Informant Information: Duncan Robinson is from Houston, Texas and a member of the Class of 2016 at Dartmouth College.  He is a member of the baseball team and Beta Alpha Omega.

Joe Purritano is a member of the Class of 2016 from New Jersey.  He is also a member of the baseball team. Joe has been single for one year at Dartmouth and had a long-distance relationship for three years here.

Type of Folklore: Customary Folklore (Game), Dance

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States of America

Social / Cultural Context: Pong is one of the most important games to the Dartmouth dating life.  Pong provides an opportunity for a first date and is also a great socialization game.  This allows for a couple to break the ice without the formality of a traditional dinner date. 

Associated File:

Transcript:(Duncan: 1st video) “You said a lot of time guys and girls meet in basements, I assume you mean like fraternity or sorority basements. Are there games or how do they engage with one another?”

“Pong, pong date is always a classic. You play your date, play pong with her or him and hopefully that leads somewhere even better.”

(Joe: 2nd video) “I would say that pong seems to be a great date night here. Really not a whole lot to do on campus outside of fraternities. So I think people save the actually dinner date for the later steps and get right to it with pong, a pong game.”

Collector’s Comments: The majority of our informants claimed that a game of pong was a great tool to break the ice with girls. Pong was always the first thing mentioned when asked about how people meet at Dartmouth.  It is also customary for partners (dates) to incorporate handshakes or dances after hitting a cup to make the event more intimate (see pong dance/handshake video).