Author Archives: Sarah Krupczak

Ernst & Young LLP Retirement Celebration

Nationality: Polish American
Age: 54
Occupation: Retired CPA Partner
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: 3/13/12
Primary Language: English

The informant worked as a CPA-Partner for Ernst & Young LLP and just recently retired in January. He had been working there for thirty-one years, since he graduated college in 1980.

The informant just recently retired at the beginning of January so I thought he would have some good Ernst & Young retirement folklore. He described to me the retirement party thrown by only the other Partners for a retiring Partner. These retirement parties always take place at the California Club in down town Los Angeles and only the Partners of the firm are allowed to attend. All the Partners gather at this party and honor the retiring Partner. Each Partner, if he or she wishes, says something about the retiree, something they really valued in him or appreciated from years of dedicated work. Almost everyone expresses how much they will miss the retiree, and how much he made an impact on the office. It is traditional to provide the retiree with a gift of some kind. The informant received a silver Tiffany serving platter. In return, the retiree usually provides those honoring him with a little token of some kind. My informant assembled a booklet of some of his photographs with inspirational messages on how to live a successful life. At the end of the evening, the retiree is toasted and gives a speech to the other Partners, thanking them for their hard work and support over the years. After this, the Partners slowly trickle out, congratulating the retiree as they depart. After the informant described the party, I followed up with some questions about this experience.

Me: After working at a company so long, what does this little retirement ritual mean to you?

Informant: It was uh, important to be recognized for my contributions to my fellow Partners.

Me: Does Ernst & Young LLP do this type of thing for everyone?

Informant: For all the retiring Partners there are variations of a type of recognition event. The gifts vary and there are some differences in the toasts depending on the particular person.

Me: Why do you remember this ceremony of sorts? Why do you like it?

Informant: Because all my friends were there, and they all had such nice, appreciative things to say. Ha ha, it’s nice to hear.

Me: Why does the company do this for each retiring Partner?

Terry: Because they want to maintain a good relationship with the retiring Partners because it could mean future business for the firm. And it’s a good chance to get all the Partners together from the office. When you celebrate success, it breeds success.

These retirement dinners seem to be an important way of celebrating many years of hard work. Essentially, I understood this little ritual to be about acknowledging all the effort an individual has put into their work and recognizing the fact that it has paid off. The dinners are a way of celebrating hard work, but also, when it’s someone like my informant who had worked there for thirty years, celebrating a type of life. It’s a gathering of people who aren’t just co-workers but friends. It’s a way to pleasantly shut the door on one time in a person’s life and open another new and exciting one.

 

Wine Cellar Initiation: Coming of Age Ritual

Nationality: Italian American
Age: 53
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: 3/14/12
Primary Language: English

The informant is Italian, on her mother’s side, and still retains close ties to her Italian roots. She was born in Pennsylvania, where she spent most of her childhood.

I interviewed the informant on pieces of folklore that she might have experienced in her life. I asked her if she could think of anything in her life that could be considered folklore, any family legends, jokes, or rites of passage. She said she thought she might have something that could be considered a rite of passage ritual, but she wasn’t sure. I told her to tell me anyways. The ritual she described is recorded below:

“I was born in Vestaburg, Pennsylvania, where most of my extended family lived too. My grandfather had a wine cellar—he made wine. All of his grandkids—and his kids—weren’t allowed in the wine cellar. But around 16 or so, he would invite them down to the wine cellar for a glass of wine and this was kinda like when they were considered to be an adult.”

I then asked her some questions about this coming of age ritual.

Me: Did everyone in the family go through this, then?

Informant: All the kids did, my grandfather’s kids—my parents—and then us grandkids too.

Me: So this was kind of a big deal right?

Informant: Well, yeah, but mostly just because we were finally allowed into the wine cellar. I don’t think my cousins or me and my brother really cared about the wine at all.

Me: Was there any other aspect of importance placed on this ritual? Maybe something you get from looking back on it?

Informant: It made us kids feel special. Certainly, after being admitted into the wine cellar, we felt more grown-up and we thought that we finally had our grandfather’s approval.

Me: Approval of what?

Informant: Well, of basically life. We saw being allowed in the wine cellar as his recognition that we were finally becoming something—somebody—worthwhile.

Me: Yeah, so this ritual was mostly about gaining approval and recognition of worth?

Informant: Exactly.

Me: Do you still remember it because it was such a big part of your growing up?

Teresa: I think so. It was such a big deal in the family that I think it would be very hard to forget.

After learning about this ritual, I see it in the same way my informant does. It is very much a coming of age ritual, when a child is deemed worthy of becoming an adult. It is also interesting because it is closely tied to the fact that her family is Italian. What’s more appropriate for an Italian than being allowed to enter the family wine cellar on the brink of adulthood? Perhaps this is another reason why this ritual was performed: it allowed an Italian American family to stay close to their Italian roots.

Fraternity Handshake

Nationality: American
Age: 24
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Residence: Pasadena, CA
Performance Date: 2/12/12
Primary Language: English

In college, the informant was a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He joined in his sophomore year (2007-2008).

I first learned about this secret fraternity handshake on my brother’s birthday (Feb. 12). We were at our house in Pasadena for a quiet dinner celebration and I happened to mention that I was collecting folklore for a class project. I asked him if he had any special rituals or ceremonies from his fraternity and he said that they had a secret handshake. He didn’t seem too worried about letting me in on the secret so I asked him more about it. He described the handshake to me, but I really couldn’t picture it. Then, he told me to shake hands with him. I reached my hand out, and he shook it, but left his pinky finger out of the grip, folded under the clasped hands. I followed his example, shaking his hand without using my pinky. This is the Delta Upsilon secret handshake. I then proceeded to ask him some questions regarding the use of the handshake, which I recorded in short hand below:

Me: When would you use the handshake?

Informant: Um, well we first had to learn it during out pledge semester. Any time we came to the house for an event, we would have to shake hands like this with the active members.

Me: So the handshake is passed down from active members to new pledges?

Informant: Yeah.

Me: What about after pledging? Do you use the handshake at all?

Informant: Sometimes we’d use it as official frat events, but pretty much during rush week and stuff.

Me: Does it have any special significance for the fraternity members?

Informant: Not really, except for the fact that it shows you’re part of the frat.

Me: So it separates members from non-members?

Informant: Yeah pretty much.

Me: And it’s unique to Delta Upsilon?

Informant: Yeah, or at least I assume it is. Since I’m not a part of another frat, I don’t know what their handshakes are, or even if they have them.

Me: Are there any other reasons the frat has a secret handshake?

Informant: Uhhnn…not that I can think of.

From this brief conversation, I saw that the main function of having a secret handshake is to distinguish fraternity members from outsiders. In this way, the handshake creates a binary of insider versus outsider. Only a member of Delta Upsilon knows the handshake and those outside the fraternity are left out. The handshake works to bind people together through common fraternity knowledge. Also, although the informant did not mention this, it seems to me that the handshake could also possibly be used outside of the fraternity setting, in the real world, to recognize brothers from other chapters of Delta Upsilon.

Black Hand Family Legend

Nationality: Italian American
Age: 91
Residence: Arcadia, CA
Performance Date: 3/31/12
Primary Language: English

The informant is my grandmother. She is Italian, but was born in America. Her parents, however, were born in Italy. Despite living in American, the entire family still had close ties to their Italian roots.

This story is relatively well-known within my family. Most of us know the general information, but my grandmother is the active bearer, the only one that actually tells the legend. I knew this would be a great element of folklore for this project so I brought my grandma to my house and asked her about it. What follows is her version of the legend:

Informant: Well this is a story my mom used to tell me. My whole family knew it, but we I don’t know if anyone actually knows if it’s true or not…Anyways the legend is that a distant relative of ours, I think it’s supposedly a second cousin maybe, it’s hard to remember now, but the story is that that family member was part of the Black Hand. And you know what the Black Hand was? It was a secret group around the beginning of World War I. It was responsible for the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand…and that started the war…So since my second cousin—relative—whatever you want to call him, was a member, we like to say that he could have started World War I. All the history books say it was a specific person, you know giving his name and everything, but you never know, they could be wrong…Maybe it really was some distant family member of ours that started the war.

Me: So what does this mean to our family? Why’s it important?

Informant: Uhm well I don’t know how important it is…but it makes me feel sort of famous a little bit. We can put our family on the larger scale of history. It’s not really a good thing though, to be related to an assassin, is it? (laughs)

Me: Is that why you keep telling it? Because it connects us to history?

Informant: Yes, I think so. It makes our family stand out a bit if I tell this story. People always get a kick out of it.

Me: So there’s an element of entertainment to it, too?

Informant: Oh, yes…of course. It’s a great story and it could be true. It always gets people laughing because it’s not something you usually hear in conversation. Probably no one wants to admit they could be related to the people who started World War I! What would people think of us? (chuckles)

This family legend is always a hit at family gatherings, like my grandmother said. However, while it is entertaining, I think she’s more accurate when she reveals that the story makes her feel more connected to the greater history of the world. It’s easy to get lost in the world, but when someone has close ties to some major historical event, it definitely gives them a place in the world. It’s a way for people to feel more involved in events that maybe they really didn’t play that big of a part in reality. It’s also a way for the family to feel more connected to each other, something my grandma didn’t bring up. If we all know this story, then it creates a more cohesive family unit. In a way, if you don’t know the legend, then you aren’t really a part of the family.

 

 

“Thunderstruck” Drinking Game

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/23/12
Primary Language: English

The informant (21) is a Junior at USC. She transferred to USC for her sophomore year, and before that, spent her freshman year at Bennington College in Vermont.

The informant is my roommate and she wanted to contribute a drinking game to my folklore collection. This particular game is called Thunderstruck. Here’s what she told me about playing the game:

“It’s called Thunderstruck and you play Thunderstruck by AC/DC. Every time the song says thunder, start drinking and then it’s a waterfall, in that you start then the next person continues until everyone is doing it. You end when it says thunder the next time. I learned it in a hippie commune on top of a hill in Vermont freshman year (Bennington College). It gets the job done quickly and I also enjoy AC/DC, so it’s the ultimate combination!”

I’ve never played this particular game, but I do know the AC/DC song and I agree that this game would definitely get people drunk fast. I found it interesting that my informant learned this game in Vermont, at her small liberal arts college that she so affectionately calls “a hippie commune on top of a hill.” This location makes sense because if the school is as dedicated to hipster lifestyle as she claims, then the song choice would probably be appropriate. I don’t think it would be as popular at USC because I don’t know how many people here actually listen to AC/DC.

 

Annotation:

The “Thunderstruck” drinking game also shows up on the website eHow.com. The entry provides people with instructions on how to play the game. This description of the game differs from my informant’s in the fact that if someone fails to take a drink when they hear the word “thunder,” then they are out, and the game keeps going until there’s a winner.

Mccoy, Holly. “How to Play the Drinking Game Thunder.” eHow.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ehow.com/how_2365140_play-drinking-game-thunder.html>.