Tag Archives: california

“Birdie” vs “WaterFall”

“Birdie”

Context: A classmate I interviewed from Orange County used this term primarily in elementary school. This word is used to describe sharing water from a water bottle with another person by hovering it over your mouth instead of touching your lips to the lid. She said she believes the origin and context related to golfing, as there is the term “Birdie” when you score a hole in one. It is also debated whether or not it could mimic the action of a small bird being fed by its mother.

Analysis: As a child from the valley, growing up in Reseda, California, I’ve always used the term “waterfall.” It was really interesting to discover how much this term can vary from region to region, even in the same state. saying the term “waterfall”, “birdie,” or any other term used for this specific ritual of sharing water can automatically distinguish you from other regional folk groups due to its highly community specific nature. I also think that it’s interesting that the origin may have come from the golf term, since it could indicate that sharing water in what is perceived as a “sanitary” way is an accomplishment, like a hole in one. The other possible origin of a baby bird being fed by a parent is a more literal and fun meaning assigned to this playground ritual.

The ghost at Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI)

A: “Um, so at my summer camp, which is located on Catalina Island in Toyon Bay, specifically.”

Interviewer: “What’s it called?”

A: “It’s called Catalina Island Marine Institute, CIMI, and there’s basically this big hill that you can hike up and climb, and at the top of it there’s kind of, like, a chimney, basically just a chimney stand. And so the story is that there used to be a house up there, and it was a wife and a husband, and they had a kid, and it was a boy. And they were playing or something, and the kid fell off the cliff. And the mother went over, ran over, saw the kid dangling there. And for a moment, was like, Oh my God this is perfect. I wanted a daughter – something about that. So then, the kid plummets to their death. It was tragic. The husband sees it as a tragedy. No one knows that the wife, like, could have saved the kid potentially. They have another kid, ends up being a girl, and when she’s about six years old, they’re playing again, and the kid, once again, slips off the cliff and is hanging off the tree, and the mom rushes over and tries to save it. And the kid looks up and goes, Are you gonna save me this time, Mommy? Also, plummets to their death. The mom is obviously so, like, traumatized and, um… You know, is very, like, distraught by what just happened and what the kid said to her that she lit the house on fire and committed suicide. And the only thing standing is the chimney now. And so the husband wasn’t home, and came to find only the chimney left standing without the wife and the kid.”

Interviewer: “Wow. What did the husband do after?”

A: “I don’t know. Yeah, but that’s, like, the ghost story. And so the ghost of the wife, like, haunts the camp. And the kids.”

Interviewer: “How old were you when you first found out?”

A: “I was in late elementary school.”

Context: In class, we were discussing ghost stories. A. went to camp at Catalina Island Marine Institute. At CIMI, this is a ghost story that is passed down from generations of kids at the camp. It is based on an abandoned chimney that is at the top of the hill on the island there and how the house came to be burned down, along with the ghosts that came with the event.

Analysis: This story is a good example of a camp ghost story that gets passed down between kids to make a place feel more mysterious. I have never heard of a camp without a ghost story or legend because those aspects are part of the camp experience and create a community within that tale. Inside info that only camp members are in on. The legend connected to Catalina Island Marine Institute takes something real, that being the chimney at the top of the hill, and builds a dramatic, creepy backstory around it. Overall, it’s less about whether the story is true and more about creating a shared tradition that makes the place feel haunted and memorable.

Memorate: My Grandpa’s UFO Sighting

Context:

Informant J is a 73 year old Mexican-American man and is the collector’s grandfather. He is from San Jose, California, but his family moved there from parts of Texas and Mexico. For the majority of his life, J was a manager at a regional grocery store, and studied art in college with a focus in jewelry making. J is now retired and his hobbies include guitar playing, metal working, and reworking vintage cars.

Text:

(Please excuse typos, this is an unaltered text message from the informant): “I was fifteen years old and had just finished watching Superman on my grandfather’s television (he had one of the only color television on the block so I would frequent his house regularly). I lived caddy corner from them across the street so it only took a minute to get home. Upon reaching my house I stopped at my father’s 1959 surf green four door Oldsmobile which was parked in our driveway. It had a huge trunk like most cars of that era and I layer back on the trunk as was a regular occurrence. I was laying back on the trunk looking up at the stars when I saw a  pattern of five or six lights moving across the sky moving at a very fast rate of speed in a tight pattern. I was extremely frightened when the pattern of lights stopped for a few seconds and then split in different directions. I could not sleep with the lights off for at least a week and i was very reluctant to lay on that trunk to look up at the sky after that experience.”

Interpretation:

This was a story my grandpa had previously told me, and I asked him to write it out for this assignment. He claims that this was his own personal UFO sighting, and is the reason he believes in aliens now. It’s an interesting memorate, however, because he distinctly remembers watching Superman right before it happened. To me, that reads as inspiration for the story, something that may have convinced his brain that the stars moving in the sky were someone or something supernatural was moving, rather than a shooting star or a plane. My grandpa seemingly wanted to believe that whatever was in the sky was a UFO. It’s important to note, too, that this memorate made him reluctant to look up at the sky again for fear of seeing what he was convinced were aliens of some sort, and that he associated lying in the truck bed with that experience. I also wanted to mention that my grandpa specifically included details like the car’s make and color; it makes me think that those smaller bits of the story are what helps him to remember it.

Memorate: My Great-Grandparents’ Joaquin Murrieta Sighting

Context:

Informant J is a 73 year old Mexican-American man and is the collector’s grandfather. He is from San Jose, California, but his family moved there from parts of Texas and Mexico. For the majority of his life, J was a manager at a regional grocery store, and studied art in college with a focus in jewelry making. J is now retired and his hobbies include guitar playing, metal working, and reworking vintage cars.

Text:

(Please excuse typos, this is an unaltered text message from the informant): “My parents said they were just finishing up a picnic at Alumn Rock park on the East side of San Jose and were getting ready to head home when a man who looked like he had been dug up (his clothes was old and tattered and resembled clothes from the cowboy days. He came up to their car window and just stood there not saying a word but staring in a daze. They believe it was the ghost of Juan Murrieta who lived during the late 1900’s. He was famous for robbing people in that area of the park. My dad started the car and got the hell out of there! My parents were very scared and they were familiar with the legend of Juan Murrieta and never stopped talking about the incident!”

“Ps: The cowboy did have an old style revolver as well!”

Interpretation:

I’d like to note that people often confuse Juan and Joaquin Murrieta, and that my grandpa was almost certainly referring to the latter. I did some research after being told this story, as I hadn’t heard of either figure until now. Juan was a pioneer, whereas Joaquin is a Mexican figure commonly known as the Robin Hood of the West. More specifically, stories about Murrieta rose in California during the Gold Rush. I find it interesting that my great-grandparents claim to have seen Joaquin Murrieta, because they associated something strange with something they already knew about (ghosts), and their knowledge of it is heavily influenced by culture. Even though my family was Mexican-Texan, they had heard enough about this specifically Mexican-Californian legend in the little time that they lived there that they assumed the figure was him. What’s more, this story hints at a combination of folkloric beliefs, as my great-grandparents claim to have seen a kind of undead version of Joaquin Murrieta, who is more of a legend than a popular ghost. There are debates over whether he existed, but stories of seeing him are rarer. But my great-grandparents seem to have believed in ghosts in general, so this memorate only furthered their personal view of the world.

Ghost Neighbor in Rippon, CA

  1. Details
    1. Collected on 03/23/2024 
    2. Genre: Memorate
    3. Language: English 
    4. Nationality: Mexican
    5. Relationship to Informant: Friend’s Father 
  2. Text
    1. Summary
      1. When the informant was growing up, he and his brother would help out their older neighbor named Billy. The night that Billy died, his brother felt a strong presence over him that he believes was Billy’s spirit trying to tell him something. 
    2. Direct transcription of folklore:
      1. “In Rippon, where we grew up, there was a time when our next-door neighbor, Billy, died. That night – we didn’t know he had died – my brother felt a presence come over him and he couldn’t speak. Finally, he started screaming because he felt this presence – which was Billy. Later, we found out that he died at the time [my brother] felt the presence. Billy was older and his wife’s name was Nelly, and we would help them out. My dad would always send us over and ask if they needed anything, so if they had anything heavy they needed us to bring into their home we would help out or one time Billy fell off his horse and we had to go help him. They were great neighbors and we knew them. It wasn’t an evil presence, but it was something that came over him and he couldn’t speak. He wasn’t sure if Billy was trying to tell him something.”
  3. Context 
    1. This story was a personal experience from the informant that has become an oral tradition within his family. 
  4. Analysis 
    1. In this story, the informant’s brother felt the spirit of their neighbor trying to connect with him before they knew that the man had died. They believe that this presence was Billy’s attempt to communicate with them. This story indicates that there is a belief that spirits can attempt to contact the physical world during their passing to the afterlife. This story also expresses the cultural value of helping out neighbors and having a tight-knit community because it connects you to those around you.