Singing (Justin Fowler)

Title: Singing

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

John Brady is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2019. John was born in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. He grew up just north of the city in a nice suburban town. John was part of a boy scout group growing up. Every summer, John and his fellow boy scouts went backpacking. They backpacked all over the United States. His scout troop went to various places such as New Mexico, California, Wyoming, and Wisconsin. One of his earliest backpacking trips was a section of the Appalachian Trail around North Carolina and Tennessee. The trail started out of Hot Springs, NC. John’s early experience with the Appalachian Trail sparked an interest and has had him continuing to hike when he so desires.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Backpackers spend a lot of time walking or hiking whether they do it with other hikers or by themselves. In order to keep motivated for coming up with things to do together, and activities to pass the time, get to know each other, and have fun.
Social Context: This tradition, or ritual, would be performed during hiking. Backpackers often need to keep their mind off of just the monotony of hiking. Otherwise it is difficult to continue one’s journey hiking.

Item:

Backpackers and hikers sing in order to keep themselves numb from the pain of consistently hiking PUDs (pointless ups and downs) and the need to keep moving. By singing songs it allows hikers to stay in a positive mindset and sane especially when one is hiking by themselves. It is difficult to stay motivated when not being pushed or motivated by a fellow hiker. Therefore, uplifting, tempo upbeat songs are idea that are simple in tune and melody (easy to remember).

Transcript of Associated file:

“I would sing to myself. I don’t know a lot of songs off the top of my head. I don’t have a great memory for that kind of stuff… But I would sing I think it’s 500 miles (I’m Gonna Be) by that British band (The Proclaimers). It was great to walk 1000 miles and be singing that song. It felt like I actually owned that song at that point.”

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Collector’s Comments:

I thought it was humorous to hear the comparison of a long hiking ride to one of a car ride but overall the ideas within this folk lore make good sense. One does not want to lose motivation hiking a trail and staying positive and happy is a great way to keep up the pace and hike on.

Collector’s Name: Justin Fowler

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive