DOC ritual

Title: Moose

Informant Info: Drew Waterman was born in Pleasant Valley, Iowa on May 11, 1996. Her parents are from Iowa. Her mother is from Dubuque, Iowa and her father is from Bettendorf, Iowa. She attended Pleasant Valley High School. After attending High School in Pleasant Valley she joined Dartmouth College in 2014 and is currently a sophomore.

Types of Lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social Context and Cultural Context: The ritual was collected by personal memory. This ritual is part of DOC tradition and the participants are DOC leaders and members of their or “trippees” trip as well as the VOX crew. It usually occurs at some point during the trip and is a method of fostering relationships between freshmen and entertaining them. As a freshmen Drew was extremely excited to meet new people at Dartmouth and get to know her class. She chose to do Nature Riding and Art. She had heard a lot about the college and traditions of the college and how close to nature the college was due to its rural location and the wildlife and landscapes available. Her favorite animal is the moose, which she hoped to see at some point at Dartmouth.

Item:

One day on freshmen trips, my trip leaders in the middle of the night woke us up and told us that they had seen a moose outside. Since the moose is my favorite animal I was excited to see it and me and the other trip member went outside to try and see it. But when we went outside it wasn’t there anymore. Our trip leaders encouraged us to leave the cabin and look for the moose. They took us down this path where they pointed to this thing on the side of the path that looked like moose excrement. One of them picked it up, sniffed it and then ate it, much to our shock and said “yes, its from a moose definitely this way!” (We later found out it was chocolate). They then brought us to this big dark field, where in a far away distance we saw this oddly shaped animal. The trip leaders started to make this strange whistling sound and the animal started to come closer. Then two people crawled out from under the moose like rug. They told us they were members of the VOX crew and had brought us brownies and ice cream. We then proceeded to ask them what other pranks they have played on other trips whilst enjoying the food. And as we joined the other trips at the Moosilauke Lodge, we joined others members of our class and discussed the same things.

Informant’s Comments: “I really love mooses.”

Collector’s Comments:

Key Words: DOC, Moose, Trips

Drew Waterman, Age 20

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH