Author Archives: schropp

Schnickles the Elf (Formerly Elf on the Shelf)

Nationality: American/Australian
Age: 35
Occupation: Builder
Residence: San Diego/
Performance Date: 4/12/16
Primary Language: English

 

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Description (What is being performed):

The informant and his wife will hide an elf doll or statue somewhere in their house for their child to find. Once found, the parents relocate it. This game goes on for the entire month leading up to Christmas Day. Within the informants family and amongst their family friends, the elf is named Schnickles. He/she is considered to be one of Santa’s informants who comes by the house each day to listen to the child’s wishes and also to see if the child has been naughty or nice. Schnickles then reports back to Santa each night then relocates somewhere in the house the next morning. With each new placement, the informant and his wife position the elf different poses and often gives him something to do. They will then share photos of the elf with other family friends who too have taken photos of their elves.

The Informant (Background info about performance from informant):

This game that is described is often known as Elf on the Shelf, which is a large scale phenomenon that started out in 2004. A woman and her daughters wrote a children’s book around the elf statue and assigned a game to it that they used to play which is nearly identical to the game described above. At first the concept was shared with people in a grass roots manor before becoming a commodified object. The informant first heard about the idea through a colleague at work at the start of the grass roots publicity and decided to adopt it with his own doll, which his son named Schnickles. Throughout the the first few years the informant spread the concept to his friends before the official concept reached them. The creative positioning of the elf took shape about a year in, which is something people who used the official game also did.

The informant shared many of his pains about the process of having to replace Schnickles each night. He and his wife took turns but would often get in fights about whose turn it was, especially when it wasn’t until the middle of the night that they’d remember to switch it. It wasn’t until they over heard their son talking to it as though it was his friend that they saw how much it meant to him, thus it became important for them. Also the factor that the elf would report the sons behavior meant that for the straight 30 days the child would behave extra well. This was emphasized greatly by the informant as being a god send during a very hectic time of year. He only wished the elf could be around all the time. He’s considered using the birthday addition that the makers of Elf on the Shelf created, but doesn’t like knowingly giving into the commercial nature of it.

About the Informant

The informant is a freelance construction worker who grew up in both American and Australia. While in Australia he played in a punk rock band for 6 years. He also became a father 12 years ago. Since then he’s been constantly leaning about the pervading sub cultures and rituals for children that were non existent or drastically different from his formative years.

The Analysis (My Thoughts):

The nature of this game is not cut and dry in terms of its classification as lore. The roots of this tradition came from a single family who then spread their tradition as first a non commodified entity to then a huge corporate child’s toy. As for the informant and his family and family friends traditions, they all stemmed from vaguely hearing about the Elf on the Shelf during its roots years and making it their own their renaming it and adding in the poses aspect. Although as they carried on this tradition, the original continued to grow into official culture. Does this then render the informants tradition as fake lore? I’d venture to say no simply because they not only altered the contents but when the openly borrow elf on the shelf it wasn’t official culture.

 

Elfin Forest Legends

Nationality: American
Age: 32
Occupation: Public Relations
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 4/05/16
Primary Language: English

 

Description (What is being performed):

There’s 2 long standing stories about witches and ghosts lurking around a place called Quest Haven, which is apart of Elfin Forest in San Diego, CA. The first states that many years ago there was an insane asylum on the land and that many of the patients died there. Since then some of them have occupied that land as living dead and would scare away and even kill people who trust passed. The second story states that a gypsy lady who used to practice the occult within the forest was killed by her husband. She then came back as a witch who would instigate car crashes and who too would kill those who trust pass the land.

The Informant (Background info about performance from informant):

Me: “I’ve heard the rumors about ghosts and witches around Elfin forest, are they true?

Informant: “They could be…there’s so many versions of those stories that at this point you know only a shade of it is true and it’s probably the less exciting aspects.”

Me: “Tell me a bit about them.”

Informant: “So apparently there was an asylum and an old lady, both unrelated. The former was responsible for the death of many patience which then somehow caused them to come back as the living dead. With the lady, she was killed by her husband and came back as this bitch ghost who would cause cars to collide.”

Me: “How did you learn about these stories”

Informant: “When I was in high school, a group of friends took me to Elfin forest without telling me why. It was nighttime and kind of spooky so that alone creeped me out. We drove up to a gate that said Quest Haven. That’s when they informed me of the stories, which is when I was scared shitless. As being stupid teenagers we broke into the land behind the gate. There was in fact an old dilapated building. We drew the line their though. Definitely didn’t go inside…on our way out a car pulled up flashing its lights at us and it just sat there for a solid 5 minutes. One of us when up to it but it drove away. Later that night we were driving back home and at the light that same car pulled up. We looked over and saw this creepy albino man just staring at us. I’ve never felt so scared. The driver gunned the gas, ran the light and went straight home.”

Me: “So no ghosts or zombies, just creepy albino man.”

Informant: “Yeah, which no one has talked about. It could have just been some weirdo trying to prey on people who explore this mythological place. He probably knew we knew the story…sicko…”

Me: “So you learned about the stories from your friends…how did they hear about them?”

Informant: “Other friends..”

Me: “What sort of meaning do you attach to these stories and your experience?”

Informant: “Well where we live it was a pretty cut and dry run of the mill suburb. Nothing too interesting, so these stories give it character.”

Me: “I can see that”

Informant: “Yeah”

Me: “Now do you continue to tell other people about these stories?”

Informant: “I haven’t in awhile…at point in my life my friends and I don’t spend our time talking about ghost stories.”

Me: “But if someone were to mention Quest Haven, you’d acknowledge the stories?”

Informant: “Yeah definitely…I mean I’ll probably tell my kids them when they’re old enough. Maybe take them there (laughs). But I don’t take the time to spread them.”

Me: “Why do you feel they are worth holding onto?”

Informant: “As I said before, it live ins up a place that’s rather ordinary. Also it’d be fun to see how your child and their friends react. Brings you back to your childhood.”

(Closing conversation)

 

The Analysis (My Thoughts): 

I took the time to do some digging regarding these stories and they are in fact that, stories. A gypsy did once live in those woods, and the house contrary to being an asylum, belongs to a group of people who used it as a retreat. This information can be easily accessed online so I can’t imagine in this day and age where everyone researches everything,  that people don’t know that they are simply legends. The informant, even acknowledges that lack of probability of the matter but still plays along with them for various reasons. It is that very action that I think what holds a lot of myths alive, especially this Information Age. It’s simply fun to think of such things happening and seeing how other people react, but after a certain age it just becomes nonsense. That sense of tradition seems to hold true to as the informant states that she wants to pass down the stories to her kids to see how they’d react. Something else to note is the mysterious albino. Although we don’t know his intentions, his behavior and supposedly how he looked was quite odd. As I said earlier it’s possible that the off colored people off that area may prey on young people based on their knowledge of the stories, which as a result the stories may create for a strange and haunting experience in actuality. The sort of life imitates art ordeal. Obviously this is pure speculation, but it’s something to consider, i.e. the power of legends can cause some form of them to become a reality.

Chicken Soup to Fight Colds

Nationality: American
Age: 56
Occupation: Health Nutritionist
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 4/14/16
Primary Language: English

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Description (What is being performed):

When one catches a cold, chicken noodle soup, whether it be homemade or store bought, is administered to lesson the symptoms.

 

The Informant (Background info about performance from informant):

Me: “What is this solution for the cold I hear you know?”

Informant: “Well if you got the sniffles or any sort of cold, you drink my homemade chicken soup and it makes you feel better.”

Me: “Is this specific to your soup (laughs)”

Informant: “I like to think so (laughs), but really it’s just chicken noodle soup.  You don’t want to drink that canned stuff though…Too much salt.”

Me: “How did you become aware of this?”

Informant: “My mother gave it to me as did her mother.”

Me: “And you continued to carry this tradition on, why?”

Informant: “It’s always worked for me and anyone who I’ve given it to. Maybe not cure the cold immeditely, but makes you feel a lot better.”

Me: “What does it mean to you?”

Informant: ” What does it mean? Well it’s family tradition. It’s cheap and taste good too. Kills three birds with one stone.”

Me: “Anything else you can say about this?”

Informant: “Never buy the canned stuff.”

 

The Analysis (My Thoughts): 

It is to my understanding that much of why the informant continues to carry out this bit of folk medicine is that it’s a remedy for a cold that serves multiple functions and because of the nature of these functions it’s worth keeping around. These include as she states the affordableness of the solution, the ability to feed and the honoring of tradition. She also states that it may not competely heal the cold upon drinking it and may take time which makes me question its legitimacy. It’s likely she may associate the natural decline of the cold from rest with the constant drinking of the soup as a casually related situation. Furthering the idea that it’s cheap and in fact honors this familial tradition probably also causes her to not question the efficacy of this homeopathic solution. Although it is worth noting that drinking chicken noodle soup to mitigate a cold is a long standing tradition amongst many people. One reason may be its immunity boosting properties. This in itself does not mitigate existing illnesses, but instead prevents from worsening or capturing new ones, which means the effectivness of the remedy may be partly psychological.

Something else to note is the informants repeated cyanacism towards “that canned stuff”. Her dislike for it shows her affinity for the homemade much like the remedy itself is. This may say something about the informant as having some sort of naturalistic outlook.

Mud Vest – Poner en sus chalecos de barro

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 32
Occupation: Construction Worker
Residence: Mexico/San Diego
Performance Date: 4/20/16
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

 

A mud vest is a figurative vest that you pretend to put on to suppress racial slurs.

Context:

“Explain to me what this mud vest is.”

“I grew up part time in San Diego in the lower class areas. You know, inland side. There was and still is a lot of tension between Blacks and Mexicans. As kids you grow up hearing your siblings and parents even saying derogatory things to others. A lot of fights and sometimes killings came from this. The best way to protect yourselves was to bite your lip when someone other anther ethnicity made you angry. Especially if you were weak or outnumbered. But because we would always saying racial things, it was hard to remember not to say anything, so what my friends and I came up with is what we call the mud vest. Before going anywhere occupied by black people and we weren’t looking to start anything, one of us would say ‘Poner en sus chalecos de barro’, which mean’t ‘put on your mud vests’. The mud vest is our symbolic suppression of such slurs. Saved us a lot of times from getting our assess whooped. ”

“Out of all things, why mud vest?”

“A vest protects, you know what i’m saying? Mud just sounded right (laughs)”

 

My thoughts:

This mud vest concept is a bit humorous and maybe a bit racist, which is ironic because this figurative mud vest is used to suppress racial slurs yet the name of it is derogatory: Mud is dark as are the people they are trying not to offend. The informant does not outright connect the two, but a few exchange of words not included in this post more clearly eludes to it.

This is a bit different than the other lore I collected simply because this ritual is used as a survival mechanism. That alone I find interesting and would like to find lore used in a similar context.

An additional thing to note is this piece of lore functions as a conceptual utility. It’s a tool that is to be applied in specific contexts to maintain or better one’s situation, but isn’t considered to be a remedy. It also contains entertainment value. Therefore its a multi purpose piece of lore.

 

El Día de los Muertos – Day of the Dead

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 32
Occupation: Construction Worker
Residence: Mexico/San Diego
Performance Date: 4/20/16
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

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Context:

El Día de los Muertos is a longs standing Mexican tradition/holiday that takes place in central and southern Mexico on November 1st and 2nd. The belief stands that on the 31st of October the gates of the heavens open, letting the dead back to earth. The first two days of November are used to celebrate their existence. This comes in the form of large festivals that contain art showcases, performances, food, stories, dancing and much more.

According to the informant, this holds a special significance for him because he has lost many people in his life, including family. This acts a cathartic two days where he and his friends/family bask in the nostalgia of their loved ones. He says its also a time for self expression. Artists from all other take the thematics of the festival, including the skull and finds new and decorate ways to present them.

My Thoughts:

Without knowing much of what this festival stands for, it could easily be mistaken for some sort of carnival or halloween event or possibly some freak show. Once one understands its purpose though, it becomes a very meaningful event. To us Americans this sort of thing is non existent. We do have holidays of course, but not one with such a sense of heavy handedness. That is celebrating the loss of loved ones. I can imagine that it is very therapeutic for the people as a whole.