Jewball

Title: Jewball

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Tradition, Celebration
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: USA

Informant Data:

Ethan Isaacson lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, and is currently a student at Dartmouth in the class of 2018. He was born on January 5th, 1996, and is studying chemistry and physics. He went on freshman trips when he was an incoming freshman, was a trip leader his sophomore year, and was on Hanover Croo, known as HCroo, this past fall, so has seen many different aspects of the trips program.

Leigh Steinberg was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was born on April 19, 1996. She is a student at Dartmouth in the class of 2018 and is a history major and plans on going into consulting after graduation. She was a trip leader before her sophomore year of college and was on Hanover Croo, known as HCroo, this past fall.

Contextual Data:

Jewball is an event that takes place every year between all members who help run trips. It serves as a culminating celebration for successfully running a 3 week outdoor program without the help of any adults that 95%+ of freshman go on. It is meant as a way to relax, celebrate their last night together, and see friends who they have not seen in a couple weeks.

Item:

The night trips ends, anyone who worked on a Croo goes to the Lodj for a celebration. There is drinking, celebrating, dancing, and many trips-related activites. It is a great time way for Croo members to spend their last night together and see their friends on other Croos that they have not seen in a few weeks. The next morning, all Croos help to clean the Lodj, as they do not have time to clean it all, so they appreciate all the manpower possible. This has been going on for as long as they know.

Transcript of Informant Interview:

So, um Jewball is, it’s not always called that, but this year it was called Jewball, is the party after trips with all of the crews, so HCroo, Vox Croo, Lodj Croo, Grant Croo, Oak Hill Croo and Climbing Croo all come together and there is alcohol for the first time in three weeks and everyone is very tired and out of trips mode for the first time in 3 weeks, well kind of out of trips mode. And you like do dancing and stuff and night, we all sleep in the Lodj, and you all wake up, disassemble and clean the Lodj top to bottom. Yeah it is basically a big ploy to get all of the Croolings at the Lodj so that they can hold us hostage so that we clean it. Basically, like every other Croo has time to clean everything because of the way the trips timeline works. So we, with a week out, weren’t even sending trips, so welcoming them back after the Lodj is very, very low maintenance, so we were slowly cleaning up everything so by the last day of trips everything was done. But the Lodj sends trippees off and like 5 hours later has this party so they don’t have the manpower or time to clean everything. But it was really fun. A lot of trips songs, we did the dances again, the cleaning wasn’t fun. The directors of trips acknowledge every director of trips, so like the leaders of the croos and the logistic people behind the scenes, and so I don’t know it’s sorta like an in between of everyone wanting to spend their last night together but also seeing friends and people from other croos for the first time in a few weeks, so it’s an interesting balance between all of them.

Informant’s Comments:

They both talked very highly of the events at night, but hated doing the cleaning of the lodj the next day.

Collector’s Comments:

This seemed like a more secretive event, unlike most other things the croos do. I had never heard about it until very recently, and I do not think it is often disclosed to people.

Collector’s Name: Henry Senkfor

Tags/Keywords:

  • Trips, DOC, Celebration, Lodj

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