Main Piece: Tennis Court Lines

Nationality: American
Age: 53
Occupation: Family CEO
Residence: CO
Performance Date: 04/01/2021
Primary Language: English

Background: The informant grew up playing tennis every single day after school. She and her family members were professional players, and there was an expectation that everyone becomes an expert at the game through endless hours of training and tournaments. She played tennis in college and once she graduated, she coached players on the tour. She is very well respected in the tennis world. The rituals she performed as she was playing competitively never faltered. One of which was the belief that she could never step on the lines of the tennis course. This is a custom that is practiced by many players today because stepping on the lines is a sign of disrespect and bad luck. Player’s go out of their way to ensure that they never touch the white tape in between points.

Context: “As a tennis player, all of my life, I never stepped on the lines of a tennis court. If you watch tennis on TV today, I am in the majority. It was always something- it was something superstitious for many tennis players. It started with John McEnroe and I know that Roger Federer also does not step on the lines. Certainly, Rafael Nadal- I mean would pull a hamstring to step over the alley so he didn’t have to step on the lines… he’s psycho. Do you know what it was…it was more that it made the moments when you weren’t in the point and when you weren’t in the mindset of competition-it made when you didn’t have a lot of control in the point more bearable because the time in between points seemed like they were controllable, right.”

Thoughts: I think that this folk ritual and superstition signals that you respect the game and know the sport intimately enough to practice this custom. Moreover, as the informant explained, became a strategic, calming tactic as well. Having the power to deliberately step over the line and make a decision on the outcome of your movements gives the player a sense of control and is grounding when in such a high-intensity state. The folk tradition has many beneficial implications and has become more popular as more and more players step over the lines. It is interesting to watch how careful some players are never to touch the white lines, and now that I understand this ritual, it is so obvious when watching a game. 

Main Piece: “Work smarter, not harder”

Nationality: American
Age: 63
Occupation: Real Estate
Residence: CO
Performance Date: 04/26/2021
Primary Language: English

Background: The informant is devoted to his career. He has always had an entrepreneurial mindset and loves to succeed. Throughout his life, he has jumped on every career opportunity and worked as hard as necessary to feel fulfilled. That being said, in retrospect, he wishes that he had taken an alternative route to success. He assumed that the only way to reach his goals was to be the hardest worker in the room, but he sees now that there is a difference between working hard and working smart. 

Context: 

“I wish my dad had explained to me: Work smarter, not harder. That’s why I’m telling you this, once again, to really ingrain it in your mind. It’s something my father didn’t teach me, so I am gonna make sure you know it. There is no substitution for being a hard worker. Don’t get me wrong… drive, work ethic, commitment, you need those traits to get to the level of success I know you want. But, you also need to be efficient. Don’t waste energy. Optimize energy. Take the allocated time and make the most of it because you chose to work smart. It’s all about strategy. It is pointless to kill yourself over endless hours and sleepless nights. Just because you are torturing yourself through exhaustion doesn’t mean you are better than the next guy. It just means you aren’t being thoughtful. Every move you make as a professional should be purposeful and worthwhile, not done just for the sake of putting in the effort. We know you can work your ass off. You’ve done that throughout your entire academic career, and there is no one better at putting her head down and grinding. But, you need to show me- show yourself- that you can work intelligently. When you can do that, you can reach your goals, and take some time to enjoy that success. It’s a fault that I should have corrected long ago… I need to learn to relax and this is a way to get there.”  

Thoughts: This proverb from my dad is one that has really shifted the way I do work. He has given me this short lecture on the saying too many times to count because he believes in its power so passionately. The proverb is simple and short but definitely impacts the decisions I make on a daily basis. It is a phrase that I will share with my children, especially because my dad has put such emphasis on the fact that he wished he had known from his father that there is more than one route to success. 

Main Piece: Mad Bess

Nationality: American
Age: 11
Occupation: Student
Residence: CO
Performance Date: 04/12/2021
Primary Language: English

Background: The informant’s elementary school is said to be haunted by the ghost of a former tenant of land, Mas Bess. The school’s campus is very old and used to house many of the town’s silver mines in the late 19th century. The buildings have been remodeled, but never torn down. The school’s headmaster tells the students that if they are destructive towards the land or the buildings, Mad Bess will not be happy and will curse us all. 

Context: I asked the informant if she had ever seen a ghost before and she told me that she has yet to see her with her own eyes, but knows that Mad Bess is always looming around school. She promised me she was not afraid of Mad Bess, but some of her classmates are. She told me that she would never litter on the campus or disrespect the playground or the classrooms because she is certain Mad Bess would cause a miniature earthquake at her school. 

I also asked the informant if the teachers speak about Mad Bess frequently and she responded very matter-of-factly “Of course they do. Mad Bess is part of our community. The school would be incomplete without her. She has been on campus longer than any of the rest of us and deserved to have her home taken care of.” 

Thoughts: I attended the same school as the informant about a decade ago. While I was at the school, we had a different headmaster, but the legend of Mad Bess was the same. She was spoken about in two contexts. One, she was a legend of entertainment that served as a community point of connection. Two, she gave the teachers a threatening ghost story that they could strategically use to make the children behave. They could scare us into being respectful because the consequences of not doing so were grave. This is a folk legend that has been circulating and bringing together people on the campus since its founding. Ghost stories have so many purposes!    

Main Piece: Miss Susie

Nationality: American
Age: 11
Occupation: Student
Residence: CO
Performance Date: 04/12/2021
Primary Language: English

Miss Susie had a steamboat,

The steamboat had a bell,

Miss Susie went to heaven,

The steamboat went to…

Hello Operator,

Please dial Number 9,

And if you disconnect me,

I’ll cut off your…

Behind the ‘frigerator,

There was a piece of glass,

Miss Susie sat upon it,

And cut her little…

Ask me no more questions,

Tell me no more lies,

The boys are in the bathroom,

Pulling down their…

Flies are in the meadow,

The bees are in the park,

Miss Susie and her boyfriend are kissing

D A R K, D A R K, 

dark, dark dark 

Background: This is a folk song that has been circulating the playground since I was a kid, and now, the informant, my little sister, also knows this tune. When she sings it, I can always join in, as can my mom because she also remembers a similar version from her childhood. There is little variation between the three versions of the songs, but as the song has aged, so has the length of the song. 

Context: The informant sang this song to me when I asked her favorite nursery rhyme. This song is definitely more mature than Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, for instance, so I was not surprised that an older child chose it. She sang me this portion of the song and said that there was more, but she was uncertain of all the lyrics off the top of her head. I knew the words of the song up to this point, but my mom said that the version she knew stopped at “Pulling down their…Flies”. 

Thoughts: This is a folk song that has withstood the test of time and grown with age. I looked up the rest of the tune and there are many proceeding verses that are not appropriate for all ages. For example, some lyrics include: “I know I know my sister With the forty-acre bra.”, “I wish I had a boyfriend Who kissed me all the time!”, and “He made me wash his underwear So I kicked him out the door”. For the extended version of this song visit nurseryrhymes.org, Miss Susie Had a Steamboat (Hello Operator). I think this song is a testimony to how our music has become less censored than it was in prior generations. The kids have modified and added lyrics to the song that are more provocative and test the boundaries of childhood. 

Main Piece: Shabbat

Nationality: Amewrican
Age: 21
Occupation: student
Residence: CA
Performance Date: 04/20/2021
Primary Language: English

Background: Growing up, the informant celebrated Shabbat every Friday night. The custom was very reformed. Her dad would lead a five-minute ‘service’ that consisted of prayer, drinking some wine, and the breaking of Challah. The whole family would have a meal together. It was less of a religious experience for the informant than it was an opportunity for her family to be together and connect at the end of the week. 

Context: When the informant moved out of her house for college, she did not continue the folk ritual of having Shabbat on Friday nights. It wasn’t until she left home that she realized what the experience meant as a folk tradition. She explained to me: 

“Shabbat was unnegotiable in my house. Even on Friday nights when I wanted to go out with my friends in high school, I first had to have dinner with my family. My dad would say the prayers from memory- literally speaking so fast in Hebrew, it was remarkable-, we would pour the wine, and have homemade challah. My mom made it fresh every week and she would often spice it up with, like, a theme of sorts. Sometimes sweet, savory, but always so good. Nothing compares. I really did not have a choice in the matter when it came to Friday night dinner, but I did not know otherwise it was something that was so routine that it never phased me to rebel against the system. And I also didn’t look at it as something ultra Jewish- like I knew my friends weren’t doing this every week, but it felt more like a family tradition rather than a religious obligation. I did not appreciate those nights until they were gone, let me tell ya. I just never realized how special that time was. My dad worked and traveled a lot and my mom had three kids to deal with plus all of the non-profit stuff she did, so that time, even if I ran out of the house to meet my boyfriend directly afterward, that time was so important to my family.  It was one of the only times we all were together and there was no way to get out of it. I miss it. I never thought I would miss it, but on Friday nights, I don’t always want to be at a bar with my friends or finishing up work, I want to be with my dad blessing our food and my mom making sure the candles are burning just right. They always say you don’t know what you got till it’s gone, and I know that if I facetime my parents on a Friday night, they will be right there at the table just enjoying each other’s company. My kids will have some sort of tradition very similar to this implemented into their lives because it kept us together.” 

Thoughts: The celebration of Shabbat is a religious custom that is practiced in many Jewish households across the world. What I find interesting about my informant’s story is that the ritual carries a different meaning to her because of the way that her family practiced this tradition. They did not emphasize the praying as much as they did the conversations at dinner where each family member got to share the stories of their week and laugh over Challah. The Challah is part of the folk ritual that is an emblem of love and connection. Both the wine and the Challah are foodways that facilitate the bringing together of the family and serve as reminders of the informant’s roots when she encounters them in different contexts.