Informant Information — SD
- Nationality: American
- Age: 16
- Occupation: Student
- Residence: San Pedro, California
- Date of Performance/Collection: April 3, 2022
- Primary Language: English
The informant is currently a junior in high school. In an in-person interview, I asked her about any school traditions that she had participated in before.
Interviewer:
Does your high school have any traditions that you’ve participated in before?
Informant:
Yeah, I’ve been on the tennis team every year of high school so I’ve done stuff for their traditions. One is that we all wear one yellow sock and one black sock for our important games. A couple girls refuse to even wash the socks that she wears, but I think that’s gross so I don’t do that part.
Interviewer:
Is there any significance to the colors and which color goes on which foot?
Informant:
It doesn’t matter which color goes on which foot. We do yellow and black because our school colors are gold and black. My school doesn’t include socks with our uniforms so we just do yellow because it’s easier to find than gold.
Interviewer:
Do you know how long the tennis team has been doing this?
Informant:
No, but it must have been started a really long time ago because our uniforms aren’t even black and gold anymore. They changed the colors to white and yellow a couple years before I joined the team.
Analysis:
Wearing coordinated mismatching socks is a fun way to demonstrate membership in this high school folk group– the tennis team. This ritual is supposed to bring good luck to the team, an example of superstitions being popular when there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding an event. I can think of lots of examples of sports teams using lucky colors and accessories before important games. It’s also interesting that the traditional sock colors have outlived the matching uniforms. In this case, it seems like the colors are just as important as the practice of wearing two mismatched socks.