Kjeisten SecretanFollow

Date Collected

Fall 12-3-2017

Place item was collected

Lehi, Utah in informants house

Informant

Jari Secretan

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Jari Secretan is 31 years old. He is my older brother, we have a close relationship. He is part of the Mormon religion. He grew up in Lehi, Utah and still currently resides there. He worked at Thanksgiving Point for about ten years. He was the setup manager, which oversaw all the setup for Thanksgiving Point

Context

I interviewed Jari late at night in his house. It was a very relaxed environment. His wife and my girlfriend were also present. Jari would sometimes abuse his power a little bit as an employee and sneak girls into the company’s gardens. Some requirements needed are to be a Secretan to fit in. Can’t be weird, somewhat normal and “strongish”. Be able to lift a plate rack. He talked about specific person that didn’t fit in, he would do annoying things like weird snappy things. He would face the window when he was sitting in the back of the truck. The employees would call people his name when they would mess up. He would talk about these occupational folklore stories to his friends.

Text

I was the setup manager, so in charge of setting up any event at thanksgiving point. We do anything from like a small business meetings to dinners receptions weddings concerts, festivals. We would have to setup all of our wedding chairs or metal chairs, 8 tops, 6 tops cabs linens, bring all the plates down, make sure there are cups and forks. New people would need to know the process of setting up the room all the legs of the tables have to be a certain way line have to be set out a certain way, where all the silverware goes. How to set the chairs. If it it’s an 8 top or 10 tops. All the different sizes of linens. It’s confusing on the sizes. We would say a Jimmy set or Jimmy buffet for a regular buffet or a Jimmy dean for a breakfast buffet set. Common mistakes would be that they would ask questions. Number one rule on setup is don’t ask questions. Some mess-ups are Tabor, Kjeisten, and who else…Colby drove up the vista mound which is only meant for golf carts. Or not even that, you guys popped a tire. Mike backed the little truck down by hidden falls and didn’t pull out straight so he ripped the whole side of the truck. And I was on vacation so when I got back nobody had said anything but he got fired after that.

Texture

Jari told this folklore in a casual tone. He usually has a causal tone in everything he does though. He did laugh and smile a lot during his interview. Reminiscing about all of his many years at his job, there was a hint of nostalgia in his tone. He definitely enjoyed talking about his past experiences.

Course

Introduction to Folklore/English 2210

Instructor

Lynne S. Mcneill

Semester and year

Fall 2017

Theme

G1: Groups/Social Customs

EAD Number

3.1.5.0.5

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