The Fort Dinner

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE ITEM:

INFORMANT DATA:

Connie Zhang is a swimmer on the Dartmouth Women’s Swim and Dive Team at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Part of the Class of 2022, she has been swimming on the team since her freshman year. Born on February 29, 2000, she is from Naperville, Illinois. She started swimming when she was eight years old, and her favorite stroke is backstroke.

CONTEXTUAL DATA:

Cultural Context: This folklore is a customary tradition that the team engages in, every single year. Specifically, this tradition is a manifestation of the bonding and team connections that are formed at the beginning of every year, especially with the incoming freshman part of this new, close-knit team. This dinner represents the connections that links these swimmers together, since their collective sport is also highly individualistic. This tradition has existed for many years prior to Connie’s own participation in the tradition dinner.
Social Context: This folklore data was collected on the third floor of the Baker-Berry Library in Hanover, New Hampshire. This tradition dinner is held every single fall, with the incoming freshmen, and with all the other classes on the Swim and Dive team. The Fort is a truck-style diner, and its small, inclusive space has fostered the close connections on the Dartmouth Swim Team. Additionally, it is a Woman’s Team dinner, in which all the swimmers dress up in “flair,” which is a colloquial term applied to fun, costume-like clothing.

ITEM:

Every Fall term at Dartmouth, the Dartmouth Women’s Swim and Dive team will attend a dinner at The Fort, as a yearly tradition.

TRANSCRIPT:

INFORMANT’S COMMENTS:

“It’s a nice way for the upperclassmen to get to know the freshmen, and it’s been a tradition for a very long time!”

COLLECTOR’S COMMENTS:

This yearly tradition can be considered a rite of passage, since this dinner has been a tradition mostly to incorporate the new freshmen to the close-knit community of the Dartmouth Women’s Team. Therefore, this team tradition can be considered to be part of the rite of incorporation, since this dinner allows the intermingling and forming of one unit that comprises the Women’s Team. Prior to this dinner tradition, the freshmen are usually not too close to the other members of the swim team, especially the upperclassmen, and more senior members. Therefore, this rite of incorporation is essential for bringing members together. It has been a tradition for as long as Connie remembers, and she is aware that this dinner holds influence in creating tight bonds amongst the teammates.

COLLECTOR’S NAME: Sarah Sim

Dartmouth Folklore Archive