conversation with the condition that I would not post the video interview.  My thought: I was surprised at how important this folk game is. Although it is a multi-million dollar game such as a sport, its importance is centralized around the people who play it. This folk game brought together a family and served as a platform for bonding. This game is a variation of the common game called tag.