Contextual Information
Time of Interview: April 24th, 3:33 p.m.
Location of Interview: Interior of Birnkrant, 6th floor hallway.
Informant’s first encounter w/ folklore: Early childhood
When Folklore is Performed: National Holidays, such as July 4th
Transcript:
“In New Jersey, my town is Chatham. It doesn’t have a super long history, but it has a decent history. In our town, it’s split into a borough and a township. All through the borough there are little plaques around saying, “This person is here, this person is there.” Near my town is Springfield, and during the revolutionary war, there’s the battle of Springfield and there’s this one big hill where apparently George Washington stood and watched the battle of Springfield from the top of this hill. Now it’s weird because the hill’s a graveyard, but every year people do go their, look out over the field and think about what could have been. It’s weird, because the hill has a really good view of New York, one of the best. Now, every year people will go there and look on 9/11, and they’ll shoot the two beams of light that are supposed to be the towers and the hill takes on a new meaning.”
For my informant’s town, this hill serves as a way to reflect upon both a proud and a tragic part of their American heritage and history. It allows the young and the old to stand in the same spot as Washington and see how the America that he saw has formed over the years.