





































ren's
FOLKLORE NEWSLETTER

the .
I

Volume II, Number 2

t:llere We Go, 'Round Again"
The Children's Folklore Section has changed the

subscription rate policy; subscription rates will now be
assessed for the calendar year instead of the academic
year. Because of this change, the Children's Folklore
Newsletter will readjust its volume and number desig-
nations. Starting this calendar year, the Spring
issue will be Volume III, Number 1;the Fall issue will
be Number 2; and the Winter issue will be Number 3.

Tentative deadlines for submission of materials to
be published in the Newsletter:

Spring issue - March 30 Fall issue - September 30
Winter issue- December30

c. W. SullivanIII
Editor

lill~~@OD~@rn~rn~lJ~1
SUBSCRIPTION DUES NOTICE

. At the October 1979 meeting of the Children's
Folklore Section in Los Angeles, the annual subscrip-
tion ra te for the Newsletter was set at $5.00/ year.
Subscription notices for 1980 have already gone out.
Any person wishing to subscribe to the Newsletter
should send a check for $5.00 to:

Gary Alan Fine, Chair
Children's Folklore Section
Department of Sociology
Universityof Minnesota
Minneapolis,Minnesota55455

CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE SECTION
CONSTITUTION

. The Constitution Committee of the Children's
Folklore Section is currently preparing a draft to be
discussed at the 1980 meeting. Anyone wishing to
make suggestions at this time should address them to:

Thomas W. Johnson

Department of Anthropology
California State University,

Chico
Chico, California 95929

-l

WINTER 1979

Minutes, Children's Folklore
Section Meeting, 1979

The Children's Folklore Section of the American
Folklore Society met on Friday, October 26, at the Los
Angeles Hilton. Before the election of officers, we dis-
cussed the question of annufll dues: should the present
amount of $5.00 be changed? We decided, in view of the
newsletter expenses and the possibility of other publica-
tions, to retain the same amount. One possible publica-
tion, a journal of the Children's Folklore Section, was
discussed at some length. We agreed that it would be
premature to found such a journal at this time, though it
might be a worthwhile project for the future.

A vote was taken to reappoint the present steering
committee for one year, in the following positions:

Gary Alan Fine, Chair
Elizabeth Tucker, Secretary- Treasurer

Sylvia Grider, Archivist
C. W. Sullivan III, Editor

In the future, the terms of officers' service will be
staggered.

Gary Alan Fine, who had served as treasurer during
the past year, presented a financial report. The balance of
the Children's Folklore Section, as of October, 1979, is
253.94.

Several members suggested that the time had come to
draft a constitution for the Children's Folklore Section.
With the approval of all present, a four-person constitu-
tion committee was formed. Sue Samuelson, Karana
Drayton, and Tom Johnson will work together on the
constitution, with another participant ex officio (to be.
decided by the Section officers). Maryellen Hains made a
motion to have a draft of the constitution in the hands of
the membership thirty days before the next meeting. This
motion was approved. Linda Morley then suggested that
the newsletter call for members to contribute to the
efforts of the constitution committee.

Gary Alan Fine told of his meeting with Marilyn
Braunstein of Greenwood Press, who had contacted him
after seeing the newsletter's first issue. As a result of their
discussion, three possibilities have emerged: a children's
folklore handbook, an annotated bibliography, and a
motif index of children's games, stories, or other mate-
rial. Another editor, from the Garland publishing house,
has expressed interest in a children's glossary.

Barbara Walker suggested tbe Shoestring Press as
another alternative. Several questions were raised about

(conlin~d on page Z)



Minutes. cOnTinl/ed. . .

the handbook: should it come first, before other publica-
tion possibilities? Would it be a handbook along the lines
of Dorson's Folklore and Folkl(fe?Would royalties come
to the Children's Folklore Section? Kenny Goldstein
reminded us that no publication can be published by a
section without approval of the AFS editorial board.
Publications of the AFS now go through the University
of Pennsylvania Press. Elizabeth Tucker suggested that
all of these logistics be carefully considered before mak-
ing any commitment.

It was suggested, and unanimously approved, that an
ad hoc publications committee be established. The
members nominated for this committee were:

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Tom Burns
Priscilla Ord

Linda Morley
Barbara Walker
Kenny Goldstein
Carol Carpenter

A motion was made that all of these members be elected
(plus one member ex officio) subject to the approval of
the two absent members. This motion was accepted by
acclamation.

Under new business, Linda Morley brought up the
need for librarians and teachers to be informed what
folklore is. Could the Children's Folklore Section spon-
sor a one-day conference in Pittsburgh prior to the next
AFS meeting? The library association would be likely to
cooperate. If one year would not be enough for prepara-
tion, then the conference could be held in 1981.

Sylvia Grider said that one year would not be enough
to prepare such a conference, which must be brought to
the attention of the Executive Board. Priscilla Ord sug-
gested that members of the School of Library Science
could be invited to join us; Linda Morley replied that it

would be better to have a workshop. Maryellen Hains
proposed looking into the possibility of a summer insti-
tute. Barbara Walker said that cooperation from the
ACLS and ALA would be likely for such a project.
Kenny Goldstein suggested another possibility: to go and
do panels at librarians' meetings. The Section could pick
its best spokesman to attend meetings ofIibrarians. Gary
Alan Fine concluded that it was probably too late to
prepare a conference for the Pittsburgh meeting, and that
Kenny Goldstein's idea was more immediately feasible. A
committee should be formed to discuss feasibility, with a
tentative goal of the San Antonio meeting. Maryellen
Hains proposed the formation of a speaker's bureau; the
lack of payment for possible speakers was brought up to
counter this proposal. Tom Johnson suggested that
Linda Morley investigate what might be done.

Katharine Briggs stated that there were good ideas,
but the constitution should be formulated first. The Eli-
zabeth Gaskell Room should be formally suggested for
the Pittsburgh meeting.

Gary Fine nominated Sylvia Grider, Linda Morley,
and Priscilla Ord to look into the possibility of meeting
with librarians. This is not yet a formally constituded
committee.

Priscilla Ord announced that the Children's Litera-
ture Association was accepting paper proposals until
Nov. 15 for its March meeting in Waco, Texas. The
Popular Culture Association was also accepting calls for
papers until Nov. 15 for its spring meeting in Detroit.

Chip Sullivan and Gary Alan Fine were commended
by the Section members for their fine work with the
newsletter and publicati°!l i~quiries, respectively. -

Elizabeth Tucker
Secretary-Treasurer

lJ[}{]~ @ [}{]~~[ID 00~ [K]9~ @j~@~~ffiOOV

In each issue we hope to publish a list of items offolk speech used by children in the course of their informal speech.
Words should be defined according to their definition in use. Also, where possible, part of speech, age of users, location in
which the words were heard and collected, and other background information available should be noted. Contributors
should use the glossary form in the journal, American Speech. Hopefully, if this section of the newsletter proves to be a
success, after several years we can consider afull compilation of all terms collected in a published glossary. Contributors
should attempt not to contribute words or phrases used by both children and adults with similar meanings, although this
distinction is never a clear one.

Pre-Adolescent Male Slang II
Gary Alan Fine

Universityof Minnesota

The following examples of folk speech are derived middle class suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesot~, consist-
from participant observation research in five American ing of a large number of modern mass-produced homes,
communities during the period 1975-1977: (I) Beanville, and (5) Maple Bluff, studied by Harold Pontiff, an urban,
an upper-middle class professional suburb of Boston, upper-middle class, professional area ofSt. Paul, Minne-
Massachusetts; (2) Hopewell, an exurban township out- sota. Boys were between the ages of ten and twelve.
side the Providence, Rhode Island, metropolitan area, Terms included in the glossary were all part of the
consisting of a string of small towns, beach-front land, active vocabulary of male pre-adolescents during the
farms and a campus of the state university; (3) Bolton years studied. However, it is probably true that several of
Park, an upper-middle class professional suburb of St. these terms are also used by females and those of other
Paul, Minnesota,-similar to Beanville except for geogra- ages. The most obvious examples of adult folk speech
phical areas; (4) Sanford Heights, a middle-to-Iower- have been eliminated from this list.

2


	Winter79_Vol2No2_Part1
	Winter79_Vol2No2_Part2

