1. Title: Old Man Foco
2. Informant Information:
Matt Marcus is a computer science major and a senior at Dartmouth College. His freshman year, he walked on to the lightweight crew team and has been a member ever since. With practice usually lasting late into the afternoon everyday, Matt finds himself eating dinner at Foco nearly every night.
3. Type of Lore (Genre, Sub-genre): Legend, Legendary Figure
4. Language: English
5. Country of Origin: in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States
6. Social/Cultural Context:
Foco (the Class of 1953 Commons) is one of the most popular dining facilities for athletes with an all you can eat buffet. Very regularly, until about a few months ago, one would often see an older man with a high-pitched voice and Dartmouth-colored tote bag walking the pathway between FoCo and the Collis Center. He would often enter into both facilities and have sit-down meals rather regularly, very often engaging in conversation with students.
7. Associated File (a video, audio, or image file): N/A
8. Transcript (if verbal lore):
“Old Man FoCo is somewhat of a famous figure when it comes to avoiding him. While he is a genuinely nice guy, he likes to talk a lot…. and I mean a lot. Once you start conversation with him, don’t expect to leave soon thereafter. He’s also apparently a huge name-dropper. All he likes to talk about is who he knows that’s famous, or who he’s encountered in the past that’s famous. Apparently he also loves frats considering his Dad was an SAE here like me so that’s kinda cool. I’ve even seen someone turn around and go into a different door at Foco just to avoid running into him. Apparently he’s that big of a chatterbox.”
9. Informant’s comments:
When asked for an interpretation of what Matt thought the “meaning” behind this folklore was, he stated: “I think that Old Man Foco is kind of a representation of how friendly the Dartmouth student body is… He’s an extension of that part of the student body. I think his legend was created in that sense to serve as an idea about inclusiveness and friendliness that the student body can relate”
10. Collector’s Comments:
As the interviewer, my interpretation of the folklore was somewhat different. While I do agree that Old Man Foco’s legend was created to be an “extension” of traits that the student body emulates, I think that he was probably more of a creation to unite the student body as a whole. People are more conversational and are generally more nice to people when they have something in common. Therefore, when the idea of Old Man Foco is one to which everybody can relate considering he is someone that a very large part of the student body has seen or met. Simply put, everybody knows about him.
11. Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth Dining, FoCo (Class of 1953 Commons)