Title: Water Balloon Legend

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Has been working for the custodial sector of FO+M for over five years. Is originally from Manchester, New Hampshire but more recently moved to the Upper Valley.

Contextual Data:

A story that has been passed down to her from her boss who heard it from her boss. The story takes place in 2007 and the story has been told by her boss that the story is true. The story describes the experience one custodian had one afternoon when he walked up to the third floor of Topliff.

Item:

- This custodian walks into his assigned dormitory, which he was assigned that day. Walking up to the third floor, he hears loud yelling and the sound of splashing water. Entering the floor, he finds that there is a water balloon fight going on in the third-floor hallway with the walls soaked as well as the floors. Students escape through the fire escape and the custodian cannot catch a glimpse of them of whether they live on the floor. No one was ever found accountable for the incident.

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

Transcript:

“I can’t complain these days about students, they’ve been great to me. This story I told you though makes me wonder what got into those kids. To be honest though, I probably would have joined in if I were one of the students.”

Collector’s Comments:

I’ve seen custodians deal with a lot of cases of disregard for the dorms we live in. It’s amazing to me how much work they put in. I myself have never heard of the water balloon story but it does not surprise me at all.

Collector’s Name: Rick Gangopadhyay

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive