Emma and I were playing with her doll yesterday (Dora the Explorer for those who like the details in life). She has terrible hair right now, I think that I need to wash and restyle it ASAP. Anyways, I said to Emma look at Dora’s crazy hair, it’s as bad as yours! She immediately touched Dora’s hair and her own hair. I was a little surprised. I then asked her where Dora’s nose was. She pointed to Dora’s nose. Then I asked her where her nose was. She stuck her finger up her nose then but clearly had the right idea. She also knew the locations of bellybuttons, arms, hands, legs, feet, ears, head, eyes, mouths and bums. After that she got bored and wandered off. She kept looking at me like I was crazy to not know where Dora’s ears, etc. were. Too, too funny. I guess she understands alot more than we give her credit for!
Her other new “trick” is the infamous high five. She’ll happily give it to you up high or down low. Her learning this new skill has led to alot of questions by me. When did the five originate? Why? What the heck does it mean anyway? Why does everyone seem to know what it means? After some lengthy research by yours truly, I’m pleased to tell you that I have discovered some answers.
Some say that the high five is a greeting first used by Lamont Sleets, Jr. His Dad, Lamong Sleets Sr., served in Vietnam in the the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry regiment. The division was affectionately known by it’s members as “The Five”. Sleets Sr. and his army friends started an informal greeting between them while serving in Vietnam. It consisted of extending their arm straight up in the air with all five fingers parted and saying the name of their division: “Five.” Lamont Sleets had a son who was around 2 years old and he aspired to be like his dad and all the army men who hung out at his house. Since it was tough for a youngster to keep track of all the different names of the visitors, the saying of “Five” became the little boy’s universal salutation for his fathers friends. When they would walk in through the door, he’d call out “Hi, Five” because he couldn’t remember their names but they all said five to each other. He called all of them Five.
The gesture turned from a salute to a hand tap because the little guy liked to see how big his hand was in comparasion to the army men’s hands. When Jr. started playing basketball in high school, the gesture caught on to his team mates. The gesture spread further when the team went from state to state playing games. (http://www.nationalhighfiveday.com/origin.html). This site is ridiculous — it’s about national high five day which apparently is celebrated in April of each year.
Wikipedia has another idea entirely. They say that the high five appeared as early as November 15, 1955 on the episode entitled “The Eating Contest” of the Phil Silvers Show. His character gives what “appears” to be a high five to another character. Wikipedia also states that the high five has been used as a celebratory gesture in sports as far back as 1974. Jack Mccullough of Burlington Massachusetts claims to have been an original inventor of the high-five during CYO basketball competition. Home movies do prove the use of the high five on his basketball team. The gesture caught on very quickly throught the league, so much so that some consider Burlington to an unofficial birth place of the high five. During the later 1970s, the high five was a very common gestuer in pickup volleyball games in Southern California, though this was several years after McCullough and his teammates used it. Magic Johnson also has claimed to be the inventor of the high five, although because he was a public figure at least as early as 1978 and there is no video footage of this, the claim is hard to substantiate. Two other individuals linked to the invention of the high five are former baseball player Glenn Burke (along with then teammate Dusty Baker) and former college basketball player Lamont “Mont” Sleets (as mentioned above from the other site). It is widely regarded as having developed from an earlier expression, the “gimme five!” where the recipient’s palm was extended flat in front, and the slapper brought his down to make a clapping sound, accompanied by the phrase “gimme five!” or “gimme some skin!”. Invention of the term “high five” and popularization of the gesture is credited to Derek Smith and the 1980 champion Louisville Cardinals basketball team.
The low five, slightly less popular variant of the high five, can be documented as far back as the 1920′s. In the 1927 film The Jazz Singer, an ecstatic Al Jolson gives another character the low five upon hearing that he was asked to audition for a Broadway revue.
There is apparently, quite the debate as to the origin of the high five. However, since there is no money to be made on the development of such an act, the only prize is pride. Maybe all of the supposed “inventors” of the five should just high five each other and call it a day. If you are still reading this rambling from me, then you apparently need to find something better to do! Please find some additional information on the high five, it’s definition and some variations in case you’re still free and interested in my babbling — I’m not sure why that would be.
A common addition to the high five is, instead of making contact with the other person’s hand, to move the hand up and over the hair at the last second.
A man and a woman about to High five.A high five is a celebratory gesture made by two people, each raising one hand to slap the raised hand of the other — usually meant to communicate mutual satisfaction to spectators or to extend congratulations from one person to another. The arms are usually extended into the air to form the “high” part, and the five fingers of each hand meet, making the “five”.
Several variations on the standard high five exist, in order to add uniqueness to the experience and to maximize satisfaction. For example, one such variation is the “flipside” also called the “windmill”; this method begins like a regular high five, however upon meeting up top, both high-fivers continue to swing their arms downwards until they meet again down low. This method is depicted in the feature film Top Gun repeatedly.
Numbers of participants larger than two, through a variety of techniques, can still perform a single high-five at one time.
It is generally regarded inappropriate for the person who has just done something high-five worthy to initiate the high-five (by putting his or her hand up first), especially if the spectators are not as impressed as the performer of the act is with him or her self. It is considered acceptable when the successes are monumental/exceptionally rare; however, each individual event is subjectively interpreted by the spectators, whose interpretations can differ from that of the performer.
If one initiates a high five by raising a hand into the air and no one consummates the celebration by slapping the raised hand, the initiator is said to be “left hanging.” This is considered to be a somewhat embarrassing faux pas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_five
Emma has not yet learned the history and intricacies of the aforementioned “five”. However, I’m pleased to announce that she at least has the basics. Have a great weekend everyone!
