Author Archives: Alexandra Allman

A Proverb for Lost Things

Nationality: Columbian, American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 10, 2015
Primary Language: English

Informant S is 21 years old from Boise Idaho. He is a Philosophy major who also plans on attending Medical School. He is half Columbian and half American.

S: Oh God my dad would always say, ‘A place for everything and everything in its place’. Any time I ever asked where something was or um I just found something after searching, he’d get all smug and say that.

Me: Have you ever said that yourself?

S: I’ve said it to my sister a couple times to be sort of a little shit, and interestingly when my dad loses his stuff, I almost always say it. I guess you could say he was sort of trying to teach me a lesson and it annoyed me so much I started using it to him. It started to annoy him as well so I sort of got my point across.

Me: Do you think it worked?

S: No I think that fact that it was so intrusive made it so I kind of went out my way not to do it sometimes and it didn’t really stick in my memory. What’s funny is that I think it’s a pretty good lesson, maybe he could have just taught it a little better.  It was annoying but I got it, you know?

 

Analysis:

Here the informant S shares how his father tried to teach him a lesson through a proverb. S found it annoying as if the wisdom of using a well known proverb allowed his dad to be smug about telling him he shouldn’t lose things. Although proverbs are often used to teach a lesson, the informant did not enjoy being taught through a proverb and actively avoided its teachings on occasion.  The proverb did come to his mind quickly though so in that way the proverb succeeded in getting into his memory, even if its message didn’t stick.

Children’s Warring Kingdoms

Nationality: Columbian, American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 10, 2015
Primary Language: English

Informant S is 21 years old from Boise Idaho. He is a Philosophy major who also plans on attending Medical School. He is half Columbian and half American.

So when I was like in 2nd grade, we would have a group of students, we had like 2 playgrounds, and they would congregate on opposite sides of the playground which would be separated by a big field. So we had a king of each playground, which was usually the most popular kid, and they would be like warring kingdoms. So one of the most important roles of these kingdoms was the messenger. Since I liked running a lot when I was little, I’d always volunteer to be messenger for the kingdom. So I’d run from 1 kingdom all the way to the other and I would transmit a message. They were usually about the king having a crush on a girl in another kingdom or a guy having a crush on a girl in another kingdom and stuff like that. And they were never really wars, but the kings and the knights would meet in the middle of the field, and they would like trade princesses depending on if the princess liked the king in the other kingdom or one of the knights or something like that. So my running back in forth usually resulted in a meeting in the middle, which would result in them trading a princess. So I was sort of like the matchmaker in elementary school.

 

Analysis:

Informant S remembers fondly in elementary school when he played the “matchmaker” and brought the 2 different groups on the playground together. Like a lot of children’s folklore, we can see them imitating things that they may have seen in movies or read in books such as kings, wars, trading princesses etc. We also see that a lot of the messages revolve around people having crushes on each other, which can also been seen as imitating grown up relationships.  We can also see the hierarchy on the playground as the most popular kids usually got to be king.

Half Birthday Celebrations

Nationality: Columbian, American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 10, 2015
Primary Language: English

Informant S is 21 years old from Boise Idaho. He is a Philosophy major who also plans on attending Medical School. He is half Columbian and half American.

Basically every March 1st, my dad would send me a card or message of some sort, um celebrating my half birthday, which for some reason he gave a lot more priority to than my main birthday. We would usually go out and get half a cake or a doughnut, something that is representationally less than a cake, sort of driving home that half part. Then depending on what age I was going to be he would give me like half as much money. So if I was going to be like 14 years old, he would give me 7 dollars for my half birthday. And he would just do a lot of stuff that involved halves like half a card. Or if I wanted to eat something like a chocolate bar, he would give me like half of it. It would always be really fun to see what half things he would give me.

 

Analysis:

This half birthday celebration is a parody of a normal holiday of a birthday. It is a way for the informant and his dad to bond and poke fun at the usual way that birthdays are celebrated. This creative way to celebrate birthdays made the informant feel special and excited for the fun things his dad would come up with.  This special tradition forms a unique bond together between both of them.

Said the Blind Man to the Deaf Monkey

Nationality: African American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: March 25, 2015
Primary Language: English

Informant H is 19 years old and was born in Inglewood CA, and moved to a place near Valencia just outside of LA soon after she was born. After 5 years, her little sister was born, then her little brother, and then her youngest sister. The family then moved to Bakersfield. H homeschooled for many years and then transitioned into a public high school.

So my Dad always says this thing, ‘Said the blind man to the deaf monkey’. And I don’t know where it comes from, he might have even made it up, but you can really use it in any case. He says that all the time and we have this running joke because I’m always like ‘that doesn’t make any sense, the man he blind…the monkey is deaf…’ You use it when you tell someone you like see, like you understand them. So you’re talking to someone and they’re like, ‘Oh I see’ and then you’d say ‘Said the blind man to the deaf monkey’. He uses it mostly to be facetious I think. I guess it’s supposed to be like when you understand but you don’t really. And he always says it with this wink and a smile. At this point he just says it to be funny, just him being himself.

 

Analysis:

This proverb is a family specific one that helps to bring the family together in a funny and lighthearted way. The informant H always laughs when she hears her Dad say it and thinks of him fondly when she tells of this proverb.   Although this proverb doesn’t teach much of a lesson, it helps to bring H and her Dad closer together through this unique and silly proverb.

Hiding A Snake

Nationality: African American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: March 25, 2015
Primary Language: English

Informant H is 19 years old and was born in Inglewood CA, and moved to a place near Valencia just outside of LA soon after she was born. After 5 years, her little sister was born, then her little brother, and then her youngest sister. The family then moved to Bakersfield. H homeschooled for many years and then transitioned into a public high school.

So this is my dad’s side of the family, and he’s the youngest and he had 2 older brothers and then their oldest was a sister. And his mom is basically a single mom raising them up in this like really sketch neighborhood. There was this one time where my dad’s brother who was closest to him, his name was D, and he wanted a snake really badly, and my grandmother was like ‘No you’re not going to have a snake’ but he found one and he kept it and he hid it in his bedroom for like a super long time and everyone except my grandmother was in on the snake. So they would have like little codes like ‘You have to watch the snake because Mom is coming in the room’. And then this one time the snake got out and they were all freaking out and my grandmother didn’t understand why they were so stressed and they had to tell her eventually that the snake was loose. They eventually found it and she let him keep it if he had like a specific aquarium. She was like ‘You didn’t need to go through all this stress for this snake’. It’s funny because now he still gets like snakes and tarantulas and other sort of weird creatures. All the siblings banned together over this snake.

And we tell this story when we all talk about this uncle or like whatever new creature he has or whenever we went into their bedroom because all the boys shared a room. And we’d be like, ‘Oh remember when that snake got out?’ About every year during the summer my aunt who lives with my grandmother, the oldest sister, she makes this huge vat of gumbo and invites the whole family to come and chill in the backyard and eat gumbo. So then is where we revisit all the old stories. I always wanted to have the same sort of relationship with my siblings, because I have the same number of siblings as my dad did, and it makes me think about what funny stories we have like when we banded together against our parents or against other people and what special relationship we have together.

 

Analysis:

The informant tells with excitement and nostalgia about a legend in her family. This legend serves to bring the whole family together, especially she says over the summer, and they laugh about how the siblings kept a snake hidden from their mom. H’s family definitely emphasizes cohesion and support of each other. H also mentions how she would want to foster the same type of close and special relationship with her own siblings following in her dad’s example. Like her dad that grew up in a family that emphasizes support and closeness, H also believes that the family is important and wants to continue those kinds of close relationships.