Monthly Archives: November 2019

Short Skis

Title: Short Skis

General Information about Item:

  • Material Lore, gear
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: anonymous
  • Date Collected: 11/13/19

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a female who is a ski patroller at Dartmouth College. She wishes to remain anonymous.

Contextual Data:

  • There are several items of gear that are passed down through the team from year to year and have a sort of prestige. One of these items in a pair of short skis.

Item:

  • The short skis are passed down from class to class to the best skier in the group. They are basically a set of trick skis, but are never actually used on the mountain. There is a legend that they were once used and there was a very bad accident on the Skiway. Therefore, they are now just a  glorified trophy for the best skier in each class to protect and pass down the next year.

Transcript:

  • “There’s a pair of short skis that are passed down each spring. They apparently used to have to be used, but one year the day they were used we had a really bad accident so now people think they’re bad luck. But we still have to pass them down to the best skier, so now the skis are supposed to be safeguarded by that person until they pass them on. It’s kind of stressful really, but a really big deal if you get them.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The skis are a really prestigious thing to receive, but also are “cursed”. So this is a complicated gift to receive, but overall worth it.

Collector’s Comments:

  • These skis are an interesting piece of folklore both for their meaning and the legend attached to them. They stand for something very prestigious: being the best skier on a team of some of the best skiers at Dartmouth (excluding the actual ski team, of course). This in and of itself is an interesting ritual as the team basically names a person as the best each year. Then, there is the legend. This tragic event is talked about by the informant and the team, but no one actually seems to know what happened. All they know is the skis cannot be used. This juxtaposition of meaning is incredibly interesting to me. It seems like almost a way to temper naming someone the best skier in the group by giving them something that is attached to a pseudo-curse. This may speak to the close nature of the group, and not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings while maintaining the tradition of handing down the skis.

Collector’s Name: Lindsay Pitt

Tags/Keywords:

  • Material Lore
  • Gear/Legends
  • Trick skis
  • Curses

Money

Title: Money

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Gesture
  • Place Collected: Phi Delta Alpha Fraternity, Dartmouth College
  • Date Collected: November 20th, 2019
  • Country of Origin: Mexico
  • Informant: David Arce ’21

Informant Data:

  • David Arce is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2021. He was born and raised in Walnut Creek, CA, and currently lives in Pittsburg, CA. David is a Psychology Major and a member of the Dartmouth men’s club volleyball team.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: David learned this gesture growing up from his father, who is originally from Sinaloa, Mexico. A large portion of David’s family also still lives in Sinaloa, so he frequently visits the area. David believes that the gesture is commonly understood throughout Latin America, however; it is predominantly a Mexican gesture. The gesture does not have any variations, however; it does have a number of different interpretations based on context.

Item:

  • The gesture is performed by forming a “U” shape with the thumb and forefinger, while keeping the palm facing your chest. The gesture is most commonly understood to mean an item is expensive, being an appropriate response to somebody asking why you did not buy something, for instance. While the demonstration of the high price of an object is the main way the gesture is used, it can also be used to refer to money in general, similar to the American gesture of rubbing the thumb and forefinger together. This gesture is also common among merchants. After buying an item in Mexico or other Latin American countries, the merchant may use this gesture towards other nearby merchants to signify that you are willing to pay high prices for items.

 

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

Collector’s Name: Roy Dritley

Tags/Keywords:

  • Hand Gestures
  • Mexico
  • Expensive
  • Money

Train to Skagway

Title: Train to Skagway

General Information about Item:

  • Tradition, Customary Lore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States/Canada
  • Trail of Origin: Chilkoot
  • Informant: Ian Andrews, Sam D
  • Date Collected: 10-29-19, 11-10-19

Informant Data:

  • Ian Andrews is currently a graduate student at MIT. He grew up in Juneau, Alaska and hiked the Chilkoot Trail after finishing his undergraduate studies. Ian hikes recreationally, from trails in his hometown, to spending a week hiking in the Olympic Mountains in Washington State.
  • Sam is a 40-year-old man from Juneau, Alaska. Sam grew up in Southeast Alaska, and currently works for the state government. Sam hiked the Chilkoot trail in 2015.

Contextual Data:

  • Historical Context: First used by the Tlingit people of Alaska as a trade route, the Chilkoot became an important trail for miners and prospectors coming to Alaska during the Klondike gold rush at the end of the 1800s. The trail was mostly abandoned after the end of the gold rush in 1898, until the trail was restored for recreational hikers in the 1960s. (Source)
  • Cultural Context: Many Chilkoot hikers start their journeys in Skagway, Alaska. Once they have completed their hike, they arrive in Bennett, British Colombia. Hikers usually return to Skagway to make their way back home. Skagway is a popular destination for tourists visiting Alaska.
  • Social Context: Ian brought up the train when talking about his father’s experience hiking the Chilkoot. Ian’s dad lived in Skagway in the 90’s and hiked the trail then. Sam mentioned the train when talking about the transition between Canada and the US.

Item:

  • Once hikers have completed the trail, they ride a train that runs between Bennett and Skagway. In the 90’s the train was primarily a cargo train. When the cargo trains stopped running, they were replaced by passenger trains used for tourism. As hikers usually take multiple days to complete the hike, and do not shower during their trip, the passenger train reserves a section for hikers, so the other passengers are not subject to the smell of the hikers. The train is usually the last stop for hikers, and signifies their return to society.

Transcript:

  • Ian:  “Nowadays the train we took isn’t a working train, it’s a passenger train. Twenty or thirty years ago it was still a freight train, so you could hike the Chilkoot during the day, then catch the night freight back to Skagway. Nowadays you have to plan it out a little more to get the passenger train back.”
  • Sam:  “When you get up to Bennett for your train ride home, they have a special cart for the hikers, because the hikers are typically pretty sweaty and stinky.”

Collector’s Name: Soren Thompson

Tags/Keywords:

  • Train
  • Chilkoot Trail
  • Thru Hiking

Old Mallet

Title: Old mallet

General Information about Item:

  • Material folklore and superstition
  • Informant: Sam Lincoln
  • Date Collected: 9 November 2019

Informant Data:

  • Sam Lincoln is a 21 year old college student studying mechanical engineering at Arizona State University. He was born in Wisconsin and raised in Arizona. He began overnight backpacking when he was 15 and hiked the Colorado Trail after he graduated from high school in 2016. He enjoys archery and playing video games. Sam is the twin brother of Rachel Lincoln, who collected this item.

Contextual Data:

  • Mallets are hammers specialized for driving tent pegs into the ground to secure tents against wind. This task is highly important, but mallets are far from the only tool that can accomplish the job. Most hikers use rocks instead of carrying the extra weight.

Item:

  • After finishing a 2014 hiking summer program in Alaska, Sam took a mallet that no one else claimed home with him. The mallet had been used to drive their tent spikes into the ground, but rocks can easily do that too, so a mallet is an extraneous item that most hikers wouldn’t want to pack (Sam guesses this is why someone abandoned the mallet in Alaska in the first place). This mallet’s association with the Alaska trip gave it sentimental value to Sam and he felt that bringing it would make his Colorado trip just as incredible. He didn’t expect to use it at all, but actually use it during the event that earned him his trail name Goat Slayer. He eventually lost it on the Colorado Trail: one day he took a break and realized it was gone, fallen somewhere along the way.

Informant’s comments:

  • “It had history to it, good memories. It was super worn out…it would’ve been more practical not to bring it at all because we didn’t even need it.”

Collector’s comments:

  • We expected that most hikers would have good luck charms or talismans, but very few did. Thru hikers must carry all their belongings so their items were chosen for practicality.

Collector: Rachel Lincoln

Image result for worn out mallet

Tags/Keywords:

  • Colorado Trail, Old Mallet

Miscellaneous Trail Names

Title: Miscellaneous Trail Names

Our informants mentioned many trail names of hikers they met in massing that did not have long stories attached to them. We listed these examples here to create a clearer picture of how trail names arise and what they mean.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural context: Hikers give each other trail names based on notable attributes, defining events, or personality traits. From then on, you are known by your trail name. Some hikers met people and never learned their real names. Hikers often keep the same trail name their whole lives. This tradition helps immerse hikers in their experience and distances them from their real-life identity while on the trail.
  • Social context: Being named by the hiking community tightens friendships and serves as a rite of initiation into the thru hiker life.
  • See [tag] Camino de Santiago for context about this particular trail!

General information about item:

  • Verbal Folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country: Spain, U.S.
  • Informants: Tommy Botch, Sam Lincoln, Jimmy Coleman
  • Dates Collected: 11/05/19, 11/09/19, 11/06/19

Tommy Botch – El Camino de Santiago

  • Informant Data: 
    • Tommy Botch is a 24-year-old lab manager in the Robertson Lab in the Psychology and Brain Sciences Department at Dartmouth College, where he studies vision in virtual reality. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and completed his undergraduate education in psychobiology at UCLA. Tommy enjoys describing fine cheeses and baking sourdough bread in his spare time. He undertook his thru hiking journey when he was 20 years old.
  • Item:
    • Tommy and his fellow hikers gave one another trail names on the first few days of the hike in order to get through the hardest part of the hike, which is surpassing the Pyrenees immediately upon setting out. They coined the following names:
    • Can-Do: Tommy was dubbed “Can-Do,” not because of his “Can-Do” attitude but because the people he hiked with thought he could do anything.
    • With-A-Spoon: a young woman with whom Tommy hiked looked a lot like Reese Witherspoon, but kept repeating she wanted to “kill [herself] with a rusty spoon”
      as she was so miserable in these first few days.
    • Magic: a man in their group would disappear for a few days and just suddenly reappear with the group out of nowhere and lighten the mood.
    • Four seasons: this individual went through so many mood swings that she was seemingly “Four seasons in one hour.”

Sam Lincoln – Colorado Trail

  • Informant Data
    • Sam Lincoln is a 21 year old college student studying mechanical engineering at Arizona State University. He was born in Wisconsin and raised in Arizona. He began overnight backpacking when he was 15 and hiked the Colorado Trail after he graduated from high school in 2016. He enjoys archery and playing video games. Sam is the twin brother of Rachel Lincoln, who collected this item.
  • Item
    • Sam got the trail name Goat Slayer on the Colorado Trail in 2016.
    • Second Wind: a man in his mid-60s named Michael was solo hiking and joined Sam’s group for a few days. While many hikers start early and stop in the late afternoon, Michael got a burst of energy late in the day and always wanted to continue–he got a “Second Wind.”
    • Chief: one woman was a professional guide whose job was leading teenagers on two or three week hikes. That authority and her personal presence made her a leader, so despite not having Native American heritage, she was nicknamed “Chief.”

Jimmy Coleman – John Muir and Appalachian Trails

  • Informant Data
    • Jimmy Coleman, age 20, is a sophomore at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where he is studying mathematics and computer science. He was born in Baltimore County and loves the outdoors, which he learned from his ample hiking and camping trips with his family as a child. He undertook his thru hiking adventure on the John Muir Trail at 14 years old and the Appalachian Trail at 17 years old.
  • Item
    • Jimmy has used his trail name Tadpole since he was 14.
    • Bear and Hookah: Jimmy was not told the story behind these two hikers’ names, but he assumed “Hookah” came from their hippie smoking habits. He also never learned their real names.
  • Informant’s Comments:
    • “I have had meaningful relationships on long hikes with backpackers who are going about the pace as me. And I never knew—like, two people on the AT that I thru hiked with—I didn’t thru hike the AT but I did a big piece over one summer—and I met these two people, these two hippies named Bear and Hookah. And I still know them and I still have their letter to me in the back of a book. But I only knew them as Bear and Hookah.”

Ashlyn Burnside – Appalachian Trail

  • Informant Data
    • Ashlyn Burnside is a 21 year old senior at Hope College in Michigan. She grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and always loved being outside and riding horses. She sings and volunteers with her church. When she’s on break, she travels the country spreading the gospel.
  • Item
    • Ashlyn was nicknamed “Soul Surfer” while thru hiking the Appalachian trail because of her Christian faith and love of the outdoors. She had been struggling with her beliefs and the trail helped her center herself and find meaning in her life again.

Collectors’ comments:

  • Trail names can be tongue-in-cheek or teasing, but all informants felt that their name was used affectionately. Tommy’s felt the ones of his group mates bonded them together in these tough first few days, and he says he remembers these people by their trail names long after he has forgotten their real ones.
  • We collected trail names from all of our informants except those who hiked the Chilkoot. That trail is shorter than the other, so we hypothesize that length may be correlated with receiving a trail name.

Tags/Keywords:

  • Trail Name, Appalachian Trail, John Muir Trail, Camino de Santiago, Colorado Trail, Verbal Folklore

Tedious Tasks

Title: Tedious Tasks

General Information

  1. Place of collection: Hanover, NH (via phone call)
  2. Date of Collection: November 13, 2019
  3. Genre: Customary Folklore – Superstition

Informant Information:

This informant (anonymous) is a 22 year old student at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. He was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, but moved to Madison, Connecticut when he was in 8th grade. After his junior year in high school, he began as a volunteer firefighter in the Madison, Connecticut Fire Department. He volunteered with this fire department for 4 years. 

Context:

Whenever a new firefighter starts at the Madison, CT fire department, there is a sort of “hazing” that goes on, in which the new member is required to complete the tedious and undesirable tasks, such as cleaning the trucks, the firehouse, and the equipment. After a couple of months, the new member assimilates fully into the department and is no longer required to do these tasks.

Item:

When a new firefighter joins the department, he/she is tasked with completing all of the tedious/undesirable tasks. 

Meaning and Interpretation:

This initiation ritual, which serves as a right of incorporation, seems to be very common among fire departments. This is likely the case because it allows the new members to get acquainted with the equipment, the firehouse, and the other members in the department. Further, it is a process that all new members undertake when joining, so it creates a mutual experience among the members, which allows the members to connect. 

Informant’s Comments:

The informant said that this process is simply something that every member has to go through, and he thinks that this shared process ultimately makes them closer as a department.

Rubber Bracelet

Title: Rubber Bracelet

General Information

  1. Place of collection: Hanover, NH (via a phone call)
  2. Date of Collection: November 13, 2019
  3. Genre: Customary Folklore – Superstition

Informant Information:

This informant (anonymous) is a 22 year old student at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. He was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, but moved to Madison, Connecticut when he was in 8th grade. After his junior year in high school, he began as a volunteer firefighter in the Madison, Connecticut Fire Department. He volunteered with this fire department for 4 years. 

Context:

Every time that this informant was in the fire station working as a volunteer firefighter, he would wear one specific rubber bracelet. He felt that this bracelet gave him good luck and protected him from whatever danger lay ahead. He said that he learned this practice from one of the other firefighters, and that it is a common practice within the Madison Fire Department. 

Item:

It is good luck/provides protection to wear a rubber bracelet whenever on duty.

Meaning and Interpretation:

Similar to Captain Gilbert wearing his Saint Florian necklace, this superstition is used to give a sense of safety and security to the firefighter; in a field as dangerous as firefighting, any source of protection is desired. To this firefighter and others within his department these bracelets/necklaces/rings provide a measure of protection against the uncontrollable situations that they face every day. The superstition is a magic superstition because there is a cause and effect relationship – if he wears the bracelet, he will be protected or he will have good luck.

Informant’s Comments:

The informant was unsure why he (and the others in the department) started wearing items for good luck. He said that it is simply something that they do with no specific reason that he could pinpoint.

Food Thief

Title: Food Thief

General Information

  1. Place of collection: Hanover Fire Department – Hanover, NH 
  2. Date of Collection: November 6, 2019
  3. Genre: Customary Folklore – Jokes/Pranks

Informant Information:

Michael Gilbert is a firefighter for the Hanover, New Hampshire fire department. He is currently 50 years old and lives in Hanover. However, Michael was born and raised in Franconia, New Hampshire. He is currently a captain at the Hanover Fire Department. Captain Gilbert is not particularly religious.

Context:

From time to time, the Hanover Fire Department has citizens who they had helped in one way or another bring in food for them as a way of saying thank you. However, since there are many shifts of different firefighters, the shift that actually helped that person is rarely ever on duty. In this event where the incorrect shift is on duty, that incorrect shift will eat the food (that is not intended for them), but leave the note from the person. Further, they will never tell the correct shift that they ate the food as a sort of joke. 

Item:

If a person that the firefighters had helped brings in food for a specific shift, the shift on duty eats all of the food, but leaves the note every time.

Informant’s Comments:

Captain Gilbert said that this is one of his favorite pranks to do on his fellow firefighters. Not only does he enjoy eating the snacks, but he also enjoys hearing about the reaction of the correct firefighters when they see only the crumbs and the note left behind.

Collector’s Comments:

The use of jokes seems like a way for the firefighters to break the tension and stress of the otherwise very serious and dangerous job. Through these practical pranks and jokes, they are able to provide some levity and relief from the everyday stresses of their dangerous and unpredictable lives.

Ice Cream Mystery

Title: Ice Cream Mystery

General Information: 

  1. Place of collection: Hanover Fire Department – Hanover, NH
  2. Date of Collection: November 6, 2019
  3. Genre: Customary Folklore – Jokes/Pranks

Informant Information:

Joe Amato is a firefighter for the Hanover, New Hampshire fire department. He is currently 27 years old and lives in Hanover. However, Joe was born and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts. He currently holds the title of firefighter at the Hanover Fire Department. Also, at age 27, Joe is the youngest firefighter currently a part of the Hanover Fire Department.

Context:

Periodically, the Hanover, FD does joint training with other fire departments. During these joint training endeavors, the firefighters like to play pranks on each other, especially on the firefighters in other departments. One particular prank is that if someone leaves ice cream in the freezer, then they eat the ice cream and fill it back up with water, without ever telling them who ate it. Joe Amato described one time that he did this to one of the ice cream containers at the Harvard Fire Department. 

Item:

If a firefighter from another department leaves ice cream in the freezer, they eat the ice cream and then fill the container with water.

Informant’s Comments:

Joe said that he was unsure as to how this prank began, but he enjoys taking part in it, and it provides him a source of comedy when they are doing joint training exercises with other departments. 

Collector’s Comments:

The use of jokes seems like a way for the firefighters to break the tension and stress of the otherwise very serious and dangerous job. Through these practical pranks and jokes, they are able to provide some levity and relief from the everyday stresses of their dangerous and unpredictable lives.

Dead Bodies

Title: Dead Bodies

General Information: 

  1. Place of collection: Hanover Fire Department – Hanover, NH
  2. Date of Collection: November 6, 2019
  3. Genre: Customary Folklore – Superstition

Informant Information:

Joe Amato is a firefighter for the Hanover, New Hampshire fire department. He is currently 27 years old and lives in Hanover. However, Joe was born and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts. He currently holds the title of firefighter at the Hanover Fire Department. Also, at age 27, Joe is the youngest firefighter currently a part of the Hanover Fire Department.

Context:

In the field of firefighting, the firefighters sometimes experience very dramatic and serious injuries – or even death. In the event that they are dealing with a dead body on one of their calls, the firefighters avoid looking at the hands and the face of the dead person. They believe that looking at the face or hands of the dead body will bring them bad luck.

Item:

If you look at the hands or face of a dead body, then you will get bad luck.

Meaning and Interpretation:

Death is a very scary and sad event; therefore, it is possible that this superstition came about as a result of the fear of death. Furthermore, looking at the face and hands of a dead body likely makes the situation more depressing; seeing the lifeless face (and hands) makes the death more personal.

Informant’s Comments:

Joe did not know exactly why or how this superstition came about, but he follows it. He believes that it is simply easier to do his job by distancing himself from the sadness of death.