I think I can say that most folk groups I belong to involve the jobs I worked at when I was younger. It's funny how easily a person can adapt to this new identity when they enter a new work setting. You become like the group, create inside jokes, and feel the burdens that are put on every other member of the group. These common, work-related, situations inevitably put you into a folk group you can call your own.
My first job was at a movie theatre, I really loved that theatre. It was a theatre that wasn't the most up to date, or the most flashy, but it had personality that was unmatched. All the employees there were very close, and we'd joke around all the time while working. Whenever there was a cute girl in the lobby, whoever saw her was obligated to go around to everyone and whisper, "hottie in the lobby." Another tradition that the theatre had was that we would always put the new guy on the popcorn popper for about his first week of being there. Popping popcorn was such a boring task that we always wanted the new guy to give us a break from doing it. A great example of a physical piece of folklore at the theatre was our pic and mix candy section. Boy, that section of our theatre has been there probably since it was opened up 40 years ago. It's this candy section of the lobby where people can mix candy and put it in a bag. It's something that I was sad to see go when the movie theatre went out of business last January.
Another folkgroup I belong to involves my second job I worked. I worked at a Safeway. There was a lot of terminology that was used by the employees, that only we understood, of course. Everyone that was an employee all knew the words "service ten" indicating that it was time to take out the trash. A lot of the younger employees knew the code terms we would use if there was a cute girl in the store also. We would say "FTB" (from the back) and then rate the girl by how she looks from the back. Then we would say "FTF" (from the front) and then rate how the girl looked from the front. It was funny to be working and then one of our co-workers just say infront of all the customers something like, "FTB, 9.5, FTF, 8.3" and no customer would ever understand. It was also a common for employees to hate going to go gather carts outside. It's a job that no employee, for the history of Safeway, has wanted to do. Everyone would always fight about whose turn it was.
These two groups are examples of folk groups because the employees share a common experience. There are words or phrases that are passed down from old employees to new, and even old peices of folklore such as our pic and mix candy section that serves as an original artifact to when the movie theatre began.
