Title: Robert Frost’s Ashes

Informant info: Informant Name: James Thompson, Location: Hanover, NH, Date: 5/16/16, Dartmouth student, male, Class of 2017, went on Cabin Camping Trip

Type of lore: Customary (Prank)

Language: English

Country of Origin: U.S.

Social / Cultural Context: Experienced during the actual trip phase of first-year trips, generally in the wilderness with those on your trip.

Transcript: One of the pranks I remember being pulled on us by my trip-leaders was the one with Robert Frost’s ashes. Basically they showed us a little baggie of blackish greyish powder and convinced us that it was a bit of Robert Frost’s ashes and that per his wishes we were to scatter them in the woods of New Hampshire. They were very serious about it and I think they had a lot of us on the hook. So we went down to the river and had a whole moment of silence and everything, and when one of my trip leaders is about to scatter the ashes he just throws them in his mouth and eats them! It was quite startling, but pretty funny. It turns out it was just ground pepper in the baggie.

Informant’s comments:  I’m not sure what the purpose of the prank was, I think they just wanted to mess with us, but maybe is sort of helped us bond because we were all sort of taken advantage of together.

Collector’s comments:  See overall comments on trips pranks

Tags/Keywords: prank, Robert Frost, Ashes, Customary, trips,