DOC ritual

Title: H-Crew Safety Show

Informant Info: Thomas Rover was born in New York City, New York in 1993. He has lived there all his life and his parents are from there as well. He is studying Classical Archaeology. He joined Dartmouth in College in 2012 and is a senior.

Types of Lore: Customary, Initiation

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social Context and Cultural Context: The story was collected by personal memory. Thomas himself was part of the Climb and Hike trip his freshmen yeah and led the very same trip his sophomore year. H-Crew starts out setting the tone and then trip leaders are encouraged to keep that going. He felt he had a phenomenal time on trips and for most students it is their introduction to the college, which he wanted to be part of and became heavily involved in with the DOC.

Associated File:Interview Audio

Item:

The first contact with Dartmouth tradition that freshmen get to experience is H-Crew Safety show. Once freshmen get to Campus, they meet their trip leaders and are told their schedule for the day. They are told that there is this very boring safety shows where you have to learn about being safe in the woods and its compulsory due to college liabilities. We trying to butter them up, telling them how awful it is. When the show starts, the members of the crew begin by talking about how to deal with a bee-sting etc. Then all of a sudden music starts playing and the rest of the show turns into them doing parodies of popular songs and giving instructions about drinking water, pooping outdoors etc.

Informant’s Comments:

Collector’s Comments: The Informant seemed to be very enthusiastic and love all things DOC. He also really emphasized the importance of trips to acclimatize students to Dartmouth.

Key Words: DOC, Safety Show, Trips

Thomas Rover, Age 23

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH