Author Archives: f0022h5

Robert Frost’s Ashes

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Title: Robert Frost’s Ashes

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Practical Joke / Trick
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 female. She went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was hiking (level 3).

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • The trick is played by the trip leaders on their trippees.
    • The whole group must be present
    • In order for the trick to really work, the trippees can not have any prior knowledge about the trip existing
  • Cultural Context
    • Robert Frost attended Dartmouth College. As a result, many trippees view this as a sort of initiation into the college. (Might be a form of contagious magic)
    • Trippees are more gullible because they are being introduced to this completely new place, and, as a result, are more likely to believe something that may sound ridiculous to an outside party. The idea here is to embarrass the trippees together as a group and offer them something to bond over.

Item:

  • Robert Frost’s Ashes practical joke: Trip leaders lie to their trippees and tell them that their trip has been selected to transport and dispose of Robert Frost’s (a famous Dartmouth alum) ashes. The trip leaders then take the ashes out when they are in the middle of the woods (likely on the top of a mountain), and tell the trippees. The trip leaders then distribute the ashes by pouring them into their trippees hands, and just as they are about to throw the ashes, one of the trip leaders leans down to lick up the ashes from his/her hands. The trippees are then appauled that their trip leader has licked the ashes, just to find out that they were not ashes, but sugar.

Transcript of Informant Interview:

“The Robert Frost ashes trick was played on us and we learned afterward that many trips had this trick, just in a different variation. So we were on a six hour busride the first morning of trips, and during that busride some of us heard about the trick from other trips who had already experienced it. But some of us did not hear about the trick that trip leaders often play on their trippees. So when my trip got to the top of Mousilauke Mountain, our trip leaders took out this flask, and they told us that we had been selected as the group to throw Robert Frost’s ashes off the mountain. At that point we were all pretty delirious because we were at the top of a mountain and it was very windy and I did not sleep a single minute the night before. And a couple of us (trippees) still kind of believed, so they took out a book of Robert Frost poetry and they had us read it super dramatically with lots of feeling, because the trip leaders told us that the reading had to be done well. So we did that, and then we opened the flask and poured out the ‘ashes.’ But I was thinking that these ‘ashes’ look a lot like just sugar. So my trip leader pours out some of the ashes into our hands. And then we were standing there and my trip leader holds the ashes up to his tongue and licks them. And then a couple of us (trippees) look at each other and we were just really confused, so then we lean down and lick up the ashes, too.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant noted that the reaction of trippees on her trip to the practical joke was skewed by the fact that some of her fellow trippees knew about the trick beforehand (had been told by trippees on other trips)

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant was able to give a detailed account of the experience that he had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Practical Joke, Robert Frost, Wilderness

Trip Raid (day)

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Title: Trip Raid (day)

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Practical Joke / Trick
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 female. She went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was hiking (level 3).

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • The trick is played on the trippees by outside actors (Dartmouth students not on the trip)
    • The whole group must be present
    • This raid takes place during the daytime while the trip is taking a break from hiking
  • Cultural Context
    • Focus on putting the trippees out of their comfort zone — make them nervous about the presence of two outside figures
    • The result is that all the trippees are embarrassed that they fell for the joke in the first place. This collective embarrassment gives the trippees something to bond over going forward

Item:

  • Trip raid (daytime): During one day of hiking, the trip is on a break when they notice two figures hiking off-trail. It seems strange to the trippees and trip leaders that anyone is hiking off trail, but then the two figures abruptly change direction and begin directly approaching the trip. It is two cloaked and bearded men. When they reach the trip, the trippees and trip leaders realize that it is two Dartmouth students dressed up as creepy figures. They then laugh together about the joke.

Transcript of Informant Interview:

“We were raided by one of our trip leaders’ boyfriends, and she had no idea they were coming. We were sitting down having lunch and we saw these two figures hiking through this marsh behind these trees, and we were like ‘oh that’s pretty weird that they are not hiking on the really well laid out path, but okay.’ And then we were just sitting there watching them, watching them, watching them, and suddenly they just vere toward us and it was terrifying. It was these two cloaked, bearded figures, but it was just two guys that our trip leader knew dressed up as Lord of the Rings characters. They then proceeded to sing to us. It was really weird, but really fun.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • During this raid, neither the trippees nor the trip leaders knew that this would be happening.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant was able to give a detailed account of the experience that he had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Practical Joke, Raid, Daytime, Wilderness, Creepy figures

Dinner-Show at the Lodj

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Title: Dinner/Show at the Lodj

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Performance (singing and dancing) AND Material Folklore: the dinner
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant #1 Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 male. He went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was canoeing.

Informant #2 Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’18 male. He went on a first-year trip in September 2014 and was a member of Lodj Croo in September 2017.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • All trips have come back together for one final day/night at the Lodj
    • The trippees are really excited for a real meal, sitting at a table after 4 days camping in the wilderness
    • All trips are sitting together in a huge dining hall ready to eat a dinner together
  • Cultural Context
    • The meal itself is prepared by other Dartmouth students (Lodj Croo). They have worked hard to prepare it to offer the trippees a reward after several days in the wilderness
    • The show offers entertainment for the exhausted trippees. Gives them something to just watch and take in, in order to rest and be free of actually socializing during the meal
    • The Croo putting on the show tries very hard to act whacky and embarrass themselves to make all the trippees feel more comfortable

Item:

  • Dinner show at the Lodj: On the last night of trips, all the trips come back together at the Lodj after 4 days in the wilderness. All trippees are exhausted, and they sit down for a big meal together, which is cooked by the Lodj Croo (made up of upperclassmen students). During the meal, the Lodj Croo not only prepares and serves it, but the Croo also puts on a show and sings and dances around the tables while the trippees enjoy a four-course meal.

Transcript of Informant #1 Interview:

“The dinner show at the Lodge was awesome. We basically sat down after a lot of activities during the day for this meal at the Lodge, and coming from the canoeing trip, it was going to be the first good meal that we had had in a while; we had had a lot of Annie’s mac & cheese nights where we were just scraping that out of bowls. Then it turned out to be this four-course meal, and it was amazing, and it was filled with songs, and they were singing these French songs that were really cool.”

Informant #1’s Comments:

  • Seeing the Lodj Croo singing and dancing around, the dinner table really let him see how fun and cool Dartmouth students were.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant #1 was able to give a detailed account of the experience that he had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Transcript of Informant #2 Interview:

“There’s a dinner show that’s a surprise for students, so they come into the Lodge. There’s a blackout, and the croo ends up popping out and doing a whole dinner show. Every course, there’s a song. This year, we were at the skiway, and because that was important to us, we wanted to continue that tradition. So we ended up having the croolings “on strike” basically and the Lodj croo captains were looking for the croolings during the meals to serve the food and ended up running through the windows and scaring the new trippees and performing for them. Other things we do, during the dinner show, during the final song, the dessert song, all the croolings go and pie or ice cream trip leaders, and trip leaders.”

Informant #2’s Comments:

  • “When trippees come back as trip leaders, some of them remember it, some don’t. So it’s really a surprise every year.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant #2 was part of the dinner show and really enjoyed his experience.

Collector’s Name: Roshni Chandwani

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Material Folklore, Dinner, Show, Fun, Food

The Jelly Bean Game

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Title: The Jelly Bean Game

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Game
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 female. She went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was hiking (level 3).

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • All the trippees sitting around a circle together while taking a break from physical activities
  • Cultural Context
    • Provides a way for the trippees to share things about themselves with the group to get to know each other — common to play games to get to know one another in American culture.

Item:

  • The Jelly Bean game: each jelly bean color corresponds to a different category of story. Each person then picks a jelly bean and tells a story corresponding to that color of jelly bean.

Transcript of Informant Interview:

“We only played the jelly bean game one time. We sat around at a rest stop and there were six different colors of jelly beans in this gigantic bag and we labeled each color a different category. So purple might have been like a horror story or a scary story and pink might have been like a story from your childhood and red is an embarrassing story. And then person by person, someone reaches in and randomly picks a color of jelly bean out of the bag. So the person would then tell a story based on the color of jelly bean that they picked.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • It was a really fun game, and a cool way to learn interesting things about the other people on my trip.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant was able to give a detailed account of the experience that he had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Game, Jelly Bean, Stories, Bonding

The Whoosh Ball Game

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Title: The Whoosh Ball Game

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Game
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 male. He went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was canoeing.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • All the trippees and trip leaders stand around in a circle together with a ball in someone’s hands
  • Cultural Context
    • Trippees bond with each other over a fun and simple game
    • It is nice to be able to play a relatively easy game to allow everyone to relax

Item:

  • The Whoosh Ball game: the group stands around in a circle passing a ball and saying whoosh. There are specific rules about what a person is allowed to do when receiving the ball.

Transcript of Informant Interview:

“We played the Whoosh Ball game. This game gave trips a very “campy” feel. You play by passing the ball to the left and saying “whoosh.” And then the person receiving the ball can either ramp it or put up a wall with his/her hand to deflect the ball.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • It was a really fun game, and a cool way to learn interesting things about the other people on my trip.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant was able to give a detailed account of the experience that he had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Game, Whoosh Ball, Ball, fun, trippees, bonding

The Waa Game

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Title: The Waa Game

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Game
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 male. He went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was canoeing.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • All the trippees and trip leaders stand around in a circle together
  • Cultural Context
    • In the game, individuals often make silly mistakes in what should be a basic / straightforward game. Laughing with one another at these silly mistakes leads to bonding
    • It is nice to be able to play a relatively easy game to allow everyone to relax

Item:

  • The Waa game: In the Waa game, everyone in the group stands in a circle facing each other. One person then starts the game by pointing with both hands together at another person in the circle and screaming “waa.” The person who was pointed at then must raise her/his arms and scream “waa.” The two people next to that person then swipe their arms across the person who was pointed at and scream “waa.” The game then continues with the person who was pointed at pointing at someone else.

Transcript of Informant Interview:

“We played the Waa game. In the game we are all standing up in a circle. And one person points to someone else in the circle screaming “Waa” and then the person who received the point then puts both arms in the air screaming “Waa.” And the two people beside that person both chop the person down while also screaming “waa.” And then if you don’t follow those rules you are out. So we bonded over those.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • It was a really fun game, and a cool way to learn interesting things about the other people on my trip.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant was able to give a detailed account of the experience that he had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Game, Waa, fun, trippees, bonding

Stories in Leverone

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Title: Stories in Leverone

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal Folklore: Stories
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant #1 Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 female. She went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was hiking (level 3).

Informant #2 Data:

Ethan Isaacson lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, and is currently a student at Dartmouth in the class of 2018. He was born on January 5th, 1996, and is studying chemistry and physics. He went on freshman trips when he was an incoming freshman, was a trip leader his sophomore year, and was on Hanover Croo, known as HCroo, this past fall, so has seen many different aspects of the trips program.

Leigh Steinberg was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was born on April 19, 1996. She is a student at Dartmouth in the class of 2018 and is a history major and plans on going into consulting after graduation. She was a trip leader before her sophomore year of college and was on Hanover Croo, known as HCroo, this past fall.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • All the trippees sitting in Leverone (indoor field on Dartmouth campus). H-Croo members stand up and tell stories to trippees as audience.
  • Cultural Context
    • The trippees are uncomfortable because it is their first day as students at Dartmouth, so to ease the trippees discomfort, H-Croo tells stories of what their lives were like when they were in the trippees positions. Some of these stories might be adaptations or exaggerations of what their lives were actually like when they were freshman, but the purpose of telling such tales is to make the trippees feel more comfortable

Item:

  • Members of Hanover Croo (H-Croo) share stories from their own freshman falls at Dartmouth with the trippees. These stories are shared on the first night of trips while everyone is still on campus.

Transcript of Informant #1 Interview:

“The stories that H-Croo told were very reassuring. The reason they were telling those stories was to make us feel comfortable. So they would be like ‘I had the worst freshman fall ever. It was great, but also terrible, and here’s why.’ So it was nice because they served our moods. And everyone was in a good move because the stories were funny and we were all just getting to know people on trips.”

Informant #1’s Comments:

  • It was really comforting to hear about the experiences of upperclassmen.

Collector #1’s Comments:

  • Informant was able to give a detailed account of the experience that she had on trips.

Collector #1’s Name: Madison DeRose

Transcript of Informant #2 Interview:

So what used to happen was that people would read the Lorax to the trippees. And I think the point of that was like silly camping that goes with the whole trips spirit but also people thought it was stupid and condescending and a waste of everybody’s time. Um so it disappeared last year and this year was replaced with three brief-ish statements from HCroo to the trippees, the purpose of which was to convey what I wish I was told when I was in your shoes. Um and people used that opportunity to do a lot of different things.

It was also helpful in that with flair and the dress it makes them feel more comfortable by us being crazy, it was a nice moment of reflection where we could come back down to earth and relate to them on a more we were once in your shoes, we understand what you’re going through, and just bringing it down in a more real way rather than adding on to the goofy silly camp stuff.

Informant #2’s Comments:

  • They were both fine with the switch from reading the Lorax at night to telling stories about how they felt when they were freshmen. They thought it made them more relatable and did not seem as ridiculous

Collector #2’s Comments:

  • It is interesting they made this switch last year.

Collector #2’s Name: Henry Senkfor

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Folklore, Storytelling, H-Croo, trippees

The “Safety” Show

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Title: The “Safety” Show

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Practical Joke, and Song and Dance
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant #1 Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 female. She went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was hiking (level 3).

Informant #2 Data:

  • Leigh Steinberg was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was born on April 19, 1996. She is a student at Dartmouth in the class of 2018 and is a history major and plans on going into consulting after graduation. She was a trip leader before her sophomore year of college and was on Hanover Croo, known as HCroo, this past fall.

Informant #3 Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’18 female. She is active in the Native American Community on campus, SPCSA, and Sigma Delta. She is a Government and Native American Studies modified with Anthropology double major from Martha’s Vineyard. She went on cabin camping in September 2014, but never led a trip or was on a croo.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • All are in Sarner Underground on the Dartmouth campus on the first night of trips. They are all sitting on the ground looking up at a stage. They have been told they are there to listen to a safety talk, so that they understand the rules before they head out into the wilderness for four days. The trippees do not know that the safety talk will actually turn into a crazy show with singing and dancing.
  • Cultural Context
    • The trippees are uncomfortable because it is their first day as students at Dartmouth, so to ease the trippees discomfort, H-Croo surprises the trippees by putting on a crazy show for them with song and dance.
    • H-Croo wants to ease the nerves of the trippees and make them feel more comfortable, but also make sure that the trippees enjoy their time

Item:

  • Members of Hanover Croo (H-Croo) surprise the trippees with a show with many songs and dances. The trippees go into the room under the impression that H-Croo will be putting on a safety talk, but partway through the talk, H-Croo begins to sing and dance.

Transcript of Informant #1 Interview:

“The Safety Talk. So we were sitting in the back and we saw that there was a camera, so we were a little suspicious that something else besides a safety talk was going on. Going into the talk, our trip leaders were very convincing and they were apologizing that we had to sit through this mandatory safety talk, so we (the trippees) were convinced that it was going to be a pretty boring thing. But then the two people giving the talk were sitting on stage and they started bickering, and we were like ‘Okay, that doesn’t really happen.’ And I also knew that they just prank trippees a lot, so I kind of knew that something was going to happen. It was kind of fun to watch the room unfold into realizing that something was going to happen, and this wasn’t actually a safety talk. I loved watching the show. I remember sitting there and being like this strange and fun atmosphere is a big reason of why I came to Dartmouth.”

Informant #1’s Comments:

  • It was really fun to watch H-Croo put on a show.

Collector #1’s Comments:

  • Informant was able to give a detailed account of the experience that she had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Transcript of Informant #2 Interview:

Well, so the safety show is something that we do every night. After dinner we bring them in and we tell them that they have to listen to a safety talk for about an hour which is super important. Um and then instead we surprise them by putting on a really big show. I always thought, I was a trip leader and also on HCroo, that this is important in making them more comfortable on their first night so kind of by breaking down the boundaries of the first day awkwardness that they put up. And so just us being really goofy and silly in front of them definitely helps them feel more comfortable in their group. It gives them something to talk about and it connects us to them and it also does convey some important information like, “no sex on trips” just in a really funny way. So we get to talk about fun things in a way that’s super accessible.

Informant #2’s Comments: 

  • She particularly likes the safety show because she thinks it really helps eliminate a lot of the awkwardness of the introduction to college.

Collector #2’s Comments:

  • Informant seemed to be extremely enthusiastic about the safety show, as she mentioned it was consistently the thing she looked forward to most.

Collector’s Name: Henry Senkfor

Transcript of Informant #3 Interview:

Informant: Fast forward, you do the safety talk. And the trip leaders are like, ‘oh my God take notes you’ll be quizzed after this and you won’t be able to go unless you do well on this quiz.’ So everyone’s pulling out pieces of paper and stuff and freaking out…

Collector: freaking out because they were definitely studious in high school?

Informant: Yeah, Dartmouth nerds. I remember our trip leaders were kind of chill and they were like, ‘you’ll be fine.’ And so they saved us the social embarrassment basically of being these crazy nerds. Obviously they break into dancing after this. The safety talk slowly starts to make no sense and you’re like wait what? And it’s like a dance party. Classic; our first Dartmouth dance party.

Informant #3’s Comments: 

  • Informant viewed the Safety Show simultaneously as another example of the prevalence of spontaneous dance throughout the trips experience and as an example of pranking on trips.

Collector #3’s Comments:

  • This view/instance of the “safety show” is an example of how DOC trips folklore can cross genres in the way that someone experiences it. Our informant sees it both as another instance of spontaneous dance and as a prank as parts of trips. It also speaks to the simultaneous universal nature of the safety show in that everyone on trips experiences it, and to the personalized nature of how they might be introduced to it or perceive it.

Collector’s Name: Clara Silvanic

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Practical Joke, Performance, Song and Dance

Trip Raid (night)

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Title: Trip Raid (night)

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Practical Joke / Trick
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant #1 Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 male. He went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was canoeing.

Informant #2 Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’18 male. He went on a first-year trip in September 2014 and was a member of Lodj Croo in September 2017.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • The raid takes place while the trippees and trip leaders are all sitting around socializing at night (while it is dark) in the woods. No one else is thought to be around.
    • People who are neither trippees or trip leaders approach the group to scare them.
  • Cultural Context
    • The idea of doing this on trips is to take the trippees out of their comfort zones, but to never actually threaten their safety
    • Focus on embarrassing the trippees and make them all believe that someone is coming for them, when in reality, they are safe the whole time
      • It is funny in retrospect, and the trippees can all laugh together about one another’s reactions to the raid
      • Forms a bond among the trippees

Item:

  • Trip Raid (nighttime) by the Grant Croo. The members of the Grant Croo sneak up on the trip and take them by surprise, attempting to frighten the trippees in the process. The trip leaders are aware of what is happening, so they are not actually worried for the safety of the trippees

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bNOjpV1PW8B6z6r13

Transcript of Informant #1:

“During our trip we were out on the air strip and the Grant Croo came up to us in the night. They were dressed as the knights who say knee so they were sitting on each other’s shoulders, so there were these huge giant shadowy figures walking towards us, so we thought we were going to get attacked, and some people in my group ran away. But then they came up closer and we realized it was actually just the Grant Croo.”

Informant #1’s Comments:

  • The informant was scared while the raid was happening because he did not know who the giant figures were that were approaching them in the dark.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant #1 was able to give a detailed account of the experience that he had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Transcript of Informant #2:

“Another piece of folklore that I completely forgot about is just trips raids in general. There’s one that’s continuously told about apparently, right before our time, there was a trip leader that had one of his friends pretend to be a trippee, went on the entire trip with them, and during the second night of the trip, he was tied to a tree and was screaming, “Run, Run, Run!” And all of the trippees ran through the forest, and one of them was on the Track and Field team and ran for 6-8 hours, and they had to send people to go find them in the forest. That’s a trip raid that people talk about all the time and is the reason why we register raids now. It’s told consistently to every trip that comes through.”

Informant #2’s Comments:

  • Informant questioned the validity of the stories but enjoyed them nonetheless.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant #2 was able to give a detailed account of the stories he had heard.

Collector’s Name: Roshni Chandwani

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Practical Joke, Raid, Grant Croo, Embarrassing, Bond, Comfort Zone