General Information about Item:

• Legend, workplace folklore
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: Informant #7
• Date Collected: February 20, 2018.

Informant Data:

• FO+M Custodian and has been working for college for three years. Has been part of the custodial department the entirety of his time at Dartmouth.  Originally from Connecticut and moved to the Upper Valley area.

Contextual Data:

• Some of the members of the custodial department sometimes meet to play softball in their free time. The last time this occurred was three years ago as far as the informant is aware.  This is due to problems that ensued during the game that was played on this occasion.  The story describes the informant’s experience at the softball game and an accident that occurred.

Item:

• • The custodian is at the casually organized softball game among other custodians and his team is up at bat. Another custodian winds up to hit the ball and hits it as hard as he can.  The ball flies directly into the ribcage of another custodial worker on the other team and he has to go to the hospital.  As it turned out, the victim was okay but suffered a cracked rib cage.

   

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

Transcript:

• “I can’t say I’m all that good at softball or other ball sports… When Jim hit that ball though I almost threw up myself, he hit it into the man- I didn’t know his name – and it looked pretty darn painful! I’ve been telling this to some of the new guys and they think it’s a shame we stopped doing it.”

Collector’s Comments:

• I used to play in casual soccer games when I was a kid and whenever someone got hurt, everyone would often stop playing altogether. It seems like this doesn’t stop as we get older.

Collector’s Name: Rick Gangopadhyay

Tags/Keywords:

• Legend
• FO+M
• Narrative Folklore