Title: Senior Farewell Dinner
General Information about Item:
- Customary Lore, ritual
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: United States
- Informant: Russell Beckerman
- Date Collected: 11/8/19
Informant Data:
- Russell Beckerman is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2019. He was born and raised in Mendham, New Jersey. During his time at Dartmouth, Russell studied engineering. He is currently in his fifth year completing a Bachelor’s of Engineering degree. Russell joined ski patrol in the winter of 2016, during his freshman year at Dartmouth.
Contextual Data:
- Seniors from Dartmouth move to various places all over the world after graduating. Therefore, the senior spring term is a time for final events. For teams and groups on campus, this often includes a final dinner. This is one of the yearly traditions for the seniors on ski patrol.
Item:
- Following the bequest ceremony, the seniors on ski patrol have a group dinner. This is a final time the seniors get together as current members of ski patrol. It is often held at one of the seniors’ off-campus houses, and people will bake food.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Transcript:
- “We do a dinner as well, and it’s bittersweet feelings of having to leave [ski] patrol but also knowing that we’ve had so many good memories with everyone.”
Informant’s Comments:
- Informant had no other comments.
Collector’s Comments:
- The senior dinner is a last chance for the seniors to get together and spend time as a class before they all graduate and go their separate ways. Having a home-cooked meal at someone’s house is a very intimate and comfortable setting for such an event. This speaks to how close members of ski patrol get to one another. They often spend a lot of time both on and off the mountain together. Thus, they feel comfortable inviting each other into their homes. The informant’s comment about the bittersweet nature of the dinner also speaks the the fondness with which members of the group generally feel about their time on it. The dinner serves as a transition from being current members in the group and students at Dartmouth to graduating and becoming alumni.
Collector’s Name: Lindsay Pitt
Tags/Keywords:
- Customary Lore
- Rituals
- Seniors/graduation
- Meals