Title: Salty Dog Rag

Informant info:

Matt Tanenblatt is a current Dartmouth student and a member of the class of 2019. He came to Dartmouth from Atlanta, GA (where he has lived his entire life) and is a member of the men’s lacrosse team. An economics major, Matt is a very business minded individual—he launched an iPhone “app” over a year ago.

General Information:

• Customary, dance, tradition
• English
• United States of America

Social / cultural context:

The Salty Dog Rag is taught to new freshmen by the Croo Members on the lawn in front of Robinson Hall on their first day of trips as well as on the last day at Moosilauke Lodge. Matt was interviewed about this item of folklore roughly 15 months after he went on Trips.

Item:

The Salty Dog Rag is a whimsical dance performed by freshmen and Croo Members alike throughout trips. It’s typically a very tense, awkward experience for freshmen to be learning the dance on their first day of Trips.

Transcript:

“The Salty Dog Rag is a staple of freshman trips. Every year before the schoolyear begins, a group of wide-eyed freshmen slowly make their way to the lawn outside Robinson Hall to sign in for their freshmen orientation trip. I’m not sure where the tradition came from or when it started, but it has been a part of trips for years. As the freshmen stand aroundly making meaningless small-talk, the Croo members bust out in song and dance, grabbing the freshmen and teaching them all the words and dance moves. Personally, I remember it as a painfully awkward icebreaker on the first day of trips, and I’m happy that I havn’t done the Salty Dog Rag since Trips.”

Collector’s comments:

As evidenced by his comments, Matt didn’t appear to have very fond memories of the Salty Dog Rag.

Collectors Info: Armin Mortazavi, Class of 2019, hometown: Potomac, MD