Title: Dartmouth Superstitions – Currie Putrah
General Information about Item:
- Customary Lore, Magic Superstition
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: United States
- Informant: Currie Purtrah
- Date Collected: 11/14/21
Informant Data:
- Currie Putrah was born in Faribault, Minnesota which is where she played hockey at Shattuck St. Mary’s high school. She is now a member of the 2022 graduating class at Dartmouth where she plays forward on the Women’s Ice Hockey team.
Contextual Data:
- Cultural Context: The cultural context is that putting on your gear in a specific order is a common superstition among hockey players. Most of the players on DWIH have a specific way of putting on their gear and that is how they’ve gotten dressed their whole lives. It helps them feel balanced and ready for the game, and if they don’t dress in their respective ways it can throw them off and make them play badly, as it serves as a distraction.
- Social Context: The social context is that Currie is only one of many people on the Dartmouth hockey team that puts her gear on a certain way. The magic involved in this superstition is that if she does not put on her gear from left to right she will feel off and play badly.
Item: Currie putting on her gear in a specific order is in the genre of magic superstition which comes from the category of customary lore.
Transcript:
- “I always have to put on my gear in a very specific order. I put on my left sock, then my right, followed by my left skate, then my right. After that I put on my hockey pants and my left shin pad, followed by my right shin pad. This trend continues on with putting my left gear on before the right until I am fully dressed.
Informant’s Comments:
- Currie told me that if she does not put on her gear in this specific order she feels like her pads are not on correctly which in turn makes her think she will have bad luck during the game and play poorly.
Collector’s Comments:
- I was able to resonate with Currie’s superstition because I do the same thing but in a slightly different order. This is also a common superstition among hockey players.
Collector’s Name: Gabby Billing