Author Archives: Katherine Cowdrey

Carving Initials into Tree Trunks

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Phoenix, Arizona
Performance Date: March 14, 2017
Primary Language: English

My informant is a childhood friend, and during a visit home she brought up a grade-school memory of carving initials into tree trunks. I remember doing this with her when we were very young and so I asked her to elaborate on the memory from her point of view.

Me: ” What was it that you carved into the tree trunks and when did you do this?”

KC: “Well, when I was in grade school so like third, fourth or fifth grade I suppose, at recess sometimes the girls, in a group, would get together no more than like three girls I guess, and get either a sharp stick or pen or pencil and pick a tree on the playground. On the tree they would carve their initials and under that, carve a plus sign and under that, they would carve the initials of their crush, so a boy they liked. Sometimes if the girl was really crafty they would carve a heart around those initials. It would supposed to be like, you had a crush on them and you were proving that you liked them or something, or maybe it would make them like you back or maybe like in the future you would date or something. It was all very innocent like super girlie and cute.”

Me: “Who did you learn this from and when?”

KC: “You know, I have absolutely no idea. I just remember doing it, because all the other girls did it and you did it as a group. I don’t remember being taught by like older girls or anything, just doing it and then maybe teaching it to other girls my age and getting a group together. It was kinda like a game I guess, something to do at recess. But, I do remember you could get in trouble for it, like not in trouble for the liking boys thing, but for vandalizing the tree or something like that.”

Analysis:

This is a sort of childhood game or maybe even a version of contagious magic as the little girls wanted their crushes to be reciprocated in the future. This is perhaps an example of gender roles being explored at a young age, as this is young girls in a group exploring naively the future of dating.  Girls are defining themselves as feminine as they perform this ritual of carving initials as they known they are expected to “like” boys in a romantic way some time in the future. They are naive and unaware of what that truly means, but at this age is when they are introduced to the idea of romantic relationships. Thus, this is playing at “liking” boys in the way they encounter in real life. Boys are no longer “icky” at this age and they mix a lot more and as they encounter the world around them and view dating and romantic relationships this is their way of understand it. It may also be a childlike version of contagious magic as usually the girl wants the person whose initials she has just carved to reciprocate the crush.

A Christmas Tradition – A Birthday Cake for Jesus

Nationality: American
Age: 70
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Phoenix, Arizona
Performance Date: April 15, 2017
Primary Language: English

My informant is my grandmother, and every year at Christmas she hosts the Christmas Eve celebration. As long as I can remember the Christmas Eve has been the exact same and this had to do with my grandmother’s traditions and her passing them down to her children.

Me: “Explain your special Christmas Eve traditions, and what makes them so important and distinct and who you learned them from.”

DC: “Do you mean the food?”

Me: “Yes, what we eat, and why and from whom did you learn this?”

DC: “Well, since I was a very little girl, my mother would make a special cake for Christmas Eve, this cake would be a vanilla cake with white frosting and decorated with cherries sliced in half on top, and this cake was a birthday cake for baby Jesus. It would be brought out after dinner, and for dinner on Christmas Eve we would always have tamales you know . . .”

Me: “Explain the tamales?”

DC: “I don’t know, my mom always went to a little Mexican woman and bought tamales from her for Christmas Eve oh they were the best, homemade tamales are just the best, and they were different every time. I mean we are in Arizona, why not have tamales at Christmastime. I don’t know why she did it, but me and my brothers would just eat them up and we would have the cake after. But first we would sing happy birthday to baby Jesus just like for anyone’s birthday, then we would blow out the candles together, oh there was candles on top too, just like a birthday cake . . . then we would eat it all together.

Me: “And you learned it from your mom?”

DC: “Yes, grandma Duffy, my mom always did this and I don’t know where she got it, probably from her mother, and I continued it on with my kids and now with my grandchildren and I hope you guys will all continue to have the baby Jesus cake and the tamales because it is just so fun and special. The recipe was her’s as well, she made it up. She was quite a cook, always made the best treats and whatnot, so I have made her recipe all me life. It’s on a little recipe card that she wrote herself.”

Analysis:

This is an example of a holiday tradition that has been passed down  generations and food traditions are very commonly passed down like this. Special food traditions at holidays for certain families are a way of performing that family identity and creating a family closeness and unity by the specific traditions. This being a Catholic family, singing happy birthday to Jesus makes sense and is a fun and silly way of reminding the kids and the adults of what Christmas is all about other than Santa Claus and presents. It is a way of teaching children the significance of Christmas as the day of the birth of Jesus Christ in a way they would understand because they too have birthday parties and cake. The tamales at Christmas Eve would be a result of living in Arizona and having the strong Mexican influence. This is family is not Mexican themselves, but living in Phoenix, one cannot help but be introduced to foods like tamales and so them being incorporated into a special tradition is an example of the cultural plurality of the United States and especially the Southwest.

Chlorine Eye Irritation Folk Remedy

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: April 16, 2017
Primary Language: English

Sports has a lot of unconventional medicines for quick remedies for small aliments during games or tournaments. My informant is a long time water polo player, and so I asked her if there was any remedies she learned from other players.

CB: “So when you play water polo you don’t wear goggles in the pool and the chlorine is very bad for your eyes, and there are a lot of water polo tournaments where you play more than one game in a day, and so your eyes will hurt a lot. A lot of people use eye drops but they don’t necessarily work that well so when I was a 14 and under a lot of my friends noticed some older girls putting milk in their goggles and putting them on their face and rinsing their eyes in the milk. We asked them why they were doing that they said it rinsed the chlorine and soothed their eyes and the recommended the fullest fat milk possible. I’m not necessarily sure if it works, but it does soothe your eyes in the moment and we kept doing it, everyone does it all the time, and it wasn’t only my team, but others teams from out of state using milk.”

 

Analysis:

Usually folk remedies turn into scientific remedies and vice versa. Or often they are placebo effects, and people believe that what they are doing will cure them. Neither are truly the case here.  Sports folk medicines are usually for quick remedies during a game or long tournament as there isn’t a lot of time for treatment for minor ailments. So either the ailment, like sore chlorine eyes, will go ignored or have such a quick remedy such as this. It’s a folk remedy that works for this team and many, but is not a part of conventional western medicine. However, someday it may evolve into western medicine, or evolve into conventional eye drops. Milk isn’t sold to alleviate eye irritation, it re-appropriated for medical use by teams and then spread around team to team or player to player through these tournaments or from older player to younger player. It is a remedy quite particular to this sport, so knowing it or performing it may also have to do with one’s belief in their identity as a water polo player. Believing in this remedy and performing it has a lot to say about wisdom passed down from generations of those who have played the sport before them.

 

Baseball Superstitious Habits

Nationality: American
Age: 17
Occupation: Student
Residence: Phoenix, Arizona
Performance Date: April 15, 2017
Primary Language: English

Baseball is an uncertain game, and can change in an instant, so I asked my informant, a long time player, if he had any particular routines that he has never broken, and what this does.

RC: “I don’t know, each time I hit, I go out and readjust each batting glove once, then I hit the plate twice; I do this in-between each pitch. It’s a repeated habit and you don’t want to get out of that habit. If, not, it would get you out of your rythum and get out of your head.”

Me: Do you or anyone ever change these habits?

RC: “Often people change if they want to get out of a funk. So if you are in a slump, and you go pants up all the time or pants down all the time, and if you go into a slump sometimes you change to see if can get you out of a slump, same goes for batting gloves or no batting gloves or pulling out the pocket of your pants. Stuff like that, small changes that can change your entire mind and pull you out of a funk.”

Analysis:

Sports, especially baseball are full of small superstitions such as these. This is most likely because the game is so uncertain, and often out of a single player’s hand, that they will do anything that will boost their luck. Luck is often the center of such superstitions, they will do anything to get luck and avoid poor luck. The game can change in an instant and to players the difference is in the details such as pants or gloves. Because the game is so based on repetitions and routine, any small change is highly noticeable to the player, which is why change to “get out of a funk” is so impactful on their mindset. Knowing that there is a change, and something may come of it, affects a player’s whole mindset. Additionally these routines are assurance that I can play good  in this game despite anything else because before when I have done this, I have done well. There is also comfort in routine and in such a high stress games, these little routines and habits are a comfort to the player.

 

The Room cult movie experience

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Cinema Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: February 4th, 2017
Primary Language: English

The Room is an authored film that is colloquially known as the worst movie ever made, so people now go to it and taken out of it’s context by the people. The audience has made up responses for actions that happen on scene. It hasn’t come from the filmmakers, but an experience created by people. At certain moments the audience yells things, repeats lines, or moves to a certain part of the theatre. It’s at the same theatre in Westwood every first Saturday of the month. I interviewed a friend who has been to several screenings and who brought me to one in February.

Me. “Please explain the experience of attending a screening of The Room.”

LD: “People go to a screening of The Room, which has turned into a cult film and you say certain things at certain times. You throw plastic spoons at the screen when the picture of the spoon appears on screen. You go to the screening at midnight and it’s in . . . what’s it called Brentwood? No Westwood, and you bring a ton of plastic spoons and um the movie starts and, there are certain things you yell at certain parts of the movie, it’s all super improvised by the people who go, every time you go it’s a different experience, the best part is when you throw spoons at the screen when the picture of the spoon comes on. Every time you see water, you yell water. Every time they leave the door open, you yell shut the door. It’s the worst movie ever made, so you are making fun of it the whole time. “

Me “How did you hear about it?

LD: “I had friends who had started going to it, then they invited me, then I went. I like it because it’s funny and it’s like a community experience and it’s just like um you and all your friends and it’s interactive and entertaining and different and super weird. It’s just like a fun niche film thing to do.

Analysis:

Laura took me to this event one Saturday and it was quite an experience. I came prepared with plastic spoons and zero expectations. I was pleasantly surprised. Our crowd of “hecklers” was apparently very creative, coming up with creative catcalls that aren’t a part of the usual experience. Throwing spoons at the screen felt like spoons were raining down upon you. You got the feeling that people were repeat goers and knew the ropes. I eventually got the hang of it, and was able to participate, but you pretty much had to know what was going on to participate. It is an indoctrinating thing, you automatically know who has done this before and who hasn’t. It isn’t the same experience every time, depending on the showing and the people, different catcalling goes on. So there is multiplicity and variation going on and it is something that originated from the fans. It is similar to the experience of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Annotation: If you desire to participate, there are screenings of The Room all over the country. In Los Angeles here is the link:

https://www.landmarktheatres.com/los-angeles/regent-theatre/film-info/the-room