Title: Night in Leverone Field House

Informant Info: Myself (Garrett Martin), Date: 5/28/16, Location: Hanover, NH, Dartmouth Student, male, class of 2018, went on canoeing trip

Type of lore: Customary (Separation Stage of Rite of Passage Ritual)

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context:  Experienced while participating in First-Year Trips, On the campus of Dartmouth College

Transcript: The night before actually leaving campus for our trips, instead of sleeping in our dorms, the entire trip section is taken to Leverone Field House where we sit with our trip group and do various bonding exercises. At one point everyone stops and we are read some Dr. Seuss story, I forget which one, but maybe “Oh the Places You’ll Go” or something like that.It is here that we divvied up all the food and gear that we would have to bring along the way and made sure that everyone had everything that they needed for the trip.

We all went to bed at around 9 or 10 or so and slept on the ground in our sleeping bags. We were woken up, very early, 5 o’clock I think, by the opening song from The Lion King being played through the loud speakers in the Field House and packed up and left for the beginning of our trip.

Informant/Collector comments:  This is representative of the separation stage of the rite of passage that is Trips as a whole.  The entire trip section is sequestered in a given space that is relatively separate from campus and entirely separate from their standard living quarters and is really the beginning of the transition into the trips process.  This is somewhat similar to the slavic custom of sitting with the family in the home before leaving on journey.

Tags/Keywords: Leverone, Trips, Separation, Rite of Passage