Whatever I saw must have been a figment
of my imagination. And before I jump
into this, I also feel like I need to acknowledge
that I have an affinity for ghosts,
UFOs, cryptids, and the macabre. Spooky
shit. I have a bias on wanting to believe
such things. But I still don’t believe in the
thing I saw not so long ago, in the remains
of the abandoned orphanage outside of
my hometown.
Americans
A Tempest in a Teacup:
Much of the anthropological research on divination attempts to gauge its role in society, but the question remains: why is divination persuasive? An analysis of two tea leaf readings by a single reader shows that the fortunes bear a structural resemblance to folktales, with the client as hero. Like the plot in a folktale, the readings’ predictions focus on the struggle to complete the tasks of the life course, often with the help of donors. Culturally, the readings persuade by reassuring us that life imitates art, while at the psychological level, they encourage us to sift through our thoughts for people and events that fit the storyline. This is the first known study to apply a Proppian structural analysis to divination narratives. It is also a human interest story—40 years in the making—about how a grandmother who lived through hard times in the Hudson Valley of New York State taught her college-educated grandson to read tea leaves.
Folklife Center30th Anniversary
The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library celebrated its 30th anniversary with a free Festival in City Park, outside the Library, in downtown Glens Falls on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Over 60 folk artists filled the park, demonstrating their crafts and sharing their traditions. Up close and personal, festivalgoers were able to witness firsthand the artists’ skills and to talk directly with the experts. Many of the artists offered a handson component to their exhibit.
Crankies — What People Watched before Movies
We were about 200 years late. For us,
it started in 2011, with a concert
featuring the traditional performer Elizabeth
LaPrelle. She sang the Child Ballad “Lord Bateman,” accompanied by a table-top box, which
contained a long scrolling quilt, which as it was
unwound revealed scenes depicting the various
verses. She called it a crankie. Well, my wife
Janet is a quilter. We exchanged looks: How
neat was this? We could make something such
as this for Fine Arts Salon at the next year’s
caving convention. Janet asked me, “What
songs about caving do you have?” We selected
“ The Ballad of Pete Hauer ”— a true story I’d
written about the mysterious death of a close
friend and his involvement with the murder of
a sort of innocent bystander.
From the Editor
The year 2023 marked the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Champlain Canal, the “little sister” of the Erie Canal that opened two years later in 1825. At the Folklife Center, we were able to join the celebration by producing a video mini-series called Champlain Canal Stories, funded in part by a grant from the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership.
From the Editor
I developed a research interest in foodways while doing my Master of Arts in Folk Studies & Anthropology at Western Kentucky University in 2015, but my cultural interest in food dates back much further, to when I was 18 years old and living in New York City for the first time as an undergraduate student. I remember that first semester vividly—the classes, meeting new friends, adapting to living in a city after having spent my entire life in a quiet college town. What I remember most of all are the tastes—meeting up with classmates for sushi during study breaks; sipping an egg cream for the first time at a diner at three o’clock in the morning; biting into a knish outside of Lincoln Center in the freezing February wind.
How the FBI Proved that My Father Wore Overalls:
My late father, Samuel Margolis, was
unwittingly caught in the anti-Communist
hysteria of the early 1950s. His troubles
began when he was accused of being a
Communist by coworkers who disliked him.
He was investigated by the FBI and other
federal agencies and lost his livelihood for
several years, but he was eventually able to
clear his name.
Set in Stone
Stonework must surely rank as one of
the oldest of folk arts, if only for the
longevity of the material used—hence its
presence in the historical record. While an
immense but finite supply of wood drew
Europeans to the shores of North America,
once they had exhausted local forest stands
through clearing, burning, ship building,
and construction, stone became the material
of choice. The ensuing works in stone
have been the longest lasting remnants of
vernacular architecture.
Foodways
At Yankee Stadium, béisbol is as American
as alcapurrias—those plump, golden-brown
plantain patties stuffed with seasoned beef.
It’s so from the sunken rye and bluegrass
sod field to the breeziest bleacher top.
With roughly thirty percent of United
States baseball players now of foreign-born
Hispanic heritage and the House that
Ruth Built smack dab in one of the most
established Puerto Rican communities in
the nation, large, hungry, thirsty crowds
have directed the market toward foods
that reflect fans’ cultural heritage.
Good Spirits
Have you ever spent a night in a haunted
bed-and-breakfast? Having stayed in several
inns that pride themselves on their resident
ghosts, I know that stories about these
ghosts’ appearances can be the best part
of overnight stays. Introduced at breakfast
along with blueberry pancakes, waffles, or omelettes, such stories add a dimension
of wonder to what might otherwise be a
humdrum stay.
Reviews
(1) Girsa—pronounced geer-sha
and meaning “young girls ” in Gaelic—is
a group of eight Irish American teenagers,
two generations removed from the Emerald
Isle, who live in and around Pearl River in
Rockland County. Their new, eponymous
compact disc is as refreshing as a cool drink
of spring water on a sweltering summer day. (2) “Seeking out a region’s folk tales and
legends offers more than entertaining reading,”
Melanie Zimmer explains in Central
New York and the Finger Lakes: Myths, Legends,
and Lore. “It offers a piece of ourselves.” This book is a celebration of the
regional identity of central New York as
developed and preserved through folktales.
Play
Abner Cartwright, Alexander Doubleday. . .
these composite names stand for an exceedingly
odd couple whose identities have been
stolen, accomplishments merged, and stories
intertwined for more than a century now. What
both men share is that their lives were hijacked
after their deaths, and as a result, each was
credited with something he did not do—that
is, invent baseball.
Still Going Strong
Images of jugglers appeared on the
walls of Egyptian tombs more than four
thousand years ago. They are the first known
representations of an ancient craft that
continues to entertain and fascinate. The
English word “juggler” derives from the Old
French jongleur, and these performers have
been common at public events, carnivals, and
on the streets since time immemorial. These
days, jugglers appear at circuses and variety
shows, as well as in public places.
Good Spirits
Two years ago, while preparing to teach
my fall Folklore of the Supernatural class, I
looked up “haunted dolls” on eBay. A folklorist
friend of mine had warned me never
to order a haunted doll, even at a good
price. “I’d never have one of those things
in my house!” my friend had told me. Like
the central character of the Grimms’ tale
“The Youth Who Wanted to Learn What
Fear Is,” I could not resist the temptation
to order a haunted doll. What harm could
possibly come from this simple transaction?
From Wild Man to Monster:
When the first European settlers
entered what is now New York
State and its environs, they brought with
them not only their material culture, but also
an array of beliefs in mythical beings. Such
creatures had been part of the European
psyche for centuries. A central character in
this pantheon was the “wild man” thought
to inhabit the darker parts of the European
countryside. Also known as the woodwose,
wooser, or “wild man of the woods,” it
was conspicuous in folklore between the
thirteenth and fifteenth centuries and holds a
prominent place in later medieval European
artwork and literature.