Tag Archives: high school

Rite of Passage

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 19
Occupation: Waiter
Residence: Inglewood, CA
Performance Date: April 15, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Back in middle school, umm there was this one chick named Teresa that for some reason everybody liked her so uhh like people would ask her out and she would reject them and all of a sudden there were five niggas that got rejected and shit… and then uhh so then like wow five niggas thas a fuckin’… rejected by Teresa there you go rejected by Teresa! The RBT! Then uhh so it became like a little club and everyone that was rejected by her hung out so uhh the rest of us wanted to be in the club so we asked her out, of course we got rejected so umm on to high school we still hung out even though we asked out the same chick, no beef. Like most society people evolve so it went from Rejected By Teresa to Really Big Tities and other stuff that could be initialed RBT. Like before we used to not hang out with David and KT but they knew Adrian and Victor threw baseball so we had a feel for them so… they were cool so they were let into out group… but then there was this other faggot named Joseph who tried to hang out with us… but that nigga just doesn’t know! You can’t just barge into peoples groups and shit! That’s what he tried to do and you just can’t do that do he would tag along… but we didn’t want him there so whenever we would have a kickback at Adrian’s we would call everyone except him.

It is clear that Daniel feels that one should not try to join a group of people without being invited and accepted by the members of the group.

This piece is an example of a rite of passage that people had to do in order to join the group. It started off by being rejected by a certain girl and then evolved to more of a social group. The letters RBT came from the fact that there are several gangs or ‘krews’ in the school that consisted of a bunch of little gangsters and they had letters associated with them. Although not everyone was a gang member, the influence was there and it influenced us into calling our group RBT, although we really weren’t gang affiliated. As a matter of fact, in high school when one of the guys in the group wrote the letters RBT on a desk jokingly, an actual gang crossed out the letters and wrote theirs over them, a sign of disrespect. When we found out about that, we quickly refrained from referring to ourselves as ‘RBT’ because we were not gang affiliated and did not want people to get the wrong impression. Subsequently we simply referred to ourselves as ‘The Fellas’ or ‘The Guys’, nothing special.

Also, this shows how if one tries to join up with a group without going through the proper rites of passage, there will not be acceptance. As seen with KT and David, they were already known by the people in the group and were liked, thus allowing them to have an easy transition into the group. On the other hand, Joseph was not really known by many of the people thus making it difficult to be accepted. Also the fact that he was disliked by a member did not help his chances much either. This shows the camaraderie that was within the group because they stuck together in their decision not to allow Joseph to be a part of the group.

Prank – United States of America

Nationality: Korean
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: April 28, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Prank – United States of America

“A prank often played on my school trips is to put toothpaste on the penis of the first guy to fall asleep. This prank is common practice by all seniors and is something of a school tradition. It is more of a game than a prank; everyone knows that the first guy to fall asleep will be screwed. There is no guilt since everyone is aware of what they are in store for. The guy to lose will be in great pain, the toothpaste burns!”

Bada mentioned this prank to me when I was talking to him about my own school trip experiences. He feels that pranks are a fun activity, and loves participating in them. Most pranks he knows are traditionally passed down by leaving seniors. However, there are some who feel pranks are insensitive and are usually an excuse to pick on or bully an innocent individual. There have been some isolated cases where pranks have in fact resulted in harm to the individual that they were played on. While Bada hasn’t been a victim of a prank he feels that it is all in good spirit and usually no hard feelings are held; and as long as they aren’t malicious they should always remain a school tradition.

It is also important to notice that these pranks usually occur on senior school trips, at the end of the senior year, just before graduation. It must be acknowledged that the seniors are now in a liminal period, not quite done with school but nearly in college. It is when individuals are in a liminal period that they partake in pranks.

Senior trip pranks aren’t attributed to just American high schools, it is a universal practice and even I have partaken in senior pranks, although senior pranks in Sri Lanka aren’t as painful (the toothpaste is usually substituted by shaving cream) and do not involve male genitalia! There are many cases where pranks don’t necessarily target individuals but are rather some form of vandalism or disturbance of the peace. While I do enjoy the thrill it is sometimes insensitive to others so we always try to refrain from any permanent damage.

Proverb – California

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 52
Occupation: Merchandise Manager
Residence: Tiburon, CA
Performance Date: February 23, 2008
Primary Language: English

Saying– The 5 P’s:

“Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance”

My mother, Jane Brayton, learned this saying in high school from a peer of hers in a student government meeting.  They were discussing an event that went poorly, and he walked in and posted a giant sign on the board with the saying on it.  It was communicated that he believed that the reason why the event went poorly was not because of the implementation, rather the lack of good planning. She had never heard the saying before this point, and assumed that the saying had been either coined or picked up by the guy she heard it from. She never asked him how he came up with it.  The high school that my mother attended was Seramonte, in Daly City, California .

Throughout my childhood, my mother used this saying often, whether I was complaining about bringing a jacket that I didn’t think I needed, or the girls in my Girl Scout troop complained about having to spend so much time planning a camping trip.  It was used so often that I often ignored its meaning, however on second glance, it is a good saying.  In a catchy alliteration that is simple, but also strongly conveys an important point.  It is not possible to have a successful event without proper planning, and if an event is properly planned there is less of a chance of something going wrong.

I always assumed that this was a silly saying that my mother had devised, however after doing some research, I discovered that the 5 P’s are commonly known, and that in fact the British Army uses the motto, however they have added two additional Ps so that it is a follows:

Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Another version of the 7 p’s is:

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

It is sometimes seen as the 6 Ps:

Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Or the version my mom knows, the 5 Ps:

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6_Ps

In addition, there are many other versions, some used in the business world and others as casual words of advice, all of which contain similar words in a similar order, and convey the same basic meaning.

Based on this, I believe that it is likely that the boy who my mom learned this from learned it from his parents or relatives who had heard the saying used at some point in their professional lives.

Works Cited:

“6 Ps.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10 Dec 2007. Accessed  9 Apr 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=6_Ps&oldid=177051685>.

Contemporary Legend – Akron, OH

Nationality: Caucasian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Akron, OH
Performance Date: April 30, 2008
Primary Language: English

Haunted Locker Room

Jimmy told me of this unnatural occurrence that happened at his high school in Akron, Ohio. Apparently in the 1950’s there was a student who felt extremely picked on and really just didn’t like his life. So one day he went into the boy’s locker room down below and hung himself from a pipe in there. Since then people have claimed to be in there alone and find all the showers turned on so the place steams up. Others have reported being there alone and hearing the toilet flush. Others simply feel a presence as though something else is there. Jimmy tells me this locker room always scared him not because of the haunting but because it had no windows and seemed like a cellar or prison to him. He did tell me his younger brother was in there one day by himself and felt a cold chill come over him followed by several lockers being slammed shut. He couldn’t believe it, it did not make sense because of the fact there were no windows. Both Jimmy and his brother were skeptical about the ghost until this happened.

Jimmy told me his thoughts on this haunted locker room commenting that it’s a great urban legend that some people take seriously, yet others believe to be just that, an urban legend. He himself was a skeptic until the experience his brother had. Now he tells me he feels you just never know what is possible. There could be this insanely powerful force out there and one part of that force is causing things like this to occur. Its all pretty mind blowing. Its definitely a story that will live on for a long time.

In my opinion, this story definitely has all the characteristic aspects of a ghost tale as far as a person loathing his life, dying and haunting the location where he roamed. This idea is often portrayed in movies and haunted houses at carnivals and amusement parks. We have a strange fascination with the idea of ghosts and the afterlife because it is one of those unknown topics. We create these ideas in our head in order to cope with the possibility of what lies in store for us when our time here is done.

Folk Game – American

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Nationality: African American
Age: 25
Occupation: Computer Science Student
Residence: Cleveland, Ohio
Performance Date: February 21, 2009
Primary Language: English

The game Flips is played with any kind of coin. Typically it is played with quarters. The matches usually take place during lunchtime and matches are quick so that the winner can go buy snacks with his winnings and still have time to eat them. To play the game you and your opponent must have identical coins. If you have a quarter your opponent must also have a quarter, for example. One person flips their coin. The other person has to flip their coin and get it to land on the same side as the coin that their opponent previously flipped. If I flip a quarter and it comes up heads then you have to flip your quarter and have it come up heads to win. If the opponent matches the side the coin lands on then he gets both quarters. If they do not match the person that flipped first gets both quarters. If you match it you win. If you don’t match it you lose.

Ira says that this game was first introduced to him during his freshman year of high school. It was very easy for him to learn and he played it almost every day. It was a good way for him to make snack money. He told me that his strategy was to play with quarters first and if he started losing he would switch to smaller currency, such as nickels or dimes, until he became profitable again, at which point he would switch back to quarters.

Part of the appeal of this game came from the fact that it was not expensive to play and when you lose it is only pocket change that you are losing. This game was convenient for high school kids since most of them did not make much money at the time. They were able to accumulate change from simply looking around there houses or saving up change from small purchases. Ira told me that he thought the game was a great way to kill time during the lunch break. It was a fun way to spend time with friends and meet new people at very little expense.

I think the game is a good way to create and strengthen friendships but as a consequence it seems that it could eventually lead to a gambling habit. Ira told me he played every day. It might not have affected him, but I think gambling daily can contribute significantly to a future gambling habit.