Essay on Nothing
Maalik Reynolds
Folklore __________
May 2, 2013
Collecting Project
Cinco De Febrero
Collecting these stories was something that I found very fun. At first, I thought it would be difficult because the concept of collecting stories seemed foreign. But I realized that I collect stories all the time in my daily life; I just never actually record them with such detail. So during this collecting phase, I was able to observe the actual process of me listening to people’s stories, which was different than me actually just listening to the stories themselves. Now when I listen to people tell stories, I’m aware of the fact that this can be considered folklore.
The themes of the stories I collected were similar since all of them were different people’s perceptions of the same event which was a party thrown by the track team. The party is called the Cinco de Febrero party, and it has been thrown at the track house (also known as “the deuce”) for many years now and is probably the most anticipated event at the track house. I don’t specifically know the origins for the name of the party, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with Cinco de Mayo.
There is a lot of planning involved with the party, mainly concerning making “the agua.” The agua is the alcohol they serve at the party. I don’t quite know the ingredients because I don’t live at track house and it’s a house recipe, but I can boil it down to two main ingredients: alcohol and pineapples. So two of the stories that I collected had drunken violence as a foundation. Jake Brenza and Annie Holland, who are a thrower and a jumper respectively on the track team, told these two stories to me. Jake’s story starts out with everyone dancing in the living room of the track house. However, right next to the living room is the kitchen and it has a type of bar setup where people play drinking games like quarters or flip cup. So in the living room there were drunk people dancing, and in the kitchen area there were
Folklore __________
May 2, 2013
Collecting Project
Cinco De Febrero
Collecting these stories was something that I found very fun. At first, I thought it would be difficult because the concept of collecting stories seemed foreign. But I realized that I collect stories all the time in my daily life; I just never actually record them with such detail. So during this collecting phase, I was able to observe the actual process of me listening to people’s stories, which was different than me actually just listening to the stories themselves. Now when I listen to people tell stories, I’m aware of the fact that this can be considered folklore.
The themes of the stories I collected were similar since all of them were different people’s perceptions of the same event which was a party thrown by the track team. The party is called the Cinco de Febrero party, and it has been thrown at the track house (also known as “the deuce”) for many years now and is probably the most anticipated event at the track house. I don’t specifically know the origins for the name of the party, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with Cinco de Mayo.
There is a lot of planning involved with the party, mainly concerning making “the agua.” The agua is the alcohol they serve at the party. I don’t quite know the ingredients because I don’t live at track house and it’s a house recipe, but I can boil it down to two main ingredients: alcohol and pineapples. So two of the stories that I collected had drunken violence as a foundation. Jake Brenza and Annie Holland, who are a thrower and a jumper respectively on the track team, told these two stories to me. Jake’s story starts out with everyone dancing in the living room of the track house. However, right next to the living room is the kitchen and it has a type of bar setup where people play drinking games like quarters or flip cup. So in the living room there were drunk people dancing, and in the kitchen area there were