Kelsey LundFollow

Date Collected

Fall 10-31-2017

Place item was collected

Kneader's Logan, UT

Informant

Matt Minaga

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Matt is a student at Utah State University and has attended this university for the entirety of his college career. Matt and his best friend Kengo have a wide range of influence on Utah State’s campus because of their many interactions with people through different positions held. He was one of the first people I met here at Utah State and felt a friendly connection with him immediately. Matt is the kind of person who you will always have fun with in any situation and is constantly a fun and positive influence in a group.

Context

Matt and I went to lunch at Kneaders and I had previously played this game with Matt the previous weekend. Kneader’s was not busy and easy to have conversation. We started the conversation about school and about how we were both doing. We talked about classes and what projects we had coming up. This conversation reminded me of my project and how I wanted to ask Matt about how he came to play the game “What Are the Odds?” The girl Chelsea he mentions was an old girlfriend of his that was fairly serious but ended and now he has no contact with her. In referencing to jumping out of a parking structure, he was referring to the time earlier when I tried to play “What Are the Odds?” and the challenge was to climb down a tree that was very near to the parking structure.

Text

Kelsey (Me): “Okay, so, how did you hear about the … game?”

Matt: “Uh, I heard about it through friends, up here at school.”

K: “At Utah State?”

M: “Yea, Utah State.”

K: “Okay.”

M: “So it took me awhile but I got it eventually.”

K: “Yea? Who told it to you?”

M: “[long pause] My friend Chelsea.”

K: “[chuckles] Okay. [laughs]”

M: “Yep [chuckles]”

K: “Good person. Um, and what do you call it?”

M: “What Are the Odds.”

K: “What Are the Odds? What’s like one of the best, um, stories that you have with it?”

M: “Um. This one time … Someone asked me what are the odds to jump out of a parking structure and down to the ground [K begins to laugh]. No, I’m just kidding. [chuckles and pauses] Like where I lost?”

K: “No, just a time that you remember. So, I guess yeah, if you lost then you’re like ‘That really sucked.’”

M: “Well it wasn’t me, I had a friend Amanda. She’s super…. She’s easily frightened? And she lost ‘What Are the Odds?’ to get duct taped to a tree in the cemetery [both start laughing]. It was so funny! And it was like, it was like a high number, it was like 1 in 30. And she lost. And we duct taped her to a tree. And that was freshman year.”

K: “How long was she duct taped to a tree for?”

M: “Like 5 minutes. [Inaudible talking]”

Texture

Matt seemed somewhat shy about sharing this information because it wasn’t in such a common setting to play the game. We were also one on one and if there were more people present, there would have been more stories about playing “What Are the Odds?” When talking about the story of duct tapping his friend, he seemed more relaxed. In thinking about a story about an event, he smiled when it came to mind and seemed excited to tell it. He didn’t build up with detail but wanted to get to the punch-line of the story. In recounting, how and where he first learned about the story, it seems very casual. The game seems to be a common idea that most know how to play. The way this story and explanation was told was calm, happy, and casual. This is not unusual to Matt’s personality in general, even if he were with a group of close friends.

Course

Introduction to Folklore, English 2210

Instructor

Dr. Lynne S. McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2017

Theme

G6: Socializing Games

EAD Number

3.0.26

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