Author Archives: Katherine Landers

Coffee & Pastries

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Title: Coffee & Pastries

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal/Visual Lore, Joke, Meme
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth Athletic Teams
  • Informant: Shannon Ropp
  • Date Collected: 10-29-18

Informant Data:

  • Shannon Ropp was born in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Her parents are Jefferey and Debra Ropp. She has one older brother, and grew up playing hockey. She has a dog named Frodo. She is currently a senior at Dartmouth College, and is studying Engineering Sciences. She is a member of the Dartmouth Women’s Ice hockey team.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The Dartmouth women’s ice hockey head coach, Laura Schuler believes that in order to be a peak athlete, you must fuel your body for performance. One day while she was speaking to her team, she said that they needed to stop “exclusively fueling their bodies with coffee and pastries”.
  • Social Context: The team drinks a lot of coffee during the school term in order to stay awake for classes and assignments, as well as eats lots of pastries as they are easy to grab and go. The team thought this was humorous that their coach would reprimand them for something as minuscule as that. The team then began making memes out of the incident.

Item:

  • This is a combination of a visual joke/meme and a spoken joke. The team created a serious of memes and shared them. Whenever someone is making unhealthy decisions, they are told to stop “fueling their body with only coffee and pastries”.

Informant’s Comments:

  • This was one of our favorite jokes so far this year, and it has sparked many following memes and jokes. We have also renamed out group chat “Coffee & Pastries” as a nod to the incident.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke here is a paradox for athletes. You would not expect division 1 athletes to eat excess unhealthy foods. Its also interesting to see the first meme I collected from a sports team, and may reflect the culture of the generation of current Dartmouth athletes.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Meme
  • Coffee
  • Hockey
  • Pastries
  • Athlete

 

 

FACT

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Title: FACT

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal Lore, Joke
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth Athletic Teams
  • Informant: Eva Klein
  • Date Collected: 10-25-18

Informant Data:

  • Eva Klein was born Los Angeles, CA and grew up in Santa Clarita, CA. She is currently a junior at Dartmouth College, and is studying Film/Media and French. She began playing rugby when she was 12 years old. Her father played rugby for the University of Buffalo. Eva was recruited to play rugby for Dartmouth and has been playing since her freshman year.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Eva’s teammate, Ale Ada, is a freshman at Dartmouth College. She is from Sinajana, Guam. Her teammates give her a hard time because she speaks in what Eva described as a “matter of fact” tone.
    Social Context: The team thought that the way that Ale spoke was very funny, as it seemed that she was constantly telling everyone cold hard “facts”. This then developed into a reoccurring joke repeated by members of the team. 

Item:

  • This is a joke spoken by the members of the Dartmouth Women’s Rugby team, following whenever Ale Ada speaks. Whenever she speaks, whether it be a question, opinion or statement, a fellow teammate yells out “FACT” in response as a nod to the way she presents herself.

Informant’s Comments:

  • This was a joke that was started when Ale began speaking. It may not seem very funny to others, but it makes most of us laugh

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke here serves as a way to incorporate the freshman Ale, as well as allows the team to bond over their kinship. The true humor derives from the parallel between what Ale is saying, usually a question or an opinion which is presented as a statement and is said to be a “fact”.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Rugby
  • Fact
  • Team
  • Freshman
  • Inclusion

 

 

Randall

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Title: Randall

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal Lore, Joke
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth College Athletics
  • Informant: Clay Han
  • Date Collected: 10-24-18

Informant Data:

  • Clayton Han was born in Cincinnati, OH on February 23, 1995. His father’s family is originally from Indonesia and immigrated to the United States in 1974. His mother is from Barbourville, KY, a small town in the southeastern portion of the state. Clayton grew up in Cincinnati, until he graduated from high school and moved to Lexington, MA in order to play hockey. In addition, Clayton and his family are members of the Methodist Church. Currently, Clayton is a Junior at Dartmouth College, where he is also a member of the Men’s Varsity Ice Hockey team

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: When Brendan Less, Clay’s teammate, joined the team during Clay’s sophomore year, his teammates saw similarities in both face and personality between Brendan and Randall Bogs from the animated film “Monsters Inc.”
  • Social Context: The joke is shared amongst the men’s hockey team, and is reoccurring through conversation.

Item:

  • This is a men’s hockey team joke, in the form of a nickname

Informant’s Comments:

  • This was a joke that was created to include the freshman Brendan Less. It is in good spirit and not meant to be mean, but rather a way to bond.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke here is a good way for teammate’s to bond over past experiences and create a social dynamic together. There is a parallel between expecting a hockey player to be a lot different than a Pixar character.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Hockey
  • Randall
  • Monsters Inc
  • Nickname
  • Team

 

 

I ate my grandma

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Title: I ate my grandma

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal Lore, Joke
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth College Athletics
  • Informant: Bailee Brekke
  • Date Collected: 10-21-18

Informant Data:

  • Bailee Brekke was born in. Naperville, IL. Her family moved lots throughout her childhood due to her father’s work. She moved away from home her sophomore year of high school to attend Culver Academy in Indiana, to pursue hockey. Her father, Brent is the assistant coach of the Clarkeson University men’s ice hockey team. She is currently a junior at Dartmouth College, where she is studying Psychology and Economics. She has been playing for the women’s ice hockey team since her freshman year.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The Dartmouth women’s ice hockey team often travels to other schools in the NCAA division 1 league to compete.  While travelling, they watch films to pass the time. Freshman traditionally pick out the films to bring on the bus and seniors choose which films are played. On a recent bus trip, the Disney film “Moana” was chosen and played. During a scene featuring a crab and the main character, Moana, the crab tries to steal a necklace given to Moana by her grandmother. Moana is protective of this necklace, which causes the crab to mumble and state that he “ate his grandma.”
    Social Context: This scene caused a lot of the Dartmouth women’s players to laugh, and in turn players began repeating the line “Mnm Mnm mm I ate my grandma” as well as replacing the word grandma for other relevant and miscellaneous things such as trailmix, hockey tape, and phone chargers.

Item:

  • This is a joke shared by the Dartmouth Women’s ice hockey team. It is verbal, and is related to the film “Moana”.

Informant’s Comments:

  • “This was a joke that is shared by our team. It still makes me laugh.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke is used to bond over the experience of watching a film together, as well as relating to the team’s favorite past times. It allows the team to bond and connect.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Joke
  • Moana
  • Film
  • Hockey
  • Grandma
  • Exclusive

 

 

Push Your Shelf

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Title: Push Your Shelf

General Information about Item:

  • Verbal/Custom Lore, Joke
  • Language: English
  • Origin: Dartmouth College Athletic Teams
  • Informant: Katie Pursley
  • Date Collected: 10-20-18

Informant Data:

  • Katie Pursley was born June 2, 1998 in Easton, MA. She is currently a junior at Dartmouth College, and is studying Economics while pursuing the pre-med track. She played softball, basketball and ran cross country throughout high school. She began playing rugby for Dartmouth College her freshman year as a walk on, and quit after her sophomore year.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The Dartmouth rugby team would offer words of enthusiasm and encouragement before team events such as lift, practices, and games. One of these team sayings was “Push yourself, push eachother.” Before practice last year, a teammate of Katie’s, Eva Klein mispronounced the team saying and said “Push your shelf.”
    Social Context:The joke is performed when a member sees a shelf on campus, and is with fellow rugby teammates.

Item:

  • This item is is a team custom and verbally performed joke, relating to the incident in which Eva Klein mispronounced a team saying prior to a team activity. 

Collector’s Comments:

  • The joke is exclusive to the women’s rugby team, and without the contextual data or prior knowledge, one may not be able to perform it. It allows the team to connect with one another and provides the team with a sense of identity. It also creates a paradox in which you would expect the initial instance to be done correctly, and when it isn’t it is remembered and passed down through this joke.

Collector’s Name: Sydney Hill

Tags/Keywords:

  • Verbal Lore
  • Customary Lore
  • Joke
  • Athletics
  • Rugby
  • Dartmouth
  • Shelf

 

 

Chesties

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Title: Chesties

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Ritual
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Canada
  • Informant: Syd Hill
  • Date Collected: 2-28-18

Informant Data:

  • Syd Hill was born in Brandon, Manitoba. She is a sophomore at Dartmouth College and a member of the Varsity Women’s Ice Hockey team. She is majoring in Economics and her family owns a farm. She has two younger brothers.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Every player on the Dartmouth Women’s Ice Hockey team has a different pre-game warm up. A lot of players use handshakes and chants to prepare and get pumped up for game days. Handshakes are performed between two of more people and they can be formal or informal.
  • Social Context: In the locker room, before going on the ice, Syd performs this item of folklore with three other teammates. She, along with her class, made it up this season. The three minutes in the locker room before every time the players take the ice is very important to the team.

Item:

  • Syd and her three other classmates meet in the middle area of the locker room around the Dartmouth “D” on the carpet. They all stand facing each other and perform a hand shake were they each take their hands and extend them to the chests of the teammate on both sides of them. They are all connected, in a type of circle or diamond, and hold their position for a few seconds. After that they all break apart and get ready for the game.

Transcript:

  • “It’s funny because sometimes we make silly faces at each other and everyone laughs since we are “holding” each others breasts.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • It’s a fun new tradition that she believes will continue for the rest of their Dartmouth career.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Its a very simple and different type of handshake.

Collector’s Name: Claire Bird

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Ritual
  • Chesties

The Ball

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Title: The Ball

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Ritual, Superstition, Verbal Lore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Kate Landers
  • Date Collected: 2/25/18

Informant Data:

  • Kate Landers was born in Chicago, IL, on March 11, 1997. She grew up in the city with her parents and older brother. Her father’s family is from South Korea and her mother’s family is from New England. Kate is a junior at Dartmouth College and plays on the Varsity Women’s Ice Hockey Team.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Many sports teams have rituals and superstitions. They can be performed by all the players at once or by small groups of teammates. Many of the Dartmouth Women’s Ice Hockey rituals are tradition. The team follows an identity: Team, Tradition, Excellence. While the team has many on and off-ice traditions, this item is one of the traditions that is performed by every team member in the same situation.
  • Social Context: This item is performed in the locker room, an hour and forty minutes before every game . After the coaches come in to have a pre-game speech, the players all stay seated at their stalls, in the locker room, for this item. It was bequested to Kate from a player that graduated in 2016, and after Kate’s senior year, she will bequest it to a freshman. This ritual has been performed for decades.

Item:

  • Kate was bequested a small, toy sized soccer ball that says “NCAA” on it. This ritual is a tradition where everyone sits in their stalls and the small ball gets passed around the locker room clockwise. When it is the players turn with the ball, they are supposed to take a moment and tell the rest of the team something they want to do well in the game or something they want to work on as the game goes on. Kate starts it every game and hands it to her left until it goes around the whole team. The ball cannot touch the ground or it is said to be cursed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transcript:

  • “It’s actually a huge honor to have this responsibility on the team. Its one of the few traditions that the whole team takes part in and it’s awesome that I get to be the one who is in charge of it. When we play Ivy league teams, sometimes we put a little twist on the tradition and instead of a ball we use another object… it’s pretty cool. We’ve never had the ball drop… knock on wood.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • This really starts the game-day process at the rink. It’s the first thing the team does to start zoning in and focusing up.

Collector’s Comments:

  • It means a lot to all of the members on the team. It’s a tradition that has been passed down throughout the history of Dartmouth Women’s Ice Hockey and it helps each player get mentally prepared for the game.

Collector’s Name: Kate Landers

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Verbal Lore
  • Superstition
  • Ritual
  • The Ball

Our House

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Title: Our House

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Ritual
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Canada
  • Informant: Katerina “Kat” Dajia
  • Date Collected: 2/23/18

Informant Data:

  • Katerina Dajia is a freshman at Dartmouth College. She was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario in Canada and has one brother. She plays defense for the women’s varsity hockey team at Dartmouth. She is professionally licensed hair dresser and enjoys giving people hair cuts.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: The line up, leading from the locker room to the ice, has always been a form of “pump up” for the Dartmouth women’s hockey team. It is where many small and meaningful rituals take place. Many sports team have team traditions or rituals that all members perform at the same time. It is notable that a lot of sports teams have stickers, posters, or and item that they touch/hit before approaching their opponent.
  • Social Context: There are some routines the women’s hockey team performs all together. Most of these are practiced before the first, second, and third period, but not for warmups before the first. It is performed by everyone on the team and is learned the first game of the season for the freshman or new players.

Item:

  • There is a metal sign that reads “Our House”, near the ceiling next to the door that leads to the ice. Every player hits the sign, with the blade of their stick, before running onto the ice. It is said to be unlucky if one hits the sign with anything but the blade of their stick. It is the final routine before each period.

 

 

Transcript:

  • “Even though there are a lot of team rituals or superstitions, I like this the most. I love the loud noise it makes when my stick hits the metal sign… I try to hit it hard to make a loud noise and then sprint onto the ice… I saw the other players doing it so I did too.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • At first, Kat did not know what to think about this ritual. She did not really get it but did it anyways. Over time, she has grew to really appreciate it and thinks it is fun to do.

Collector’s Comments:

  • This item is simple but complex at the same time. To the team, it’s a ritual but it also seems like a form of conversion superstition. It has a lot of depth to it.

Collector’s Name: Kate Landers

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Ritual
  • Superstition
  • Our House

“I Don’t Need Luck” Handshake

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Title: “I Don’t Need Luck” Handshake

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Verbal Lore, Ritual, Chant
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Germany
  • Informant: Linda Essery
  • Date Collected: 2/23/18

Informant Data:

  • Linda Essery was born in Friedrichshafen, Germany. She then moved to Raleigh, NC and now currently lives in Rockfall, CT. Linda is a freshman at Dartmouth College and attended Loomis Chaffee Prep for high school. She has three brothers and loves dogs.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Handshakes are performed between two of more people.  They usually involve the participants’ hands, but can also involve their entire bodies. There are formal handshakes and informal handshakes. Informal handshakes are a representation of creativity and companionship.
  • Social Context: Many players on the women’s ice hockey team, at Dartmouth College, have one or more handshakes/chants with other players. Some are bequested, meaning passed down from older players who have now graduated, some are simple, and some are very elaborate. There are three minutes in the locker room before every time players go on to the ice, and that time is very special to most of the team. A lot of players use this time to get pumped up by the music and to perform their handshakes and rituals.

Item:

  • In the locker room before the team takes the ice, Linda finds her teammate Alyssa Baker, a junior, and they perform a special handshake. The two of them both bring their hands together and hit the front and back of each other’s hands, while their own remain together. After they each hit both sides, they then bring their connected hands to touch each others at the finger tips directly in front of them. After this is done Linda says, “I don’t need luck, I’m with Baker.” Baker then replies, “I don’t need luck, I’m with Linda.”

 

 

Transcript:

  • “I love this handshake the most because Baker is awesome and such a role mode… it felt so good to have her want a handshake with me. It’s pretty simple and the saying is awesome because we kind of took it from Harry Potter.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • Linda feels that this handshake is very special because it makes her feel welcomed and loved on the team.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found it really interesting that the two of them incorporate something from Harry Potter into their handshake. There is a lot of folklore in the Harry Potter books and now it is being represented in folklore we collected too.

Collector’s Name: Kate Landers

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Verbal Lore
  • Chant
  • Ritual- Handshake
  • Harry Potter
  • “I Don’t Need Luck”

Football

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Title: Football

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Ritual
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Taylor Matherson
  • Date Collected: 2/23/18

Informant Data:

  • Taylor Matherson was born in Newton, MA, on March 29, 1999. She currently lives in Walpole, MA. She has one older sister and one older brother. She attended Tabor Prep for high school and is a freshman at Dartmouth College playing Varsity hockey.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Before sporting events, professional and amateur athletes warm up to ensure that they are lose for their game or match. Many athletes like to juggle a soccer ball, play wall-ball, or even work on their hand eye coordination with tennis balls. It is very common to practice a type of physical workout, aside from the team warmup, in collegiate Varsity sports.
  • Social Context: The women’s ice hockey team likes to split into different groups after the team warm up. Some people sit in the stands, some people, tape their sticks, and the rest take part in games. There are two main “game” groups on the team. One group juggles a soccer ball together and the other group throws a football around.

Item:

  • On the concourse of Thompson Arena, the rink on Dartmouth College’s campus, Taylor and four of her teammates play football. This pre-game ritual and warm up has been a tradition on the Dartmouth Women’s Ice Hockey Team for three years now. The five of them spread out and Taylor starts with the ball. She will then throw it, as best she can, down the concourse to her other teammates. They throw the football back and forth for about ten minutes and then go to the locker room to get ready for the game.

 

 

Transcript:

  • “It helps me take my mind off the other team and lets me loosen up before it’s time to focus… It’s also funny to see how far we can all throw it and how good our aim is… it’s funny when we mess up and the ball goes into the stands but stinks when we have to go get it.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • It helps to loosen the players wrist up before the game.

Collector’s Comments:

  • It’s interesting to see the team playing football before the hockey game. As a hockey player, you usually only hear of people warming up with tennis balls or a group of people juggling a soccer ball, but this is cool and different.

Collector’s Name: Kate Landers

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore
  • Ritual
  • Football