Author Archives: Kelsey Kelliher

Séances

Nationality: American
Age: 60
Occupation: President of a dental practice
Residence: Chicago, Illinois
Performance Date: April 26, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

My informant, LK, has attended several séances. He used to attend them with his Mexican American grandmother.  My informant explained that going to séances, reading Tarot cards, and seeing mediums was not atypical in his family.  I took interest in the séances LK attended.  He told me about one in particular.

LK attended a séance at a woman’s home.  All the attendees were required to bring a bottle of rum and a cigar.  The woman that hosted was an older Puerto Rican or Mexican woman.  At the séance, the woman would call upon a spirit and the spirit would then enter her.  “He was a little black guy and he liked to smoke the cigar and drink the rum.  She would go into a trance and it’d be like you were talking to him.  So you’d be asking him questions and he would know the answers because he is of the other world.”  I asked how the man would know the answers.  “You would just believe them if you believed in the spiritual world.”  And would they always be right? “No, they would sometimes be wrong.”  Are there bad spirits? “Yes.  You have to be careful because you don’t want to ever get a bad spirit.  You have to do it with someone who knows how to do it.  Because they have their spirits that they constantly use.  It’s not like playing the Ouija board.  They have spirits they are in contact with.”

I asked LK how he got into this.  He told me that it was a part of his mother, grandmother, and great grandmother’s culture.   His great grandmother would teach him things.  She knew how to work certain spells and certain magic.  At least that is what he grandmother told him about his great grandmother…

LK would attend séances and the like because of curiosity.  He wanted to talk to people that had died and see what the future holds.

For another rendition of a séance you can refer to Woody Allen’s movie Magic in the Moonlight.

613 Seeds in a Pomegranate

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: St. Louis, MO
Performance Date: April 20, 2015
Primary Language: English

When collecting folklore from my friends, I asked, “Jodie, what d’ya got?”

My informant Jodie told me that she believes that there are 613 seeds in a pomegranate.  When I asked her where this came from, Jodie told me that it’s a Jewish belief.  Still not understanding the connection between Jews and the number 613, Jodie explained that there are 613 commandments in the Jewish Bible.  I was under the impression that there were only 10 Commandments given to Moses, but contrary to my belief there are 613 commandments within the Jewish tradition.

Jodie learned this in Jewish day school in her youth.  I asked if this belief had any significance.  Do you eat pomegranate on any special occasions? Any special dishes with pomegranate?  She explained that its sometimes served on high holidays.  However, she does not celebrate the high holiday where the pomegranate is most popular, Tu B’Shvat.  This holiday is known as the New Year for the Trees and eating fresh fruit is a custom on this holiday.

I asked Jodie if she had ever counted all of the seeds of the pomegranate.  She said that she did in elementary school, but how can you trust elementary school students to count that high?

The fact that Jodie and her classmates counted the number of seeds in the pomegranate demonstrates that this belief is present within the Jewish community.

Superstition of Putting Purse on Floor

Nationality: American
Age: 60
Occupation: President of a dental practice
Residence: Chicago, IL
Performance Date: April 25, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

LK believes that women should not put their purse on the floor because that means money will leave you.

This belief reveals that Americans, or perhaps more specifically Mexican Americans like LK, believe that money can easily leave you.  This superstition also reveals that people believe money is not something that should easily leave you. Save up!

Bill Edwards at Davidson College

Nationality: American
Age: 60
Occupation: Financial Analyst
Residence: Mercer Island, Washington
Performance Date: April 25, 2015
Primary Language: English

JS told my friends, including his son, and I this story about his time at Davidson College after discussing USC’s traditions.

He explained that at Davidson College in the 1970’s, his class secretary fabricated a student.  Bill Edwards was his name.  JS’s classmates and classes in the years to follow would open up the yearbook every year to look for a photo of Bill Edwards.  Though no such photo exists, every class graduating after JS’s class wavers between believing and not believing in the existence of Bill Edwards.  JS explained, “the whole college rallied around this.”

Every couple months a new detail was added to Bill Edwards’ story.  After graduating he supposedly worked for the United States’ State Department.  Then he worked his way up to the CIA.  Later students learned that he had married a Vietnamese bride from his time undercover.  Years later they learned that he had seven kids.  Everyone was glued to it.

Eventually, Davidson College made a new library.  Alumni of JS’s year decided to donate around $20,000 to have a book return desk named after Bill Edwards, thus perpetuating the legend of Bill Edwards.

Perhaps students at Davidson are so ready to believe in this Bill Edwards character because he seemed to live a cool life.  He started working at the State Department but worked his way up to be a secret agent for the CIA–a move that demonstrates his work ethic and dedication to the United States.  At the CIA he worked undercover, which demonstrates that he is intelligent, physically fit, cunning, and ready to risk his life for his country.  His marriage to a Vietnamese woman demonstrates his worldliness and paints a James Bond-esque image.  Perhaps his seven children further reveal his sexual appetite while also demonstrating his conformity to the idea of finding a nice woman, settling down, and having lots of babies.  Perhaps students at Davidson are proud of Bill Edwards and his successes; therefore, why not believe it?

 

You can read more about Bill Edwards via the Davidson College Archives.  You can also see his tombstone in at Davidson College as well as his book drop at the E.H. Little Library on Davidson’s campus.

http://sites.davidson.edu/archives/encyclopedia/legend-of-bill-edwards

Dancing Cookies

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/19/15
Primary Language: English

The story below was told on a bus ride from Las Vegas to Los Angeles among a group of USC students.  The group was exchanging riddles and jokes to pass the time and my informant, AC, decided to tell a story.

This guy was driving alongside a lake on his way to a party.  This really great song came on the radio and he was jamming.  Then he heard a weird noise coming from the trunk of his car.  He was confused but kept on driving and the noise disappear after a bit.  Then 10 minutes later another great song came on the radio.  The guy was jamming, having a good time and he heard the noises again!  This time he decided to pull over and check his trunk out.  

When he opened up the back, he saw a bag of dancing cookies.  “You guys!  Shut up and stop dancing!” He slammed the trunk.  And went back to the front seat, annoyed.

Behind the wheel, he started getting his groove back.  No dancing cookies.  All good songs just blasting out of the speakers.  A beautiful lake right next to him.  A fun party to look forward to.  But then he heard that noise again.  Annoyed, he pulled over, went to the trunk and yelled at the cookies, “If you dance one more time, I’ll grab you out of this trunk and throw you into the lake!”  

Thinking he had scared the cookies into silence, he hit the road.  He was just 20 minutes away from the party–coasting!  

But then he heard those freaking cookies dancing again!!! He immediately pulled over, stormed to the drunk, grabbed the cookies and chucked them into the lake! 

My informant finished the story with a grin on his face, waiting for our reaction.  But our reaction was not laughter or joy.  We were disappointed.  If it was a joke, there was no punchline.  If it was a story, what was the point?

My informant, noticing our disappointment, then said:

Oh and by the way, he made it to the party 20 minutes later and he had a nice time.  

The listeners and I were even more annoyed and confused after this addition.  We felt as if she had wasted our time with this dumb story.  So we all just moved on.  Somebody else told a joke.  Another person shared a riddle.  Another story. Another riddle.  A second joke.

About 20 minutes later, my informant said she had another story to tell us.  We agreed, though a little apprehensively because her first story flopped.

A guy and his girlfriend decided to go out to a nice dinner for their anniversary.  The guy made reservations at a special restaurant–the place where they went to on their first date.  It was this little cafe that served the most delicious fish.  It was right on a lake so the fish was fresh and they could watch the sun go down over the water.  Pretty romantic.  

The guy decided that this was the night.  This was the night he was going to propose to his girlfriend.  The ring was like a heavy weight in his pocket.  He was getting nervous.  Really nervous.  So he decided to step out of the restaurant for a sec to practice.  He walked down to the water.  

“Will YOU marry me?”

“Will you MARRY me?”

“Please marry me?”

“Marry me.”  

He still didn’t feel ready.  He decided to get the engagement ring out and practice with it.  Maybe then it’d seem more realistic.  So he practice with the ring, and in a literal grand gesture, the ring flew out of his hands and plopped into the water!  

Horribly frustrated and sad, the man went back into the restaurant.  He tried to salvage the rest of the night and pretend like nothing went wrong.  

Later when his girlfriend was cutting into her fish she exclaimed, “Oh my God!  Look what’s in my fish!”

And inside the fish was the dancing cookies.  

Our minds were blown.  I had assumed that the woman was going to find the engagement ring inside of her fish.  But no!  The dancing cookies making a comeback!  It was great.  My informant said that this joke was a risky one.  You just hope your audience is entertained enough to make the connection between the two.  Luckily, we all did.