Author Archives: Catalina Qualantone

Plastic Covered Furniture

Text:

“Whenever new furniture was bought, they would immediately be covered in plastic”

Context:

In my dad’s Italian family, when new furniture was purchased and moved into the house, it was immediately encased in plastic. My mother had similar experiences at her Jewish friends’ homes.

Analysis:

The ritual of covering new furniture in plastic is a common, repeated & patterned practice found among Mediterranean immigrants. Many Mediterranean immigrants were fleeing poverty & crime, coming to America with next to nothing. Because of that, new things were a rare commodity. My dad only had hand-me-down clothes, shoes, anything until he was in high school and got his first NEW pair of sneakers. So, whenever something new was bought with hard-earned money, immigrant families wanted to keep it as new and clean as possible. It was a symbol of pride, success, and hard-work paying off, and immigrants wanted to preserve it.

Angel Kisses

Text:

“Angel Kiss”

Context:

As a child, my mother would call my sister’s freckles “angel kisses.” As I got older, I was curious about “angel kisses,” so I researched them online. Apparently, “angel kisses” often refer to both freckles and birthmarks – especially on children.

Analysis:

I believe parents call their children’s freckles and birthmarks “angel kisses” to instill them with confidence and self-love. It is a form of esoteric communication between a mother and her child. Society can sometimes look down upon features such as birthmarks and freckles, so the labeling of them as “angel kisses” evokes a sense of sacredness and beauty in spite of the world’s cruelness. It teaches children to wholly love themselves and see their beauty in uniqueness.

Golden Birthdays

Text:

S: “A golden birthday is the year you turn the same age as your birthday”

Context:

My sister turned 17 this year, and she told me that it was her golden birthday. She then explained that a golden birthday is the birthday when you turn the age of the day you were born on. For example, my sister was born on the 17th and she turned 17 years old.

Analysis:

A “golden birthday” is a form of folk speech used especially by kids. I remember hearing others at school excitedly talking about their golden birthday. It was believed that your “golden year,” the year you’re the age of your birthday, was suppose to be one of good luck. As I’ve gotten older, I haven’t heard it used or discussed much, leading me to believe that it is primarily an “esoteric” – insider’s – form of communication amongst children. I remember always being a little sad that my golden birthday is when I turn 30 – it felt very far away for a child, and I wanted to be a part of the community, an insider.

Goosey Night (AKA Mischief Night)

Text:

M: “So on Goosey Night, we’d all sneak out and we’d bring ivory soap. It was always ivory soap. And you’d go around and you’d be putting soap all over people’s car windows so they can’t drive. And we’d throw eggs at people’s houses and stuff. People called it mischief, we called it goosey night”

Context:

M grew up in New Jersey. Every Halloween Eve, the kids in his town partook in “Goosey Night.” A night full of pranks, mischief, and mayhem.

Analysis:

The phrase “Goosey Night” is a form of esoteric form of folk speech. Most people call Halloween Eve Mischief Night, but my father and the kids he knew called it Goosey Night. By have a different, unique name for the night, the kids were able to communicate with each other in ways outsiders wouldn’t understand. The pranks and mischief of Goosey Night are rituals – repeated, patterned actions. It was a tradition for kids to break the rules once a year, on Goosey Night. In a way, the kids existed in a space of liminality because they weren’t ignorant babies or knowledgeable adults. If an adult partook in Goosey Night, they would most likely be arrested, but kids could because they existed in the in-between space.

“Dale Boys”

Text:

D: “[at school] We were the Dale boys.”

C: “Because you were bussed in?”

D: “We were bussed in so we didn’t have our own high school so we were bussed in so we were from Riverdale so they call us the Dale boys, the people from the other side of the tracks. People from the other side the tracks were considered poor. And so we were from the other side of track because we weren’t canola, smoke rise, the rich kids.”

Context:

My dad grew up in a poorer town in New Jersey called Riverdale. The town/district didn’t have their own high school, so the kids in Riverdale were bussed into the nearest town’s high school. That town was much wealthier than Riverdale, and classism and elitism were always present between the two groups. My dad and the other Italian kids from Riverdale were called the “Dale Boys” to mock and patronize them for being different and less wealthier.

Analysis:

The name “Dale Boys” is simultaneously both an esoteric and exoteric. It was esoteric in the way that it connected all the kids from the wealthier town and made them “better” than the kids from Riverdale. It communicated a sense of superiority within the group. “Dale Boys” is also exoteric in the sense that it was a way for the bullies to communicate their distaste to the “outsiders” – the kids bussed in.