The Main Piece
Nile has her own family tradition which she calls “doing the Hollywood Shuffle.” Whenever she has family coming into town her family would dedicate at least a couple hours to cleaning the house. It is their own code for doing chores and “making the house presentable to the average eye.” There are chores designated for certain people, they even had a chart made for different people to know what they were doing. Being that Nile’s family is considerably large, this tradition has been passed down for generations. Each child, depending on their age and what order they were in lineup (lineup being based on order of birth), would be designated a certain task. For instance, the youngest would do the dishes, the middle child would mop the floors, and the eldest would cook the meal for the night. As they got older they would also upgrade to different tasks, sometimes multiple tasks in one Shuffle. There would also be the task of learning how to perform the job well. As soon as you were of age the younger sibling may take over the elder one’s job. At that time they would begin “shadowing the older one.” Nile’s family tradition of the Hollywood Shuffle created an organized system to prepare for guests that seemed fair and made each person responsible for a certain task.
Background Information
My informant is Nile Jones, a current undergraduate and close friend of mine at USC. She comes from a large family, thus inspiring the necessity for a tradition such as the Hollywood Shuffle. Nile first started doing the Hollywood Shuffle at the age of five years old, but did not fully comprehend the system until she was in the eighth grade. Her mother was the one who first instilled this tradition in her, although it was instilled unwillingly, she obeyed under her mother’s command. Now, she has a newfound respect for the system as she understands the necessity to clean the house at least under the occasion that there are expected guests. She plans to follow the tradition and instill it in her children as well.
Context
Nile told me about this tradition as we were preparing dinner at her place. She was reminiscing about all the chores she would have to do and how she hated having to “shadow” her older brother and sister.
Personal Thoughts
I enjoyed hearing about how larger families work. I came from a small household with only one brother so it was interesting to hear about the various chores and lifestyle Nile lead. I never would have thought of such an organized system, but I suppose it is necessary when one has such a big family. I was glad to hear her plans to keep the tradition alive as it represents not only her past experiences under the practice, but also instills it in her children.