Author Archives: Christina Li

Ghost Story

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Aurora, Ohio
Performance Date: 25 April 2012
Primary Language: English

My informant’s grandma used to live in a hotel because her father owned the hotel and would rent the rooms to workers in the steel mill. Supposedly, there was one renter who was fairly young and worked at the mill, whom everyone would pay attention to because he was very attractive. One day, this man came home early from work and both my informant’s grandma and her sister were ironing at the hotel. Back then, when they ironed, they would put the board across two chairs, so it was blocking the way for the young man to get to his room. So, the young man walked into the room and just stared at the two sisters, so they quickly moved all their things and apologized for blocking the hallway. However, he did not say anything, he just waited there while they put the ironing board away. Then, the young man walked through and went to his room and closed the door. Then, the sisters put everything back and started ironing again. An hour later, the bell at the mill rang. This signified that work was over. All the other workers came home and then a page boy came in and informed the two sisters that there was an accident at the mill and that the young man had died. Both the sisters were confused though because they had clearly seen the young man walk into the hotel and he never left.

Ghost stories are always so fascinating to me because there is no way to know whether or not they are true. Yet, they are so prominent in folk culture. People want to believe in ghost stories. I believe that society’s thirst for knowledge about the after life makes ghost stories that much more exciting.

Easter Egg Hunts

Nationality: European, Lebanese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Brea, California
Performance Date: 6 April 2012
Primary Language: English

Easter egg hunts have long been a family tradition for this informant. Every year, her parents will hide eggs for her and they will also paint eggs the night before. In the Easter eggs, they will hide candy or small toys. Of course, now that she is older it is more of a fun tradition they keep. However, when she was younger, her and her sister always had huge Easter egg hunts.

This year, a few days before Easter, this informant, me and many more of our friends went around campus at midnight at we hid a total of 1,000 filled Easter eggs in random places. After getting our bags of Easter eggs, we became the Easter bunnies and hid the eggs all around the school campus. We did not tell anyone we were doing so, but the next day, we found out that it was a great success and many people found the candy-filled eggs with delight!

When I was younger, my parents would hide eggs all around our backyard as well and then as we got older, we started going to the city-wide Easter egg hunts at Chase Palm Park in Santa Barbara. There kids from all over the town raced to get as many eggs as possible, some eggs would have candy, some eggs would have tickets to redeem for prizes. I always loved this and we would go with all our friends. The golden eggs in each arena would have extra big prizes too.

Easter has always been a time of traditions, as is any holiday. And easter egg hunts have been a tradition for many both in childhood and then in adulthood. I believe that many childhood traditions stay because when we all grow up and have kids, we then pass our childhood traditions to our kids, so in a way, we never stop hunting for eggs or trick or treating.

Pickup Lines

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 21 April 2012
Primary Language: English

Man: Did it hurt?

Woman: Did what hurt?

Man: When you fell out of heaven?

My informant was actually told this pickup when she was out on the Row last weekend. She says that a guy jokingly asked her this and then she rushed for the door afterwards.

This pick-up line has been made popular in several movies and shows and suggests that the one being “picked up” is an angel that is fallen from heaven. Since the popularity of pick-up lines has increased, they have quickly become less useful and instead have become a matter of humor between friends. In fact, many times when someone actually uses a pick-up line on another person they are thought of as sleazy or cheesy.

Pick-up lines have since become a way of breaking the ice in a joking manner or a form of lighthearted flattery between friends. Though, I am unaware of how the pick-up line first originated, they have proliferated into a subcategory just as large as Knock-Knock jokes or other forms of humor.

Did I invite you to my BBQ?-Joke

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 24 April 2012
Primary Language: English

Did I invite you to my BBQ? Then why you all up in my grill?

This informant loves to tell this joke just because of the utter ridiculousness of it. In fact, the sheer simplicity of the wordplay is why she tells it to people all the time. She heard about it first when she watched a movie called “The Clique” and one of the main characters used this to offend another girl.

I believe that jokes like this are humorous in society because everyone loves lighthearted wordplay. My informant did not know exactly where the joke came from before the movie. However, it plays on human interaction.

Bachelorette Party

Nationality: European, Lebanese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Brea, California
Performance Date: 13 April 2012
Primary Language: English

A little while ago, my informant’s sister got married. As with the custom, they had a bachelorette party for her and my friend was not happy about it because all the bridesmaids ended up asking about her sister’s sexual life and things they would do on the honeymoon. Even though they didn’t have a crazy bachelorette party that we do see in all the movies, it was still a tradition that they upheld.

I believe that the institution of marriage has countless numbers of rituals and traditions that occur before the wedding takes place and then after as well. These traditions happen as a way to ensure that the marriage will go well. We constantly see brides thinking of new ways to traditionalize marriage as well as customize their own so that it becomes a day they remember forever. The bachelorette party usually occurs before the wedding takes place and only women are allowed to attend. Most of the time women will go to a strip club or out partying and celebrate for the last time that the bride-to-be is going to be single.