Tag Archives: verbal folklore

“Locker Room Pre-Game Chant” (Jake Guidone)

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  1. General Info
    • Locker room tradition
    • Type of Lore: Verbal/Customary
    • Informant: DG
    • Place of Origin: Providence, RI
  2. Informant Data:
    1. Daniel Gioioso is a twenty-two year old male who plays football at Union College. Daniel, who goes by Dan, was born in Newton Massachusetts but raised in Walpole Massachusetts. Dan attended Xaverian Brothers High School where his love of football flourished. Currently, he resides in Schenectady, New York, where he attends Union College and has played football for the past four years. 
  3. Contextual Data:
    1. The Union football team has seen great success since Dan joined the team in 2017. They recently won their national championship at the division 2 level. Dan started for the team throughout his entire collegiate career, and has helped Union by recruiting kids, and improving the culture at the school.
  4. Text/Tradition:
    1. To do this, Dan, amongst the other players, employ a locker room chant to get the players riled up and ready to play. This chant is a tradition at Union that had fallen off a little before Dan’s arrival. This chant was inherited from the older players, and said before every game. The chant is 16 lines, and the captain of the team gets in the middle of all the players in the locker room. This chant helps to build character, and ignites the fighting passion of the Union football players.
    2. Here are a few lines:
      1. “As I walk across the field today, it comforts me to know that I am the roughest, toughest guy on the field. I have been coached well, I show no mercy, so help me God”. 

“Friday Night Locker Room Watch Party” (Jake Guidone)

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  1. General Info
    1. Locker room tradition
    2. Informant: Callum Flanders
    3. Place of Origin: Providence, RI
    4. Verbal and Customary Tradition
  2. Informant Data:
    1. Callum Flanders is a twenty-two year old male who plays football at Brown University. Callum, who goes by Cal, was born and raised on the south shore in Braintree, Massachusetts. He attended Xaverian Brothers High School where he developed his love for sports. Cal currently resides in Providence, Rhode Island, where he has attended Brown and played division one football for the past four years. 
  3. Contextual Data:
    1. College football was a lot different than Cal had expected. At Brown, the football team is not the focal point of the university (like many serious division one colleges), where attendance and the perception of football are at a low point. This was due to a continually losing football program at Brown. Players were not getting excited when their teammates were making big plays. They were not celebrating like other winning programs would, and it showed.
  4. Item/Tradition:
    1. In order to change culture, a few seniors (who graduated in 2010) began the “Friday Night Locker Room Watch Party”. No one knows who exactly started the tradition, but the players get together as a team on Friday night before the game, in the locker room. There, they watch the Ivy League Friday Night game on tv. They get food catered, bring gaming consoles, and play super smash bros. Players eat, talk and generally spend more time with each other (outside structured time). Friendships and true bonds are built through this unstructured time, and the tradition helps players become more willing to celebrate when their teammates/friends make a big play. 

Men’s XC Cheer

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Title: Men’s XC Cheer

General Information About Item:

  • Verbal/Customary folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: CD
  • Date Collected: 10/21/21

Informant Data:

  • Male, 19 years old, Born in New Hampshire, Currently living in Hanover, NH
  • CD is a long distance and XC runner at Dartmouth

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Cross country races are both a team and individual sport. While individual performance is important, so is the team’s as a whole. These races also take place outdoors with hundreds of competitors from different schools all starting on the same start line.
  • Social Context: Since Cross country is a team sport, making sure that the team is bonded and eager to help each other is essential to placing well in a meet.

Item:

  • CD described a team cheer which the Men’s cross country team chants before every meet. The whole men’s team gathers in a huddle to perform the chant. He described two parts, person A (usually the team captain) leads the chant while the other line is shouted by the whole team in response.

Informant Comments/Quotes:

“We have the same cheer before every race.”

Person 1: “Men of dartmouth set a watch”

All: “Lest the old traditions fail” – CD

Collector Comments:

  • The team cheer seems like it really gets the whole team excited and ready to work together in the coming race. I can see how it’s extremely important to have the team get together for one final chant before it’s time to compete.

Collected by: Chloe Taylor

Women’s XC Cheer

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Title: Women’s XC Cheer

General Information About Item:

  • verbal/customary folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: AJ
  • Date Collected: 10/21/21

Informant Data:

  • Female, 19 years old, born in Boston, MA, currently living in Hanover, NH
  • AJ is a mid distance and cross country (XC) runner at Dartmouth

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Cross country races are both a team and individual sport. While individual performance is important, so is the team’s as a whole. These races also take place outdoors with hundreds of competitors from different schools all starting on the same start line.
  • Social Context: Since Cross country is a team sport, making sure that the team is bonded and eager to help each other is essential to placing well in a meet.

Item:

  • AJ described a team cheer which the cross country team chants before every meet. The whole women’s team gathers in a huddle to perform the chant. She described two parts, person A (usually the team captain) leads the chant while the other lines are shouted by the whole team in response.

Informant Comments/Quotes:

“We do a certain cheer before every race at Dartmouth.”

Person A: “Run”

All: “Fast”

Person A: “Run”

All: “Relentless”

Person A: “Run” 

All: “Ugly”

Person A: “Lone pine pride on three”

Person A: “1 2 3”

All: “Lone pine pride”

Collector Comments:

  • The team cheer seems like it really gets the whole team excited and ready to work together in the coming race. I can see how it’s extremely important to have the team get together for one final chant before it’s time to compete.

Collected By: Chloe Taylor

Introduction

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Introduction: 

For our project, we decided to collect children’s lullabies from around the world, interviewing Dartmouth students from across the USA and various foreign countries. Lullabies are songs ranging anywhere from a few lines to multiple paragraphs used to soothe children. They can be passed down from generation to generation, with many of them having a strong connection to familial heritage. We also found that many lullabies used natural elements to soothe, such as the sun and animals, and used repetition of similar phrases and rhymes. The idea of love was conveyed in a majority of our lullabies, as well as reference to guardians. In addition, some lullabies had scary themes, but regardless of what the theme was, all lullabies were sung with a gentle voice and smooth pitch contours. 

Informants: 

The informants that we collected from gave us a very diverse pool of information, ranging from South American to European to American lullabies. The 35 people that we interviewed provided valuable insight into the purpose and different meanings of lullabies. 

Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11WzgrkMYnUZD8ESK-kZw9GARGdR_FkxM1lCw7PKiGc0/edit?usp=sharing

Items:

Collectors:

  • Reem Atallah
  • Emma Macaione
  • Lucy Murray
  • Ignacio Ortiz
  • Ali Silva
  • Piper Stevens
  • Jenn Wendelken

Tags: 

  • Verbal Folklore
  • Lullabies
  • Dartmouth
  • Students
  • Natural Elements

On-Night (Annabel Revers)

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Title: On-Night

General Information:

  • Type: Verbal Folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: AM ’23
  • Date Collected: 11/1/2021
  • Location: Baker/Berry Library at Dartmouth College

Informant Data:

  • AM ’23 is from Orange County, California, and is a student at Dartmouth College studying Economics and Government. He is involved on campus as a teaching assistant in the Government Department. He plans on going into consulting after graduation.

Contextual Data:

  • Culture Context: Dartmouth has a “work hard, play hard” culture where students are expected to perform well academically and work hard at the schoolwork while also maintaining an active social life on campus. Furthermore, fraternities are a very prominent part of the social scene at Dartmouth.
  • Social Context: Dartmouth students typically go out to parties to socialize on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. While students can find things to do on other nights, these three nights in particular are when larger events are hosted by the dozen fraternities on campus.

Item:

  • The phrase “on-night” refers to nights when Dartmouth students typically go out to parties. For example, someone will say to their friend, “Are you going out tonight?”. Their friend might respond with the following: “Yeah of course, it’s an on-night.”

Associated File:

  • Transcript: “An on-night is Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday when more parties are hosted. There’s parties on other nights once in a while, but those are the days most people go out. On-night is a phrase you hear all the time around campus. Friends will throw it around all the time, usually in the context of whether or not they should go out. I’m not sure when it originated: it’s be used since I’ve been here and I would guess long before.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • Even students who go out a lot might not go out every on night, myself included.

Collector’s Comments:

  • While this phrase might not be entirely Dartmouth specific, it is a very prevalent phrase in our vocabulary.

Collector’s Name: Annabel Revers

Tags/Keywords: Verbal Folklore, Students, English, Dartmouth, Social

“This Little Piggy” (Jennifer Wendelken)

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Title: This Little Piggy

General Information about Item:

Verbal Folklore Language: English

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Informant:  Adelia Rattray

Date Collected: 10-9-21

Informant Data: 

Adelia “Dede” Rattray was born May 23, 2001 in Providence, Rhode Island. Both of her parents are from Long Island, New York. She is a junior at Dartmouth and a member of Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority on campus. Dede has an older brother and a younger sister. Dede noted that “This Little Piggy” was one of many lullabies her parents would both sing to her and her siblings as children, but that this lullaby was her favorite and most prominent memory growing up.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: 
“This Little Piggy” was one of many lullabies sung to Dede growing up, but she noted that this one was her favorite because when her dad sang it to her, he would soften his voice every time he sang it through until he was whispering and she fell asleep. She thinks that her dad put the children’s rhyme to a tune because she noted that everyone she knew growing up did not think there was a lullaby tune to it.

Cultural Context: 

This lullaby originated in London in the 1760s with ‘pigs’ instead of ‘little piggy’. It was not until the mid-20th century that ‘little piggy’ became popular. Dede’s parents are both from New York and were familiar with the rhyme. This shows how songs and folklore can be shared and change over time. Dede and her two siblings share fond memories of this lullaby so it has brought them together as a family.

Item:
This little piggy went to the market
This little piggy stayed home
This little piggy had roast beef
This little piggy had none
This little piggy went wee wee wee
All the way back home

Associated file: 

This-Little-PiggyDownload

Informant Comments: 
Thinking about my childhood with lullabies right now has brought back significant and happy memories from growing up. This reminds me of my dad and the gentle impacts he had on my upbringing.

Collector Comments: 
I really enjoyed hearing Dede talk so passionately and candidly about her childhood experience. She is a friend of mine so getting a glimpse into her family and fond memories was so special and made me reflect on my own experiences.

Collectors Name: Jennifer Wendelken

Tags: Dartmouth, English, female, student, verbal folklore

Baa, Baa, Black Sheep (Jennifer Wendelken)

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Title: Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

General Information about Item:

Verbal Folklore
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Informant:  Peter Rizzotti
Date Collected: 10-2-21

Informant Data: 
Peter Rizzotti was born on May 13, 2000, in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Peter’s mother is from Boston, MA and his father is from Ridgewood, New Jersey. He has one younger brother. Peter is a senior on the men’s lacrosse team at Dartmouth and a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity. He was raised Catholic in a traditional family home. Peter shared that some of his earliest memories were his mother singing Ba Ba Black Sheep to him before bed as a child.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: 
“Ba Ba Black Sheep” was the only lullaby that Peter’s mother sang to him growing up. She would sing this lullaby to his little brother and him whenever they could not fall asleep or if they awoke from a nightmare and were scared. He talked about how his mother is not the warmest individual, but whenever she sang them “Ba Ba Black Sheep” she was tender and loving.

Cultural Context: 
This lullaby was first written in England in 1744 but matched to a tune in Philadelphia in 1879. There is now controversy over the negative racial implications associated with the lyrics, and there are now versions released with adjectives other than ‘black’ including ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘hopping’, and ‘pink’. Peter was sung “Baa Baa Black Sheep” by his mother because her own mother also sang the lullaby to her growing up. This shows how family traditions are passed down through generations.

Item: 
Ba Ba Black Sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.
One for my master,
One for the dame,
One for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

Associated file: 

Ba-Ba-Black-Sheep-_Master-Recording_Download

Informant Comments: 
My parents did not really sing lullabies to my brother and me often, but my mom sang “Baa Baa Black Sheep” to us whenever we had trouble falling asleep or had a bad nightmare. I really used to like it when she sang to us and sometimes I would fake not being able to sleep just so she would sing to me.

Collector Comments: 
Peter is one of my very good friends who does not share much about his childhood so it was great to hear him talk about a tender memory he has with his mom. It was harder to get information out of him which I think can be attributed to masculinity.

Collectors Name: Jennifer Wendelken

Tags: Dartmouth, student, male, English, verbal, family, childhood

Sana, Sana (Ignacio Ortiz)

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  • Title: Sana, Sana, Curita de Rana (Heal, Heal, Frog Bandaid)
  • General Information about item:
    • Verbal Lore, lullaby
    • Language: Spanish
    • Country of Origin: Peru
    • Informant: A.C.
    • Date Collected: 10-31-2021
  • Informant Data:
    •  A.C. is a 2025 female student from Lima, Peru. She is the CEO of Wawa Laptop, a company to give technology access to underserved Peruvian children. In Dartmouth, she aspires to major in Education and enjoys spending her time with her friends.
  • Contextual Data:
    • Cultural Context: These types of lullabies are comforting for a sickness and very common in Latin America. Utilizing animals has been a great way to convey innocence that would resonate with children.
    • Social Context: The rhyme and soothing tone of this healing lullaby is very calming for a children in pain.
  • Associated File:
  • Transcript:
    • Sana, Sana,
    • curita de Rana
    • Si no sana hoy,
    • sanará mañana
  • Informant’s Comments:
    • “The song works like magic”.
  • Collector’s Comments:
    • The collector is from Ecuador, so this song is very special and was sung to him as well.
  • Collector’s Name: Ignacio Ortiz

Rock-a-bye Baby (Ali Silva)

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Title: “Rock-a-Bye Baby”

General Information about Item:

  • Children’s folklore, lullaby
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: America
  • Informant: EB
  • Date Collected: October 16, 2021

Informant Data:

  • EB was born in Palm Beach Gardens on March 22, 2002. She grew up surrounded by her extended family and lived with her mother, father, and older sister Katy. She attended private schools throughout her life and she played lacrosse, volleyball, and soccer. Her family owns a sailing company so they spent lots of time on the water. Her parents were very involved in her activities. 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural context: This lullaby references the typical sleeping arrangement of young children in a cradle. It is important to note that this lullaby actually has very frightening lyrics, saying the cradle will fall with the baby inside which would result in injury. This lullaby, as others are, is sang in a soothing tone despite its graphic content. 
  • Social Context: EB recalls learning this song from her grandmother. She grew up living across the street from her grandparents, so she would frequently spend the night at their house. Her grandmother would sing this song to her when she was going to bed on these nights. 

Item:

“Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetops,

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,

When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,

And down will come baby, cradle and all.”

  • This lullaby is a short, rhyming song. The message of the song is scary for a child, but sung in a gentle voice, so as not to frighten the child. 

Associated File:

Informants Comments:

“My grandma still sings this song to me every so often. I don’t see her as much because she moved, but when I do see her she sings to me.”

Collector’s Comments: 

I know this lullaby from my childhood as well and it is simple so I can see how it would be widely used across America, from Florida to California. 

Collector:

Ali Silva

Dartmouth College

Russian 13

Professor Gronas and Professor Apresyan

Fall 2021

Tags:

Dartmouth

Students

Verbal Folklore

English Lullaby

Baby