Author Archives: Sofia Gonzalez

McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 21
Occupation: Production Assistant
Residence: Santa Fe Springs
Performance Date: April 16, 2017
Primary Language: English

So we used to play with McDonald’s toys…HAMBURGLAR FOR YOUR LUIGI! And we used to like categorize them like, animals and… everyone got their own group and we would trade them. It was like picking teams for kickball but with like 70 fucking Mcdonald’s toys.

My informant used to play this childhood game with the toys she would get from the McDonald’s happy meals. She and her cousins would categorize them and trade them similar to pokemon cars, beanie babies etc. This game seemed to be quite important to my informant, talking about this particular game seemed to remind her of her childhood and the fond memories she had back then. I enjoyed listening and participating in this folk game.

The UCLA toilet

Age: late 30s
Occupation: teacher
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English

Okay so it’s outside the psychology department, there’s a fountain but it’s a reverse fountain so instead of the water shooting up, the water drains down so it like spins and it goes down. If you stand in a certain area it’s right behind a tall building that has a bridge so if you look at it and the hole that goes down towards the back and so once it was built people realized that it looks like a toilet flushing.And they said that they found out the designer was a trojan.

My informant learned this piece of folklore through a sorority at UCLA. She experienced looking at this fountain and saw that it ended looked like a toilet. She told me this as we were discussing college traditions and rivalries. I found this piece of information funny. As a student at UCLA’s rival school it was nice to know that this rivalry goes way back and that the legacy of both schools live on. We also got to share a bond, even though we are from rival schools.

Even Numbers

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 21
Occupation: production assistant
Residence: Sante Fe Springs, CA
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English

Umm.. I have a weird thing about even numbers because my birthday, my full birthday is completely odd numbers so I think… I think that’s why it has every single odd number possible and so I don’t like when the volume on my car is on an even number or I’ll add numbers if something’s like 34 I’ll add it to make it 7. I just can’t… I can’t… I don’t know…there’s something about even numbers that I’m not very comfortable with and also like both my parents’ birthdays are all odd numbers so it’s just not… I don’t do even numbers. They’re like too round, too even, too perfect, like I don’t like that you can divide them by 2. That’s weird.

I quite enjoyed this piece of folklore because I thought I was the only one that did this. This folklore connected us in that way. I too do not like even numbers because of my birthday (7/21). My informant practices this folk belief regularly and it  seemed to be quite important to her.

The LMU Fountain

Nationality: Gonzalez
Age: 56
Occupation: Microbiologist
Residence: West Covina, CA
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

I guess when it’s your birthday, you get dunked into the fountain, naked.

My informant learned this tradition from going to orientation at Loyola Marymount University. My informant has never experienced this tradition first hand and heard about it from other college students. This piece of folklore terrifying for me, as I learned it at an orientation myself. This made me not want to go to LMU and had a negative affect on me.

UCLA Steps

Nationality: American
Age: late 30s
Performance Date: April 1, 2017
Primary Language: English

There’s a big set of steps on campus, these stairs they’re called Jan’s steps and the myth or the legend is that you can’t step on the fourth step from the bottom and that every time you step on that step you’ll be in college for one more year.

My informant learned this piece of folklore through a sorority at the University of California Los Angeles. She told me this along with other superstitions and traditions about college while we and some friends were discussing it. She did not actively participate in this practice, it was just one superstition that she heard.