The Hole in One

Nationality: American
Age: 74
Occupation: Retired
Residence: North Carolina
Performance Date: 4/29/22
Primary Language: English

Context: The subject of the interview is an older man who grew up in southern California 

Text:

“When I was in high school at some point, I turned to my dad one morning and asked “hey dad is there something you could teach me to cook”. He said that he doesn’t cook much but he could teach me how to cook a hole in one. And I said no I didn’t say anything about golf, I said cook. He said I know, it’s called a hole in one. I asked, what’s that? So he said he’d teach me. He said get that piece of bread and butter it up on both sides. He said now take a little knife and make a circle in the bread. And so you’re cutting around the circle in the bread. Now take that little circle out of the bread. Now go over and put a pan on the burner and turn the burner on and put the piece of bread in the pan. It will start to cook. So what’s next? So now get an egg out and crack the egg into the hole. When you crack the egg and the egg starts to come out the shell, make sure it goes in the hole. All of a sudden it starts to cook and within about five minutes it starts to look done. Now take a spatula and you’re done. And finally, as my dad would say, yokes on you”. 

Analysis: 

This piece of folklore is an example of folklore that is passed down through culinary activities. This genre of folklore in particular is greatly rooted in cultural and familial practices. It is usually in a familial setting that someone would be cooking, and food usually has ties to a greater culture.