Category Archives: general

Hell week

Nationality: American
Age: 14
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 29
Primary Language: English

Transcribed straight from my informant:

Main piece:

So hell week is a time in the summer, like one of the last weeks before school starts. It’s when the fall sports teams basically have an intense week of working out and preparation for the upcoming season. In my experience, it was water polo, but people usually think of football.

Usually, its multiple hours–up to 5 or 6– of working out, in the pool for me or weight training. It’s just really intense, and they’re just testing out our skills, meaning there was nothing to lose if we were sore because there was no season yet. They have always been doing that, and it’s terrible and scary. It’s an entire week of five hours every day, I hate it.

Background/context:

My little brother told this to me as we sat together casually after I asked him about his folklore. He has been playing club water polo competitively for at least 4 years now, and he takes the sport very seriously. He is a jock. He is in an all-boy’s high school that is known nationwide for its excellence in sports.

Thoughts/analysis:

My school also had hell week, and I think it’s a pretty common concept for athletes, at least in American culture. I think the better you are at a sport, the more intense this becomes as it is also intended to pressure the athletes psychologically, bad as it sounds.

ANZAC day

Nationality: Filipino/American
Age: 51
Occupation: business man
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 28
Primary Language: English

Main Piece

I know it from the Australian perspective. So ANZAC day is a day for both Australia and New Zealand, but I know Australians celebrate it this way. You take a pause in the morning–well we celebrated it then–to remember the fallen soldiers. It’s for the first World War. It’s supposed to be everyone, but it’s when they landed in Gallipoli, which I think is in Turky or somewhere in the Middle East, and a bunch of people died. It’s similar to American memorial day. It’s like the whole country stops, and it’s like you have a toast to them. We did it with orange juice. Then, the rest of the day, you celebrate. I think the morning toast is called the Dawn Service to commemorate the attack. They were slaughtered.

Background/Context: This was told to me by my father. He lived in Australia in ’84 for one year when he was 15 years old with his older brothers, who were high school and college-aged. There were no parents, and they were not used to being such a white country as Australia. My dad is Filipino, but he spent most of his childhood in Papua New Guinea.

Thoughts/Analysis:

After visiting Australia myself, I think in part this is such a big tradition because this was the first time Australia sent large numbers to fight in far away shores. They didn’t have to, which made it even more devestating. WWI was awful, and this is one of the lasting memories. Like my dad said, it reminds me of Memorial day, but it seems more emotional.

Dolores Hill Bomb – Bay Area skating “festival”

Nationality: Italian American
Age: 20
Occupation: Law enforcement at Nordstrom
Residence: with her parents in San Jose
Performance Date: Friday April 24, 2020
Primary Language: English

The following is a transcript of a conversation between me, M, and my friend, T.

M: What is the Dolores Hill Bomb?

T: I guess it’s more for like bay area skaters, but Dolores Hill Bomb is this event we go to. So like every summer, I don’t remember what day, in San Francisco, a bunch of –hundreds actually– of skaters get together and they just like, bomb hills in San Francisco. If you look up Dolores Hill bombs there’s tons of videos. They or we actually do it every year, its literally just skaters getting together and fucking bombing hills, because there’s a lot of hills in San Francisco. 

Me: what does that mean? Bombing hills?

T: Just like, going down hills, like fast. Super high speed. It doesn’t sound scary, but just going downhill on a skateboard, like a big San Francisco hill…..its intense. You need to watch videos.

M: How did you hear about it?

T: (pause)…just like, through the community….if you hang out with um any sort of actual skater and skating is something they’re passionate about, you learn about it. It’s through word of mouth, and that’s how it started. 

Me: So it’s hundreds of people?


T: Yeah, and people keep coming, even though every year someone injures themselves pretty bad. It’s a big deal for us.

Me: How long have you been going to it? 

T: Just two years. But I’ve known about it for a while…I didn’t go before because I was younger, its a bit of …well, you know skate scene can be vulgar, so I didn’t go, and also it was a bit of a drive and I didn’t have a car. 

Me: Is it like a festival?

T: Yeah, but it’s not an organized thing. It’s not sponsored or official, people just choose to meet up on this day, and support each other, and just skate. 

Me: Did you compete or just watch?

T: Hell, no! I skated around there and casually, but I didn’t bomb…its not a competition necessarily, more like a meet up….it just goes on until the cops come shut it down, because it does shut down the entire street. Skate culture in San Francisco is huge.

Background: Informant is 20 years old, and considers skating to be a big part of her life. She builds her own boards starting in middle school. She skated to school everyday since she was 12 and has continued to skate on her own and with her friends. (most of her friends skateboard as well) 

Context: T is a good friend of mine who I interviewed while FaceTiming her to catch up during quarantine. I asked her about any interesting folklore she knew.

Thoughts: This is the first time I have heard of anything like this. I think it’s a great example of how folklore is so reliant on community and word of mouth, and that people can strongly feel connected to something. Also, that there are layers to folklore- this is not just about skateboarders, but also the Bay Area.

Socks are DIY hair curlers.

Nationality: Italian American
Age: 54
Occupation: entrepreneur
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 27
Primary Language: English

Grandma used to curl my hair with socks. They have to be nylon knee socks so that they can be crushed and tied, and you sleep in it. When your hair is just a tiny bit wet out of the shower, you stick all those socks in, and you wake up very curly. I think I did it to you, remember? I kept doing it, because it stayed so much better than regular curlers, it would stay for days. I would do it all the way until I got married. I don’t know anyone else who would do that. I learned it from grams.

Background and context: This was told to me by my mother, who is a white baby boomer. She is close with her mom, who is from the Great Generation. My mom grew up in Pittsburgh.

Thoughts: This is likely from before hair curlers’ existence. I have seen the style, and it looks more old-fashioned. I think this is people figuring out a way to curl before they had the technology, and it could be swapped out easily for another method.

High stomach means you’ll have a boy

Nationality: American
Age: 54
Occupation: entrepreneur
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 27
Primary Language: English

Conversation between me and the informant explaining this belief which she called an old wives’ tale:

Informant: When you’re pregnant, and your stomach is high, you’re gonna have a boy. If it’s low, you’re gonna have a girl. That’s bs, not true at all.

Me: Where did you learn it?

Informant: I dont know…old ladies. People believe it, I guess.

Context and Background: The informant is my mom. She is a white baby boomer from the East Coast, who comes from a very traditional, conservative family. She is very independent and feminist. She brought this up when I asked her about any interesting folklore she knew.

Thoughts:

I think people have a lot to say about babies and pregnancy reveals, but really there is a 50/50 percent chance that you get it right. I think it’s kind of like astrology, where you attribute any coincidences to having truth value, and anytime it doesn’t work out, you essentially consider it to be an exception to a rule. This seems like BS to me, and I don’t know why people would believe it, unless if they didn’t have ultrasounds.