Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Bananas on a Boat – Bad Luck

Nationality: White
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Brea, California
Performance Date: April 29, 2015
Primary Language: English

Tanner is a student at USC and one of my closest friends. He grew up in Brea California, on the boarder of Orange Country. He was a part of both soccer, skate, and fishing communities as a kid, as well as the public school community and his local community. 

 

Performance: So my dad has a boat and we go out to Catalina island all the time…we go fishing. So whenever we go we bring a lot of snacks: uncrustables, cheese sticks, beers (obviously) haha. Last time we went out with our buddy Max. And max brings out bananas onto the boat. so he brings bananas and we didn’t even realize it. so we go into the cooler and see the bananas – well wait first off we hadn’t caught ANY fish at that point. and we were like what is going on what is happening here. And the next day, the morning after he goes to the cooler and whips out a banana and starts eating it. and I didn’t realize it at the time but my dad starts talking about how having bananas on a boat is bad luck and if you have bananas on a boat while you’re fishing you will not catch fish. So…bananas on a boat while you’re fishing is bad luck.”

Oh. Do you believe it?

“I’ve never been fishing with bananas…and we usually do well… and the one time that Max brought bananas on the boat we didn’t catch any fish. so yes. I believe it.

 

Response: I’ve heard this superstition before, and can confirm that it has multiplicity and variation. Tanner later explained to me that the reason for the banana superstition originated from days where people would buy bananas full of spiders and transmit disease and infestation via their large fishing boats. I had never heard this explanation before, and am sure it is one of many used for this superstition.

White Lighter

Nationality: White
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Brea, California
Performance Date: April 29, 2015
Primary Language: English

Performance: “White Lighter. Ok umm… supposedly Tupac, when he died, he had a white lighter in his pocket. So nowadays, whenever people are smoking…smoking a cigarette, smoking weed, whatever you want to be smoking, crack-fuckit- haha, umm.. if you have a white lighter and you’re using that to smoke whatever you’re smoking it’s supposedly like really bad luck. Especially if you’re young and smoking, if you smoke with a white lighter everybody starts freaking out, and it’s supposedly VERY bad luck to be smoking with a white lighter. Ever since Tupac died with a white lighter in his pocket it’s become a big no-no to do that. It’s just bad luck. Nobody buys white lighters.”

Response: I had heard of this superstition but had never heard it’s origin. My other friend Anthony was in the room while Tanner told the story, and he confirmed that he had heard of the superstition but had never heard the Tupac portion. This is interesting as Tupac was a sort of icon for smoking weed and his death has lingering effects on the traditions and superstitions of those who partake in the activity.

Left is Law

Anthony is a student at USC and one of my closest friends. He grew up in New York and moved to Los Angeles this year to study at USC. He comes from an Italian background.

 

 

“Left is law is a phrase you say when smoking. If you are sitting in a group of people smoking, hookah or whatever, you have to pass to the left always, counterclockwise, never to the right. Left is law. If you ever try to pass to the right everybody freaks out and reprimands you for it. It’s like a ritual type thing. If you ever pass to the right then it’s all fucked. The whole time is ruined, and it’s all shit. You always pass to the left.”

 

 

Response: This is a sort of ritual/magic folklore that revolves around smoking. I’ve never come across the folklore before, but my friend Anthony was adamant about it’s importance and relevance. He was shocked that I had not heard of it before. Perhaps it just exists in order to create a “go to” or “status quo” for a situation that is often variable. There also seems to be an expectation of having a good time tied to following the ritual, and a poor time associated with breaking it.

Curative Powers – Gulf of Mexico

Nationality: White
Age: 50
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Pacific Palisades, CA
Performance Date: April 29, 2015
Primary Language: English

Carol is a Floridian who left the state to study film production at Boston University. She has since started a family in LA and is as much an LA native as a Floridian at heart. She has no remnants of her floridian accent, and knows the entire secret menu at In N Out.

Performance: “So…growing up in this weird place I did, southwest Florida on the Gulf of Mexico, we had our own weird set of things. Nobody was really FROM there, just like there’s not that many people that you meet, who are older, who are FROM L.A., so there was a big mish mash of things. One thing that was distinctly floridian however was the belief in the curative powers of the Gulf. If you had a cold, swim in the Gulf. If you had a rash, swim in the Gulf. If you had a sunburn, swim in the Gulf. It was supposed to be able to cure a lot of things, and I felt like it really did. Maybe it was the saline or something, but I think it actually works.”

Analysis: Folklore tied to the water is abundant in the Florida keys.  I feel that the curative powers of bodies of water is a common belief spanning multiple cultures and countries. It is interesting that Carol believes in the curative powers of the Gulf, and reaches for a scientific justification. Perhaps the Gulf has curative powers thanks to the placebo effect, or perhaps something about the cleansing salt water actually does help skin conditions and stuffy noses.

Jellyfish Sting

Nationality: American
Age: 50
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Pacific Palisades, CA
Performance Date: April 29, 2015
Primary Language: English

Carol is a Floridian who left the state to study film production at Boston University. She has since started a family in LA and is as much an LA native as a Floridian at heart. She has no remnants of her floridian accent, and knows the entire secret menu at In N Out.

Performance: “If you got stung by a jellyfish (some said pee on it, but not my folks), rub it with wet sand. I actually tried this one once and it totally works! the barbs from the jellyfish get stuck in your skin and rubbing sand can help to sort of exfoliate them out! Peeing on it may help the pain, but I’ve never tried it and my folks insisted that it was not the way to go!”

Response: I had never heard of this cure for a jellyfish sting, and am curious if it is widespread in areas beyond just Florida. Folk remedies involving the ocean seem to be common in Florida, and it is no surprise. The abundance of wet sand available when stung by a jellyfish also lends a level of convenience to this remedy that would lead to its general acceptance and use.

For another version of a folk remedy to use on jellyfish stings, watch the famous scene between Zach Efron and Nicole Kidman in the 2012 film, The Paperboy:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1496422/