Tag Archives: children’s lore

Mr. Magic

Informant AJ is a university freshman from San Jose, California. AJ attended a San Jose elementary school since he was five years old.

Text:

“Unfortunately, after some time, students noticed that one staff member who we called Mr. Magic wasn’t appearing in the classrooms anymore showing off his awesome magic, but we didn’t really think too much of it. I can’t remember if this was in elementary school or after I moved on. I just remember my family was telling me that he was caught stealing money from the PTA and keeping it for himself, so that was a very disappointing story, and it wasn’t really shared with the community. I can’t necessarily confirm this story but this is just what I’ve been hearing from a couple people.”

Context:

“Mr. Magic was a guy who did magic for his students at our elementary school. Some of his tricks were very nice but other tricks were definitely just because we were pretty gullible. Quite frankly, they weren’t the greatest tricks but overall it was pretty fun to see what he had for us students. He was very well-liked by most of the students, and was definitely a people person.”

Analysis:

The fact that Mr. Magic was affiliated with an elementary school contributes to the creation of the quasi-legendary figure of Mr. Magic. As is customary in the United States and in numerous other countries, there is a distinctly separate identity for children than there is for adults. This may constitute what stories, games, clothing, or behavior is appropriate, but especially dictates to what extent a child or adult is allowed access to information. Following the creation of the printing press in 1450 and the emergence of widespread schooling was the emergence of a complementary childhood identity that separated from adults, whereas beforehand, children were seen as small adults and expected to take on many of the same responsibilities. This would explain why students such as AJ were left in the dark at the time, paving the way for folk narratives to emerge both about his dazzling status as a well-liked magician, and of his mysterious disappearance.

Teasing hand gesture – Arabic Children’s Folk Gesture

Nationality: Palestinian
Age: 75
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Long Beach
Performance Date: 5/2/2021
Primary Language: Arabic
Language: English, French

Context:

She learned the hand motion in Egypt when she was around 5. You would do this gesture to another person when you want to tease them. Originally, when saying it, you would say “To’ ou moot” (“Explode and die”).

Gesture:

For the sake of my informant’s anonymity, I performed the gesture in the video.

Thoughts:

When I first saw the gesture, I thought it was playing on the English saying “Rubbing it in,” but then my informant translated the Arabic that accompanies the gesture. I found it hilarious that the speech and gesture have little to do with one another, but it could fall into the nonsense and taunting categories of children’s folklore (discussed by Jay Mechling in Chapter 5 of Elliot Oring’s Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An Introduction).*

*Jay Mechling. “Children’s Folklore.” Folk Groups and Folklore Genres: An Introduction, edited by E. Oring, 91-120. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1986.

Secret Summer Camp Chant

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Nationality: American
Age: 68
Occupation: Computer Consultant
Residence: Healdsburg, California
Performance Date: April 26. 2021
Primary Language: English

Background:

The informant’s mother used to say this phrase as a playful thing to her children. While my informant generally liked this chant for its nostalgiac purposes, her mother used it in a variety of ways at her childhood summer camp. Though I lacked the mind to gather where her mother was from, my informant is originally from California.

Context:

In summer camp, my informant says her mom learned to use the chant as a sort of password in order to get into other campers’ cabins, sit with people during meals, and participate in activities. That being said, I was able to record it during an interview for folklore collection.

Main piece:

“Hi-lo-eenie-meenie-kai-kai-oom-cha-cha-oh-pee-wah-wah-eedie-yidee-yodee-yoo-hoo”

Analysis:

I’m sure that my informant has remembered this piece her whole life because it has been reminiscent of her childhood (and because it sounds good rolling off the tongue), but the purpose it served at her mother’s summer camp allows us, as folklorists, to take a deeper look into the social lives of children. In acting as a password as a sort of key to participating in different social settings, the phrase likely created an ingroup and an outgroup which would have contributed to the children’s social hierarchy. It’s important to note, though, that my informant told me kids at this summer camp would all eventually learn the chant–after a few days of confusion followed by some practice. Thus, it must not have simply been a tool for exclusion, but a right of passage into becoming a recognized camp member.

Stinging Nettle Plant Remedy

Nationality: American
Age: 56
Occupation: Computer Programmer/Entrepreneur
Residence: Long Beach, California
Performance Date: 4/12/2020
Primary Language: English

Background: The informant is a man in his late 50s. he grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania before moving to upstate New York for college. In his mid 20s, he moved to Southern California and has lived there ever since.

Context: Growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the 70s, the informant recalls that the suburbs were relatively remote with forests on either side, where children would often play unsupervised. Because the neighborhood was relatively new, most of the adults living there had not grown up in the neighborhood and were not familiar with the local flora and fauna.

Main Text:

“Along the creek, you could just walk along and there would be, yknow, bushes and things like that. So one of them was stinging nettles, but we called it “Burn Hazel” when I was a kid. So when you brushed against it, it felt like you got poison ivy—you’d get bumps, all of a sudden it was incredibly itchy, but the older kids taught the younger kids…there was another plant called the “Elephant Ear” plant, and I have no idea what this plant was in reality, but it had big leaves. If you took that plant and rubbed it on it, it would cure it. And the parents never knew this, it was passed on from kid to kid, generation to generation.

Thoughts: Perhaps the most interesting part of this remedy is that the informant can identify the irritant plant “Burn Hazel” by its more commonly known name of Stinging Nettle but has had no luck finding out what “Elephant’s Ear” actually is. The other fascinating element about this herbal remedy is that only children seemed to know about it, since most of their parents did not grow up in the neighborhood where this herbal remedy was located. I wonder if children in the neighborhood nowadays know these tips and tricks—the informant says that much of the forest has been destroyed to build more homes, and his family who remained in town and are raising their children there don’t let them go around unsupervised.

Napoleon Rhyme

Nationality: African-American
Age: 15
Occupation: N/A
Residence: Washington, D.C.
Performance Date: 03/11/2019
Primary Language: English
Language: Amharic, French

INFORMANT: The informant is my fifteen-year-old sister, who lives in Washington, D.C. We both attended a french-language school until 2014, and this is one of the songs we used to sing as children.

CONTEXT: The informant heard this rhyme from one of her friends in the fourth grade when they started covering Napoleon in their class curriculum. According to her, this is a common rhyme taught to kids by other kids.

——————–

MAIN PIECE:

Original: “Napoléon est mort à Sainte-Hélène/Son fils Léon lui a crevé l’bidon/On l’a retrouvé assis sur une baleine/En train d’sucer des arêtes de poisson”

Translation: “Napoleon died at Sainte-Helene/His son Leon gutted his belly [informal]/They found him sitting on a whale/Sucking on fish bones”

——————–

I think this rhyme is a really interesting example of children’s lore. In general, kids seem to have the instinct to rebel against authority, and this often takes the form of mocking authority figures. In French classrooms, Napoleon is presented to children as somewhat of a legendary figure, so it would make sense that kids would create rhymes about Napoleon, given how venerated he is in French history. As someone who is seen as kind of a silly historical figure outside of France, Napoleon is also a fairly easy target for mockery (he inspired the term “Napoleon Complex,” used to describe people who try to compensate for their short height with overconfidence and ego). I think it also is interesting to observe the difference between what kids’ games and rhymes they learn from adults and what they teach each other; nursery rhymes and tales told and taught to children by adults tend to be more tame, while the things children pass down to other children usually to contain counter-hegemonic themes and seem to be more risqué or vulgar. This is somewhat reflected in the grammar of the rhyme as well. Grammar is an extremely important part of the French curriculum, and is constantly emphasized throughout both primary and secondary school. The use of contractions in the rhyme is another way that it is rebellious.

For another version of this rhyme, see “Napoleon” from Momes.net (http://www.momes.net/Comptines/Comptines-pour-rire/Napoleon)