Ghost Stories

Title: Ghost Stories

Informant info: Matt Menezes. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran (2004-2013) . Informant was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and deployed twice to Afghanistan (2007-08, 2008-09) as well as spent two years as a drill sergeant for basic combat training (2011-13).

Type of lore: Customary/Verbal, Tradition, Ritual, Initiation

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about ghost stories while serving and in training. He could not come up with any ghost stories, but discussed some of the initiation rituals that he had to go through.

Associated file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/11vv5a27kzlycgq/Dartmouth_Folklore_Collections_Matt_Menezes.mp4?dl=0

Item: [I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]:I think the one that what everybody gets usually when they are in basic combat training is that all of the privates conspire together and talk about their drill sergeant and kind of think that he is some kind of sadistic person that just always gets pleasure out of making us do push ups and things of that nature so that is one of the stories from training.

Informant’s comments: No specific stories came to mind

Collector’s comments:  Each person has a different version of what the definition of a “ghost story” became apparent.

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