Category Archives: Kinesthetic

Body movements

Hand-Clapping Game/Rhyme

Nationality: British, Scottish
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Cleveland, OH
Primary Language: English

Miss Suzie had a steamboat/?The steamboat had a bell (ding ding!)/?Miss Suzie went to heaven/?The steamboat went to/?Hello operator,?Please give me number nine/?If you disconnect me?I’ll kick you from/?Behind the refrigerator there was a piece of glass/?Miss Suzie sat upon it and cut her little/?Ask me no more questions/?Tell me no more lies/?The boys are in the bathroom zipping up their/?Flies are in the meadow/?The bees are in the park/?Miss Suzie and her boyfriend are kissing in the/ D-A-R-K, D-A-R-K, DARK DARK DARK/ Dark is like a movie/?A movie’s like a show/?A show is like a TV screen/?And that is all I know!

Sarah said that she would sing the “Miss Suzie” song when she was younger while playing a hand-clapping game.  She said she would do it for fun and would play the game with other girls her age during recess.  Although the clapping itself was fun, Sarah told me that the main reason she enjoyed playing the game was the play on words in the lyrics.  As a little kid, she said that she felt sneaky and cool when she would almost say the word “ass” but instead actually would say “ask”.  Also, Sarah noted that even though she did not actually use any cuss words, she would try to avoid singing the song in front of adults because she did not want to get in trouble.  However, whenever older kids were around, Sarah said she would try to play with them because she wanted to be cool and sing the song with them.  Once Sarah graduated to middle school, she stopped playing the game but to this day still remembers all of the words to the “Miss Suzie” song because she used to sing it so much as a kid.

The “Miss Suzie” song clearly seems to be a way for younger children to experiment with more “mature” concepts like intimate relationships and faux-vulgarity of words that sound like cuss words.  Technically they are not saying anything inappropriate, but they come very close, which emphasizes how immature singing the song is, since genuinely mature people would not sing such lyrics.  The childish nature of the song is further illustrated by its simple rhyme scheme and use of repetitively spelling out words.

Sarah said she liked to sing the song when older kids were present, thus showing how the song was used as a method of being accepted by others in the community.  For Sarah, being deemed “cool” by older kids was something desirable, and she felt that the play on words in the song would help her achieve a higher social status.  Her position within her group of friends was very important to Sarah as a child because it helped her form her identity and establish herself as a member of a certain group of people.  As Sarah grew up, though, she no longer needed to rely on acting cool via hand-clapping songs in order to make friends and eventually stopped signing those types of songs.  Even so, the song is such a memorable part of her childhood that even today she can recite the words.

I remember singing this song when I was younger, and like Sarah, I felt cool to almost say cuss words and be able to get away with it.  Most importantly, I remember this song made me feel like a part of a special group, since only certain people knew the rhyme and the clapping game that went with it.  The song contributed to the formation of my identity in elementary school and helped connect me with others that could sing the song with me.  Also similar to Sarah, as I grew up, I found other ways to form bonds with people (and I also realized that it was not very cool to sing clapping game songs) so I abandoned the practice of playing these games.

Game – Clermont, California

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Claremont, CA
Performance Date: April 19, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: German

Leg Wrestling Game

Objective: For fun or to determine winner by who has stronger legs.

Play: two participants lay down on floor facing opposite directions of each other. The participants count to three then raise the leg that is closest to their opponent and lock legs.  The person who is able to flip outwards with their opponent’s leg locked is declared the winner.

Beginning position:

The Struggle:

The Win:

The informant normally did this when she was younger, age six to about age ten.  The game was played with her friends during Physical Education for fun when she attended school in Pasadena, California.  She said that it was a game just for fun when the kids wanted to goof off in P.E. and not do what they were told.

Although the informant said the game was just for fun, I think this game is similar to something like arm wrestling or rock paper scissors that could be used to determine seniority a separate game, chores, etc.  I think mostly kids do it because it’s encompassed by a physical playfulness that is common especially among children, but becomes less acceptable later in life.

Folk Ritual – Los Angeles, California

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Diego, CA
Performance Date: April 30, 2008
Primary Language: English

Sportsmanship Ritual

At the end of the game, whether the team had won or lost it was customary to give high fives to the other team and say good job.  Typically, guys shake hands, whereas, girls high five or slap hands.  The team lines up at home plate in a line and walk past one another, slapping hands and saying good game.

The informant said that doing this after a game exhibited good sportsmanship.  However, sometimes when they played their rivals, some of the girls would just walk past and not slap hands or say good game.  This said that they were bad losers—doing that was very unsportsmanlike, and the coaches would often get angry.

I see this tradition in a lot of sports and I think it’s very interesting how disrespectful and controversial it is to not give that final word of good game and the physical high five.  Someone in another culture might be baffled by this, wondering why it’s such a big deal that someone doesn’t give a high five.  I believe this physical and verbal assurance at the end of a game is important in establishing a comradery and understanding between the teams, an understanding that they were playing a game and that it was purely for fun.  The tradition emphasizes the idea that there should be no losers if everyone played well and had fun, which is a very child-like concept that many are taught from a young age.  While a competitive spirit is fostered in America, children are also taught to find a balance and remember that winning is not everything.  This tradition is just one reminder of that lesson.

See also:

Chandler, John and Fletcher, Jeff.  “Schools Dump No-Handshake Sports Policy.”  Los Angeles Times.  April 20 1994.  Page 1.

Hand Sign

Nationality: African-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Valencia, CA
Performance Date: Late 90's
Primary Language: English

The West Coast sign, as seen above, is formed by intertwining the middle finger and ring finger. During the 1990’s, I first saw my brother making the hand gesture in pictures or whenever he would listen to rap music. When I asked him about the significance of such a sign, he explained that in 1992 rap music began shifting toward “gangster” themes, with a rift forming between West Coast rappers and East Coast rappers. Prominent artists such as the late Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Ice Cube started using the sign as a way to affirm their allegiance to the West Coast and represent their “gangster” way of life.

However, because rap at the time was so closely affiliated with gang styles and motifs, people often misconstrue the gesture as something that might come from actual gang members. In addition, since the West Coast-East Coast feud eventually culminated in the shootings and deaths of two major rap artists Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., people have even more reason to think the West Coast “W” might have more serious or even dangerous connotations.

Although the West Coast “W” was made popular at a time when gangs where at high prevalence, I believe the hand sign should not be considered in a negative light. No gangs claim the gesture and even though “gangster” rap artists used the “W,” the only rapper who actually hails from a legitimate gang is Snoop Dogg. So then, why do people continue to use the “W” gesticulation even after the “gangster” era of rap is over? Because the symbol simply stands for west side, which can apply to virtually anyone anywhere granted they hail from a western orientation. This means it could be the west side of a town, state, or a coast as evident in 1992.  Even though the “W” can be used by almost anyone, Californians who take pride in being from the west coast and who wish to honor the late great rapper Tupac mostly use it. His legacy lives on through the symbol he helped make famous, for he even appears on one of his album covers while gesticulating the “W” with his fingers.

Riddle

Nationality: German
Age: 54
Occupation: NICU Nurse
Residence: Stevenson Ranch, CA
Performance Date: Sometime in 2000
Primary Language: English

Doodle riddle, Riddle doodle…A Droodle!

The above shape was set before me by my mother as a challenge. She told me to draw the picture without going back over my lines and without picking my pen up off the paper. At first the object appears simple to draw but can actually be quite challenging. My mother knows quite a few of these droodles but for some reason, this is one she likes in particular. The point of droodles is simply to test ones skill and creativity, a fun game that works as a practical riddle. It still involves thought but one must think outside the box in order to complete most droodles.

I think droodles are fun and they can even function in another way. Sometimes droodles appear as a picture and instead of having to draw it, a person may just be challenged to figure out what the image is. Most often, the answer is something far-fetched and meant to make the person laugh. In essence, droodles really are just riddles put in picture form, for they can be tricky and the degree of difficulty depends on the creativity of the artist. Mostly though, the answer can be however a person interprets it, which makes them even more enjoyable, because there can always be more than one answer. As a matter of fact, the more silly and crazy the interpretation, the better the droodle becomes.