Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Gargle with Salt Water

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 51
Occupation: Real Estate Investor
Residence: Rancho Santa Fe, California
Performance Date: 4/7/11
Primary Language: English

“Gargle with hot salt water when you have a sore throat.”

The informant is a 51 year-old father of four children and has lived in Southern California for most of his life.  He lost his mother at a very young age, so his grandmother helped his father raise him.  His grandmother was an educator from the Mid-West.  The informant’s grandmother was very involved in raising the informant. .  The informant was told that his grandmother was the “wisest woman in the world”, always willing to share a piece of wisdom.  He had a great respect for her and always took her word to heart.  Now the informant shares the wisdom he has learned from his grandmother with his own children.

The informant recalls his grandmother telling him this piece of folk medicine many times.  Once time in particular, he remembers in college having a sore throat before a sports game and his grandmother reminded him to gargle with salt water.  He believes it to be true and uses it and passes it down to his children.  The informant said that this is his first line of defense to a sore throat, and the salt water always soothes his sore throat.

The idea of using hot salt water to soothe a sore throat is well known in American society.  This is not the first time I have heard that this folk medicine is successful in medicating a sore throat.  This piece of folklore medicine was actually the basis for a study done in Japan.  Researchers found that people who gargled with salt water were less likely to contract upper respiratory tract infections.

Annotation:

Satomura, K., T. Kitamura, T. Kawamura, T. Shimbo, M. Watanabe, M. Kamei, Y. Takano, and A. Tamakoshi. “Prevention of Upper Respiratory Tract Infections by GarglingA Randomized Trial.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 29.4 (2005): 302-07. Print.

Tatoo lore

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 18, 2011
Primary Language: English

“In Chinese, it doesn’t actually mean anything, because they forgot a line. So but yeah, this tattoo actually has this really interesting story to it. It’s um, like, me and my friend were like, oh my gosh, you know just sitting there, my friends like, I really want to get a tattoo. And I’m like, oh yeah okay, you know you just say things, like I’m going to go to the beach but you never actually go to the beach. But like, you know, we’re just, we talk a little bit, we get in the car. And she’s like, you know, I really do want to get a tattoo. And I’m like, okay. So then she gets in her car, turns it on, starts driving.  We ended up driving to a tattoo parlor. So literally, its three hours later and I walk out with a tattoo.  This is when I was eighteen years old, I didn’t just turn eighteen, but like you know it was kind of like that eighteen year old, you know, thing.   I was back home in Denver. And um, the funny thing was that um, that like, um, part of why, um, its folklore is that um, it’s kind of like um, like, why I have it is to, because it never goes away. And it’s like, it means um, sunrise. And to me like, after every night there is always a dawn. And it’s like, it reminds me of that, whenever people ask me, I can be like, oh yeah, I can tell them that and it’s kind of cool that way.”

LM’s tattoo is a permanent reminder to her that the world and life is cyclical. Additionaly, it is a reminder of that period of time of her life, and the friend she was with.  Although the tattoo artist forgot to draw one line making it so that the tattoo isn’t even Chinese, it is still an important symbol to LM.  People get various types, styles and designs of tattoos for many reasons.  But the one thing that is similar about them is their permanence.  Like a yearly holiday or festival, a tattoo can serve to remind the individual, or individuals who share a tattoo, of something important about themeselves and their life.  While some tattoos might look identical or similar, on different people they almost always have a different story and meaning behind them.

Homeopathic cold remedy

Nationality: German-American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles and Irvine CA
Performance Date: April 20, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: some spanish

Claire’s roommate is Indian, and she told Claire about this homeopathic remedy.

I think she heard this from her mom, but, I also may have come from, because she sings, so it could be from one of her many many singer friends. And that’s if you drink hot water with tons of honey in it, I’m talking like, this much honey (hand gesture, fingers indicating about 2 inches) in a cup like that big (hang gestures to indicate about 6 inches) then it’ll make your cold go away. So, she just drinks it all the time even she’s not sick. And so, I’ll come in to my room and there’ll just be like this thing of honey and she’ll just like, rip the lid off because she uses it like, literally an entire jar in four days. But, um, she was, I was coming down with a cold and she’s like, “oh here take this, like here’s my honey, take my cup, you do everything. It’ll be totally fine.” And she says it’s because the hydration in the water, well, water hydrating will help make the cold go away but also that the honey will like, coat your vocal cords. And I don’t know if that’s true or not.”

While I do not think honey can actually cure a cold, from personal experience I can attest that honey helps a great deal to alleviate a sore throat from a cold or other sickness.  As Claire described, it coats the throat, and along with hot water or tea, is very effective in temporarily relieving pain.

Claire’s roomate is Indian, yet this homeopathic remedy is not restricted to Indian people.  I personally heard this from my parents who are of mixed ethnic decent. I do not know if this remedy has any one origen, but I think the concept that honey is soothing to the throat is apparent enough that someone could come to the conlusion on there own.  Consequently, many people utilize and pass on the remedy.

Onomastic – Newspaper

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 4, 2011
Primary Language: English

Claire told me that in her hometown in North Carolina, there is a newspaper called the “News and Observer.”  But it is commonly known as the “Nuisance and Disturber.” The paper itself is very liberal, and conservatives consequently like to make fun of it by using an onomastic to change the name to fit their idea of what the paper is to them; a nuisance and disturbance.  Occasionally, the reporters and writers from the paper have gone to Claire’s school and told the students that they have taken the new name to heart.  They find it amusing and refer to the paper using the new title. 

The individuals working for the liberal paper were faced with this harassment from the local republicans. By adopting the name initially spiteful name, they turned the situation into a humorous one.

Annotation: The News & Observer Publishing Company. http://www.newsobserver.com/2009/08/13/10439/company-history.html

Mexican Lullaby

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 49
Occupation: Government employee
Residence: Arlington, VA
Performance Date: March 12, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

sana sana colita de rana, que se alivie en la manana

healthy healthy tail of frog, which is relieved in the morning

heal heal toads/frogs tail may you heal in/by the morning

SOs mother used to sing this to SO and his siblings at night before they went to sleep.  

SO told me that the toad/frogs tail is said in a cute sort of way. A way one would speak to a small child.  The focus on a toad or frog as needing to be healed overnight perhaps comes from the fact that a frog lives its early life as a tadpole. Most markedly, the tadpole’s tail disappears as it matures. While the song may have soothed the children to sleep, it also helps reassure their mother that when they mature (wake-up) they will be healthy (healed).  It is as much a reassuring song for children as it is for parents.

A slight varitation on this lullaby can be found at:

Annotated:  http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=595015