Author Archives: Phillip Yom

Swim Team Wearing Swimsuits

Title: Swim Team Wearing Swimsuits

Informant info: Cody Pennypacker is a member of the Class of 2018 at Dartmouth college. He is a Biology major.

Type of lore: customary, Genre: ritual

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context: Homecoming is a major events not just to students, but to athletic teams as well.

Item: The swim team freshmen will run around the bonfire in just their swimsuits.

Associated file: See interview file

Transcript: (Beginning is somewhat garbled) -There was a kid who thought it was a good idea to have like, a handle of vodka on him when he touched the fire. Also…(pause), yeah, so apparently, uhm, I’m not on either of the teams, but uh, when the freshmen run the laps around the fire…uh, apparently the swim team has to run in their swim suits the whole way, and the track team runs all the laps that they have to do (garbled)…2018, so 118 laps around the fire, which comes out to be a lot of miles around this hot burning campfire in the middle of the night.

Informant’s comments: This is somewhat of an initiation for the members of this team. Everyone has done it and so they must do it.

Collector’s comments: We believe other teams require similar tasks.

Tags/Keywords: Swim team, Swim suits, bonfire, homecoming

Initiation, Laps, Homecoming, Bonfire,

 

Athletic Teams Running All Laps

Title: Athletic Teams Running All Laps

Informant info: Cody Pennypacker is a member of the Class of 2018 at Dartmouth college. He is a Biology major.

Type of lore: customary, Genre: ritual

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context: Homecoming is a major events not just to students, but to athletic teams as well.

Item: Certain teams at Dartmouth require the freshmen on the team to run the total 100 + their class year laps around the bonfire. They will often do this together as a team.

Associated file: See interview file

Transcript: (Beginning is somewhat garbled) -There was a kid who thought it was a good idea to have like, a handle of vodka on him when he touched the fire. Also…(pause), yeah, so apparently, uhm, I’m not on either of the teams, but uh, when the freshmen run the laps around the fire…the track team runs all the laps that they have to do (garbled)…2018, so 118 laps around the fire, which comes out to be a lot of miles around this hot burning campfire in the middle of the night.

Informant’s comments: This is somewhat of an initiation for the members of this team. Everyone has done it and so they must do it.

Collector’s comments: Cody seemed bemused when he described this event to me.

Tags/Keywords: Laps, Homecoming, Bonfire, Athletic teams

Hair Caught on Fire Story

Title: Hair caught on fire

Informant info: Fred Kim is a member of the Class of 2017. He was born in South Korea but has lived in Seattle for most of his teenage years. He plays the flute and is very involved in music in Dartmouth. He is a member of the Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity for men. He has participated in Homecoming three times, one for each of his years at Dartmouth.

Type of lore: Urban Legend

Language: English

Country of Origin: US

Social/cultural context: Fred was interviewed in one-on-one situation and he was recorded. He has participated in the bonfire and remembers hearing of several stories about the bonfire.

Item: There is an urban legend that a girl running around the bonfire a few years ago had her hair catch on fire even though she was not that close to the fire.

Associated file: Interview audio

Transcript:

Interviewer: Fred, do you know any stories, legends, myths about Homecoming?

Fred: Yeah, um, a couple of years ago, I heard that there was a girl that was running around the bonfire and even though she wasn’t that close to the fire, her hair caught on fire. I don’t know what happened after though.

Informant’s comments: None

Collector’s comments: Fred could not remember much about Homecoming because he was not prepared to be asked such questions. Also, he was not very talkative and only spoke for a short period of time before asking to leave.

Tags/Keywords: bonfire, Homecoming, fire, hair

Touching the Fire

Title: Touching the Fire

Informant info: Caleb Kim is a member of the class of 2017. He is from South Korea. He is a CS modified with Econ major. He enjoys the Greek life that pervades Dartmouth.

Type of Lore: Customary, Ritual, Traditional

Language: English

Country of Origin: US

Social/cultural context: Caleb was interviewed in a public space at Dartmouth College. He participated in Homecoming as a freshman and still participates in it even as an upperclassman.

Item: Every Homecoming, freshman are often told by upperclassmen to touch the fire, despite the fact that they can be injured. It is supposed to be a tradition, and if a class does not have a member that does not touch the fire, then that class is then called the “worst class ever”. Even so, several people have touched the fire out of their own volition. Touching the fire is typically a very hard task as it involves evading a lot of security. Hanover Police, Safety and Security, and private security all guard the fire. Many students get caught attempting to touch the fire.

Associated file: None; the recording was not very well done because the public place was rather loud.

Transcript:

Interviewer: Do you know any Homecoming folklore, such as stories that are almost unbelievable?

Caleb: I don’t really know any homecoming lore. All right, so I think, people run around the bonfire because it’s a long standing tradition, from like 100 years ago. And I know people who have touched the fire and they went to the police station. I think they did it because they didn’t see too much tradition in running around the bonfire, and by them touching the bonfire, they were creating a perversion of the tradition. Strangely enough, and I don’t know why, touching the fire became a tradition, like an anti tradition. I heard of one guy, who touched the fire. He and a couple kids evaded the cops to touch the fire and they got caught eventually. They ran around the cops, making them really pissed. They also taunted them. When they got caught, the cops weren’t exactly nice to them, and I don’t blame them. But, apparently the freshmen didn’t get charges put to them, which I think is cool. So yeah, that’s one story I heard and I think it’s mostly true.

Informer’s comments: He focused mostly on the fascination of the fire by Dartmouth students as his knowledge of Homecoming lore.

Collector’s comments: Caleb did not seem to know specifics about the events that happen during Homecoming.

 

Tags/keywords: bonfire, Freshman, tradition, polices station, perversion