General Information about Item:
- Genre and Sub Genre
- Customary Folklore, Tradition
- Language: English
- Country where Item is from: US
Informant Data:
Ellen Louise Smalley ’19 is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth College. She is from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She originally decided to start figure skating at the age of 4 or 5, and was the first in her family to begin skating. She was told to skate by her physical therapist due to her short achilles tendons. She began skating at Dartmouth’s Figure Skating Club due to the recommendation of Vanessa Szalapski ’12 and Maria Spertudo ’14.
Contextual Data:
- Social: Informant was interviewed by John Gilmore at Dartmouth College’s Novack Cafe. The informant was asked to talk about figure skating folklore unique to the club.
- Cultural Context: Informant began skating at age 4 or 5 as a way to stretch her short achilles tendons without running. She encountered this piece of folklore during her time as a member of DFSC.
Item:
Senior Books, full of lovely letters and photos of the graduating class
Associated Audio:
Transcript:
Ellen: “Also in the spring, the banquet, um, with all the books being given to the seniors,”
John: “Senior books.”
Ellen: “and the memories and everything, and um”
Informant’s Comments:
“and the memories and everything” refers to the collections of photos and other memories in each of these “senior books”.
Collector’s Comments:
Every year at the DFSC annual spring banquet, skaters present each of the graduating seniors or grad students with a notebook full of anecdotes, group photos, and tearful letters from other members of the team, thanking them for everything and wishing them the best of luck after graduation.
Tags/Keywords:
- Customary Folklore, Tradition, Senior Books
Collector:
Jonathan Meng