DOC ritual

Title: H-Crew Safety Show

Informant Info: Thomas Rover was born in New York City, New York in 1993. He has lived there all his life and his parents are from there as well. He is studying Classical Archaeology. He joined Dartmouth in College in 2012 and is a senior.

Types of Lore: Customary, Initiation

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social Context and Cultural Context: The story was collected by personal memory. Thomas himself was part of the Climb and Hike trip his freshmen yeah and led the very same trip his sophomore year. H-Crew starts out setting the tone and then trip leaders are encouraged to keep that going. He felt he had a phenomenal time on trips and for most students it is their introduction to the college, which he wanted to be part of and became heavily involved in with the DOC.

Associated File:Interview Audio

Item:

The first contact with Dartmouth tradition that freshmen get to experience is H-Crew Safety show. Once freshmen get to Campus, they meet their trip leaders and are told their schedule for the day. They are told that there is this very boring safety shows where you have to learn about being safe in the woods and its compulsory due to college liabilities. We trying to butter them up, telling them how awful it is. When the show starts, the members of the crew begin by talking about how to deal with a bee-sting etc. Then all of a sudden music starts playing and the rest of the show turns into them doing parodies of popular songs and giving instructions about drinking water, pooping outdoors etc.

Informant’s Comments:

Collector’s Comments: The Informant seemed to be very enthusiastic and love all things DOC. He also really emphasized the importance of trips to acclimatize students to Dartmouth.

Key Words: DOC, Safety Show, Trips

Thomas Rover, Age 23

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH

Title: DOC ritual

Title: Robert Frost’s Ashes

Informant Info: Zohra Aslami was born in Loveland, Colorado on October 4, 1995. Her parents are from Afghanistan and migrated to the United States in 1990. After attending high school in Loveland, Colorado, she joined Dartmouth College in 2014 and is currently a sophomore.

Types of Lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social Context and Cultural Context: The ritual was collected by personal memory. This ritual is part of DOC tradition and the participants are DOC leaders and members of their trip or “trippees”. It usually occurs at some point during the trip and is a method of fostering relationships between freshmen. As a freshmen Zohra was extremely excited to meet new people at Dartmouth and get to know her class. She chose to do Hiking 2 as her trip. She had heard a lot about the famous alumni about the college and traditions of the college, celebrating these figures. These traditions are meant to harbor a sense of bonding and a close-knit community.

Associated File: Interview

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One day on freshmen trips, my trip leader carried with them hot cocoa powder and put it in an urn. They then tried to convince us that the urn contained Robert Frost’s ashes and that it was a tradition for one trip to get the ashes and to share and show it to their trippees. They then asked us to eat the ashes or else have bad luck throughout our Dartmouth careers. We were very hesitant and all looked at each other and nervously laughed. We had never heard of something so absurd but then one of the other freshmen sprang up and said, “I’ll do it!” My trip leader then opened the urn and brought out a spoon and gave to the guy. The guy took the spoon and scooped out some of the cocoa powder and took a bit on is finger and burst out laughing. He then looked and told us it was definitely cocoa powder. We then proceeded to ask them what other pranks they have heard about or played. And as we joined the other trips at the Moosilauke Lodge, we joined others members of our class and discussed the same things.

Informant’s Comments: 

Collector’s Comments:

Key Words: DOC, Robert Frost, Trips

Zohra Aslami, Age 20

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH

DOC ritual

Title: Canadian Ground Fruit

Informant Info: Zohra Aslami was born in Loveland, Colorado on October 4, 1995. Her parents are from Afghanistan and migrated to the United States in 1990. After attending high school in Loveland, Colorado, she joined Dartmouth College in 2014 and is currently a sophomore.

Types of Lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social Context and cultural Context: The ritual was collected by personal memory. This ritual is part of DOC tradition and the participants are DOC leaders and members of their trip or “trippees”. It usually occurs at some point during the trip and is a method of fostering relationships between freshmen.

Associated File: Interview

Item:

While heading on trips my friend told her trippees that there was this rare fruit that was sometimes found on these trips called the Canadian Ground Fruit. My friend had bought a pineapple from the Co-op and her co-leader injected pink coloring dye into the fruit and after the trippees had fallen asleep they went ahead on the path that they would take the next day and buried the fruit with the top sticking out for the trippees to find the next day. The next day as the group approached the fruit, one of the members pointed out the fruit and unassumingly tried to take the fruit of the ground and started shouting, “I found one, I think it’s the Canadian Ground Fruit.” After eating the fruit a lot of them thought it tasted surprisingly like a pineapple. The trip leaders later told their trippees that it was in fact just a pineapple. The trippees went on to discuss the prank that was played on them with other members of their class at the Moosilauke Lodge.

 Informant’s Comments:

 Collector’s Comments:

 Key Words: DOC, Ground Fruit, Trips

Zohra Aslami, Age 20

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH