Author Archives: Stephen Carr

Jellyfish Sting

Nationality: American
Age: 50
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Pacific Palisades, CA
Performance Date: April 29, 2015
Primary Language: English

Carol is a Floridian who left the state to study film production at Boston University. She has since started a family in LA and is as much an LA native as a Floridian at heart. She has no remnants of her floridian accent, and knows the entire secret menu at In N Out.

Performance: “If you got stung by a jellyfish (some said pee on it, but not my folks), rub it with wet sand. I actually tried this one once and it totally works! the barbs from the jellyfish get stuck in your skin and rubbing sand can help to sort of exfoliate them out! Peeing on it may help the pain, but I’ve never tried it and my folks insisted that it was not the way to go!”

Response: I had never heard of this cure for a jellyfish sting, and am curious if it is widespread in areas beyond just Florida. Folk remedies involving the ocean seem to be common in Florida, and it is no surprise. The abundance of wet sand available when stung by a jellyfish also lends a level of convenience to this remedy that would lead to its general acceptance and use.

For another version of a folk remedy to use on jellyfish stings, watch the famous scene between Zach Efron and Nicole Kidman in the 2012 film, The Paperboy:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1496422/

Curative Powers – Gulf of Mexico

Nationality: White
Age: 50
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Pacific Palisades, CA
Performance Date: April 29, 2015
Primary Language: English

Carol is a Floridian who left the state to study film production at Boston University. She has since started a family in LA and is as much an LA native as a Floridian at heart. She has no remnants of her floridian accent, and knows the entire secret menu at In N Out.

Performance: “So…growing up in this weird place I did, southwest Florida on the Gulf of Mexico, we had our own weird set of things. Nobody was really FROM there, just like there’s not that many people that you meet, who are older, who are FROM L.A., so there was a big mish mash of things. One thing that was distinctly floridian however was the belief in the curative powers of the Gulf. If you had a cold, swim in the Gulf. If you had a rash, swim in the Gulf. If you had a sunburn, swim in the Gulf. It was supposed to be able to cure a lot of things, and I felt like it really did. Maybe it was the saline or something, but I think it actually works.”

Analysis: Folklore tied to the water is abundant in the Florida keys.  I feel that the curative powers of bodies of water is a common belief spanning multiple cultures and countries. It is interesting that Carol believes in the curative powers of the Gulf, and reaches for a scientific justification. Perhaps the Gulf has curative powers thanks to the placebo effect, or perhaps something about the cleansing salt water actually does help skin conditions and stuffy noses.

The Floor Is Lava

Anthony is a student at USC and one of my closest friends. He grew up in New York and moved to Los Angeles this year to study at USC. He comes from an Italian background.

 

 

Performance: “back in my kindergarden years, we used to have some pretty intense stuff going on. And one of the most intense things was the state of the floor that we walked around on on a daily basis. The floor contained a checkered pattern.. a black and red checkered pattern, and the red really represented lava to us kindergardeners. And it was not chill to step.. you could NOT step on the lava, or you would be persecuted by your peers, left out of your friend group, and potentially die. You will not advance in your social group if you step in the lava. SO you must hop, leap, and skip over the lava squares. You have to hop from black square to black square. You can also climb on furniture or people who had already fallen into the lava. As long as you didn’t touch the red portions of the floor you were safe.”

 

 

Response: This is a game that i myself played as a child as well. When I played however, the entire floor was lava, and using furniture was the only way to navigate it safely. It is a sort of classic children’s game, and requires a fair amount of imagination to play. It also works bette for kids because full grown adults cannot hop across furniture like chairs and couches as easily due to their size. In terms of significance perhaps the lava represents danger in the home, as it was almost always played in a living room or another room with more furniture. In Anthony’s case, where the game was a sort of social determinant, giving children a chance to prove that they are brave to one another.

Left is Law

Anthony is a student at USC and one of my closest friends. He grew up in New York and moved to Los Angeles this year to study at USC. He comes from an Italian background.

 

 

“Left is law is a phrase you say when smoking. If you are sitting in a group of people smoking, hookah or whatever, you have to pass to the left always, counterclockwise, never to the right. Left is law. If you ever try to pass to the right everybody freaks out and reprimands you for it. It’s like a ritual type thing. If you ever pass to the right then it’s all fucked. The whole time is ruined, and it’s all shit. You always pass to the left.”

 

 

Response: This is a sort of ritual/magic folklore that revolves around smoking. I’ve never come across the folklore before, but my friend Anthony was adamant about it’s importance and relevance. He was shocked that I had not heard of it before. Perhaps it just exists in order to create a “go to” or “status quo” for a situation that is often variable. There also seems to be an expectation of having a good time tied to following the ritual, and a poor time associated with breaking it.

Southpaw

Nationality: Italian
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: New York
Performance Date: April 29, 2015
Primary Language: English

Anthony is a student at USC and one of my closest friends. He grew up in New York and moved to Los Angeles this year to study at USC. He comes from an Italian background.

 

 

Performance: “Southpaw is like a thing because when you introduce yourself to a girl you want to have your right hand open. You don’t want to have your right hand clammy or cold. Is that the reason?”

Sure, whatever reason you think is right. that’s why it’s folklore. keep talking. How does it happen and what does it mean.

“Well if you’re drinking a beer, and the beer is in your right hand, your hand is cold and wet from the can or bottle, and thats bad when you meet people. First you have to switch what hand the beer is in , and then your hand is cold. Southpaw is when you see somebody with their drink in your right hand, you say “Southpaw,” and they have to chug their entire drink. It’s to encourage you to always hold your drink in your right hand.”

 

Response: I’ve heard of southpaw before – it is very popular at USC and in party communities. A variation of this folklore that I’ve heard before is “Buffalo” where “buffalo” is exclaimed at a person holding a beer in their right hand and the same rules apply. I am unclear where the word buffalo would come from. Southpaw makes some sense, as that is the colloquial term for left handed pitchers in baseball. Anthony learned the phrase not in his home of New York but at USC.