Category Archives: Dartmouth College

Story 2: “Leadership Values”

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“Leadership Values”

Informant Information:

Jeanette has a son who has Down Syndrome. He is nineteen years old, and has been a member of the “My Own Voice” choir for a few years. “My Own Voice” is a choir for children with special needs in Andover, Massachusetts. 

Type of Lore: Not Applicable

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States of America

Social/Cultural Context: This story again is not folklore, but it is a kind of story that often has a shared sentiment among special needs families. These more personal stories are typically shared individually or with close friends of the family.

 

Informant Comments: 

Angelina,

I’m going to take a stab at this.  This is one of my favorite stories about [my son].  Feel free to pare it down if it’s too long or to let me know if I need to make changes so it’s meaningful to your project.

A few years back, when he was 15 years old, [he] attended a summer day camp program in which he was the oldest child there, and one of only a couple with intellectual disabilities.  [He] had attended this summer program since he was 8 years old, so he was a senior camper and really knew all the routines.  Two days a week, the campers travelled by bus to an indoor pool to swim.  [He] always sat with a very young child named Mitchell (not his real name).  Mitchell was a very active child, but when he was with [my son], he was always compliant and very well behaved.  One day, [he] had an early morning appointment and we dropped him off at the pool later.  The camp counselors were very happy to have [him] there for the ride back to camp because Mitchell had been pretty tough to deal with on the way to the pool that morning.  The ride back was much more calm because Mitchell had his mentor and role model there.

In my family we value intellect and leadership.  [My son] has Down syndrome; so, he has intellectual disabilities.  This was the first time I ever thought of my son as a leader and role model to others.  I had an amazing feeling of pride.

Since then, I have experienced his leadership first hand when we are home for the holidays and he is monitoring the play among his younger cousins.  They are old enough to realize their cousin has special needs, but because he’s older, they respect and look up to him as a role model.  When he tells them they need to take turns and that they need to be nice to one another, they listen and respond well. My siblings have noted this as well.

I’ve always been told that it’s important that [he] have access to “typical” peers to model age appropriate behavior for him.  It never occurred to me that he could be a leader and role model to others and that they would learn appropriate behavior from him; nor did it occur to me that this passion could potentially lead to a fulfilling job or volunteer opportunity as an adult.

Jeannette

Collector’s Comments: 

We found this story relayed similar sentiments addressed in the Holland Poem. Families who have a special needs child often redefine their expectations for their children, and are then even more astounded by their accomplishments. We feel very fortunate to have been trusted with this submission.

Tags/Keywords: Special Needs, Children, Story, Leadership, Expectations

Link

Lil’ Dip

Davaron Stockman, age 20, Laplace, Louisiana (5/22/16

Verbal lore: slang

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States of America

Social/ Cultural context: Used by New Orleans youth to mean boyfriend, girlfriend or significant other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI74HZiY4Xs 

“Ha-ha the next one is kind of funny, um, it’s uh, Lil’ Dip. I really started hearing it around middle school, high school time. It’s really like a slang word for boyfriend or girlfriend. I would hear, um, guys or girls when they’re describing their boyfriend or girlfriend use the words Lil’ dip. Basically to use it in a sentence, I saw your little girlfriend over there. Who, my Lil’ dip? Yeah, she uh, was just chilling, uh in the classroom or whatever, something like that.”

Collectors Commentary: This item was explained to be term specific to the folk speech of the young people of New Orleans and ties into the customary dating culture there.

 

Key words: New Orleans, slang, lil’ dip

 

 

The Novack Lady

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1. Title: The Novack Lady

2. Informant Information

David Herrera is a biology and economics double major, French minor, and a sophomore at Dartmouth College. For that reason, he visits Novack Café quite often to get a quick meal to go. He also recently became a brother at Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.

3. Type of Lore (Genre and Sub-genre): Legend, Legendary Figure

4. Language: English

5. Country of Origin: Hanover, New Hampshire, United States

6. Social/Cultural Context:

Among students, Novack Café has the reputation of being the fast and easy way to get DDS food during the day. But, there is a tradeoff between Novack being fast and easy; it is often not the most enjoyable experience and also not the best food (if not the worst on campus). This unpleasant experience is largely due to someone that the student body calls the “Novack Lady”.

7. Associated File: N/A

8. Transcript:

“She’s remarkably impatient and probably one of the meanest people I’ve ever met. If you’ve ever been to Novack and you’re there trying to get food, you better know what you want or else you’ll get some attitude haha. If you’ve seen Seinfeld – she’s like the soup Nazi. She’ll hop you in line if she’s just not feeling it. She’s all over social media for that reason; people tend to complain anonymously about her. I mean come on, I know I have, it’s pretty easy. I tend to avoid getting Novack in the mornings purely for the reason of not encountering her; I don’t want a rude awakening. She’s all about efficiency, and if you don’t know what you want, you get treated quite brusquely.”

9. Informant’s Comments:

David said that he interpreted this type of folklore as one that reflects, simply, the stress of the student body; “I think people hate her so much and why she doesn’t like us is because we, since we go to an ivy league school and have to work very hard pretty much all the time, we are always in a hurry or always stressed out. For that reason, when we sometimes get bossy or try to move fast through Novack, like I’ve seen so many people do this and even I do sometimes, we just tend to enforce ourselves and get pretty frustrated if they don’t hear our order the first time we say it. As a result, she inevitably gets mad and tends to enforce herself over us…”

10. Collector’s Comments:

My interpretation of this folklore actually agrees with David’s. Like the legend of Old Man Foco, this folklore serves to extend and highlight similar characteristics of the student body. In this sense, it helps to illuminate the “identity” of Dartmouth Students.

11. Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth Dining, Novack Café

Hymn/Song

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Title: Hymn/Song

Informant info: Michael Rodriguez. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran. Informant enlisted in the Army in 2003 and was a member of the 1st Battalion 8th Marines Bravo Company, which is an infantry military unit. He was stationed out of camp Lejeune North Carolina. Informant served in Iraq from June 2004 to December 2004. He was awarded a Purple Heart. He was from a military family, as well. Informant is 31 years old.

Type of lore: Verbal Lore, Oaths, Traditions

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was asked if there were any traditions that he remembered and reported that these two were very traditional oaths to learn. The Marine Corps Hymn and the Rifleman’s Creed.

Associated file:

Traditional Songs/Oaths

Transcript:

“When you’re like in the marine corps like. I don’t know, I cant, I cant recall any songs that were passed around, but there is the marine corps hymn. Which is like the marine corps song. Um, we call it the marine corps hymn. It’s like you know it starts out like ‘The halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli’ like these great things that the marine corps has done over the years. It sort of glorifies it. Um, there’s that, and there’s also this thing called the rifleman’s creed, which might be interesting to look up. Its sort of a, ah, like an oath that you say to yourself. You learn in bootcamp but you kind of carries on into infantry cause were just you do a lot more obviously with, uh, rifles and stuff. But uh sort like this, uh, creed to emphasize like the bond between a person and their weaponry.”

Collector’s comments: They are separate oaths. The rifleman’s creed is for more specific positions.

Informant’s comments: He claimed that the rifleman’s creed got more prevalent in infantry.

Tags/Keywords: Creed, Hymn, Song, Verbal Lore

 

Link

Boudin

Informant Info: Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont.Collected on May 22, 2016, and recorded via iphone

Verbal lore, Folk speech, Slang —associated with Material, Food lore

English/ French

United States of America, France

Boudin is a type of rice based sausage that is cooked and served in New Orleans and southern Louisiana

Transcript (if verbal lore)

“and there is a particular kind of sausage called ‘Boudin’ which is a rice based sausage.”

Collector’s comments: Boudin (pronounces Bou-Daan) is a type of New Orleans food, and like most new orleans food has creole roots. The name an pronounciation of the term suggests french roots and they style of food suggest Cajun French roots to be specific because of its style as a cheap sausage. As such it only exists in the United States as a food unique to New Orleans and is thus a slang word unique to New orleans as well.

Key words: New Orleans, Boudin, Rice, Sausage

Old Man Foco

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1. Title: Old Man Foco

2. Informant Information:

Matt Marcus is a computer science major and a senior at Dartmouth College. His freshman year, he walked on to the lightweight crew team and has been a member ever since. With practice usually lasting late into the afternoon everyday, Matt finds himself eating dinner at Foco nearly every night.

3. Type of Lore (Genre, Sub-genre): Legend, Legendary Figure

4. Language: English

5. Country of Origin: in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States

6. Social/Cultural Context:

Foco (the Class of 1953 Commons) is one of the most popular dining facilities for athletes with an all you can eat buffet. Very regularly, until about a few months ago, one would often see an older man with a high-pitched voice and Dartmouth-colored tote bag walking the pathway between FoCo and the Collis Center. He would often enter into both facilities and have sit-down meals rather regularly, very often engaging in conversation with students.

7. Associated File (a video, audio, or image file): N/A

8. Transcript (if verbal lore):

“Old Man FoCo is somewhat of a famous figure when it comes to avoiding him. While he is a genuinely nice guy, he likes to talk a lot…. and I mean a lot. Once you start conversation with him, don’t expect to leave soon thereafter. He’s also apparently a huge name-dropper. All he likes to talk about is who he knows that’s famous, or who he’s encountered in the past that’s famous. Apparently he also loves frats considering his Dad was an SAE here like me so that’s kinda cool. I’ve even seen someone turn around and go into a different door at Foco just to avoid running into him. Apparently he’s that big of a chatterbox.”

9. Informant’s comments:

When asked for an interpretation of what Matt thought the “meaning” behind this folklore was, he stated: “I think that Old Man Foco is kind of a representation of how friendly the Dartmouth student body is… He’s an extension of that part of the student body. I think his legend was created in that sense to serve as an idea about inclusiveness and friendliness that the student body can relate”

10. Collector’s Comments:

As the interviewer, my interpretation of the folklore was somewhat different. While I do agree that Old Man Foco’s legend was created to be an “extension” of traits that the student body emulates, I think that he was probably more of a creation to unite the student body as a whole. People are more conversational and are generally more nice to people when they have something in common. Therefore, when the idea of Old Man Foco is one to which everybody can relate considering he is someone that a very large part of the student body has seen or met. Simply put, everybody knows about him.

11. Tags/Keywords: Dartmouth Dining, FoCo (Class of 1953 Commons)

 

Malaria Pills

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Title: Malaria Pills

Informant info: Michael Rodriguez. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran. Informant enlisted in the Army in 2003 and was a member of the 1st Battalion 8th Marines Bravo Company, which is an infantry military unit. He was stationed out of camp Lejeune North Carolina. Informant served in Iraq from June 2004 to December 2004. He was awarded a Purple Heart. He was from a military family, as well. Informant is 31 years old.

Type of lore: Verbal Lore, Myth

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was asked if there were any ghost stories that related to the area that he was stationed in or military related. He replied that there weren’t really any ghost stories but there was a sort of myth around the malaria pills that gave you night terrors or weird dreams.

Associated file:

Malaria Pills

Transcript:

“You are on Malaria pills, you know malaria… and I don’t know if they still do, but the pills that they gave us, like, they’re known to cause, um, like a, not necessarily like nightmares, sort of like, they give you weird dreams. Everyone knows, when we take the malaria pills, you’re gunna get some fucked up dreams. I can’t really remember mine, but I remember my buddies, like popping up, like. He was sleeping, and we were in this tent out in the desert, and he like pops up in the middle of nowhere and he’s like ‘There’s a snake! There’s a snake! Get it off me! There’s a snake!’ and we were all like looking at him like ‘yo, bro like there’s no snake there, like, I think you were just having a nightmare.’ ‘No , there’s a snake…’ No those malaria pills just fuck you up. And you always hear a lot of guys like, whether it was actually those malaria pills or like people being stressed. And like you’re near those people at night when you’re normally not. And you’d hear these people having these nightmares, which normally do when they’re stressed, but you never know that. So, whether or not it was the malaria pills or just like the normal stress of going to a new area and being deployed, I’ll let science decide on that.”

Informant’s comments: He thought the effect that the malaria pills could’ve had on those people was funny. He was skeptical on whether or not it was actually the pills or just stress and described the malaria pills incidents as kind of ghost stories.

Collector’s Comments: Thought it was funny the way he described his friend’s dream.

Tags/Keywords: Malaria, military, pills, verbal lore

 

Adapt, Overcome, Improvise

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Title: Adapt, Overcome, Improvise
Informant info: Michael Rodriguez. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran. Informant enlisted in the Army in 2003 and was a member of the 1st Battalion 8th Marines Bravo Company, which is an infantry military unit. He was stationed out of camp Lejeune North Carolina. Informant served in Iraq from June 2004 to December 2004. He was awarded a Purple Heart. He was from a military family, as well. Informant is 31 years old.

Type of lore: Verbal Lore
Language: English
Country of Origin: USA
Social / Cultural Context: Informant was asked if there were any traditions that his family of veterans had told him about the military and he said there were not. Then he said there was a saying that his father used to tell him that was a military saying. The saying is meant to encourage.

Associated File:

Adapt, Overcome, Improvise

Transcript:

[I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: “He would always harp on me ‘Adapt, Overcome, Improvise’, which is this sort of like military motto. You know you just sort of keep on keeping on. Like oh you fail, you know, work your way around it and try again.”
Collector’s comments: Informant is referring to his father when he says ‘he’. His father was also in the military. He had previously talked about his father.

Informant’s Comments: Found this one more interesting because it was passed on through the military and the Coast Guard, which his father was in.

Tags/Keywords: Military, Retort, Verbal Lore

“Worst class ever” superstition

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Title: “Worst class ever” superstition

Informant info: William Shofner is a current member of the class of 2016. He is 23 years old and is from Nashville, TN. He will be staying on campus for a fifth year to complete the B.E. degree. On campus, he is involved with Phi Delta Alpha fraternity and is a former rugby player.

Type of lore: Customary, superstition, verbal, insult

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context: William was interviewed alone at Dartmouth College. He is a current student and has experienced the bonfire ritual four times (each of his four years at Dartmouth). He will be spending next fall at Dartmouth to complete the engineering B.E., and plans to attend the bonfire again.

Item: This superstition is associated with the ability of the freshman class to execute the bonfire ritual successfully. If the class is unable to do so, they are deemed the “worst class ever” by the upperclassmen and the alumni. This is especially the case if at least one member of the freshman class does not touch the fire. The term is also used as a taunt directed toward the freshmen. As the freshmen run around the bonfire, the upperclassmen and alumni yell at them that they are the “worst class ever.”

Transcript (if verbal lore):

What special traditions are related to the bonfire? Freshman year, everyone in your dorm goes outside and gets grouped together. An entire larger group starts going around campus and everyone gets picked up from their dorm. You’re led through Main Street and are brought to the bonfire. They light it and you start running around. You are encouraged to run around your class year +100 times, but very few people outside the cross country team do that. As the freshmen run around the fire, the upperclassmen taunt and harass them, yelling at them that they are the worst class ever. Every class has to have one person touch the fire. You’re encouraged to do it because if no one does, you’re the worst class ever. You can really only touch it right at the beginning. After that it’s too hot and there might not be enough people so you would get caught. Different clubs and groups on campus have panels that go into building the fire. The freshmen need to build the fire successfully or they will be considered the worst class ever.

Are there any stories you heard before/after homecoming about things that happened? I heard that someone touched the fire right at the beginning.

Where did you hear these stories? Mostly from other people in the freshman class.

Informant’s comments: The informant was a member of the rugby team his freshman year, but noted that the rugby team did not have any specific team traditions related to homecoming.

Collector’s comments: The informant has spent four years at Dartmouth and has gained a detailed understanding of homecoming traditions in that time.

Tags/Keywords: superstition, taunt, bonfire, freshmen, upperclassmen, worst class ever

Town parade

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Title: Town parade

Informant info: Aki Berman is a current member of the class of 2016. She is 22 years old and is from Westchester, NY. On campus, she is involved with Fencing, classics society, marching band, Mentors Against Violence, Link Up, and Alpha Phi.

Type of lore: Customary, traditional, ritual

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context: Aki was interviewed alone at Dartmouth College. She is a current student and has experienced the bonfire ritual four times (each of her four years at Dartmouth). She plans to return to celebrate homecoming next year as an alum.

Item: Before the bonfire, a parade through the town of Hanover is held while everyone waits for the freshmen to arrive at the Green. The cheerleading team and marching band lead the parade and play traditional songs like the Dartmouth fight song, Son of a Gun for Beer, and the alma mater. The parade includes cars and floats for campus sports teams and representatives from various alumni classes. The parade is intended for the entire town, so various residents of Hanover unaffiliated with the college stand along the street to watch the parade. The parade ends the Green where the bonfire is located.

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

Transcript (if verbal lore):

What special traditions are related to the bonfire? A big tradition is running around the fire 100+ your class year times. Also there’s the freshman sweep. It starts in the river, and all of the freshmen move along through campus collecting other freshmen from their dorms in a giant parade. They are led to the bonfire where they run around with all the upperclassmen cheering. The parade involves singing of all the traditional songs: Dartmouth fight songs which the marching band plays, son of a gun for beer, the alma mater, and others. The president gives a speech as part of the opening ceremony. The captains of every varsity team sit in front of Dartmouth Hall and give a speech. There’s a parade in town led by the cheerleaders and marching band with cars and floats for a lot of teams, alumni and different class years. The parade is also for the whole town, so random townies will be there with their families. Someone from the freshman class has to touch the fire every year or they’re the worst class ever. Usually it’s after the fire has burned down. It’s not allowed. It’s a rite of passage. People usually support the person who does it and bail them out if they get caught. You have to wear your class jersey and you can’t run too close because you will get burned. Upperclassmen yell at you that you’re the “worst class ever.”. Some sports teams run almost naked. Alumni and upperclassmen hold up signs. Teams and upperclassmen make signs to put on the fire as it burns. Freshmen have to build the bonfire. If they don’t do it right they are the worst class ever.

Are there any stories you heard before/after homecoming about things that happened? Most people don’t run the full 100+ laps but a lot of sports teams do. It takes a long time and is like a half marathon. There are stories of people who have touched the fire and then needed to pay large fines, used go fund me to crowdsource and get the money

Where did you hear these stories? Most of it is what I’ve seen. I was told stories by upperclassmen who are in my activities, my UGA, and other freshmen who heard from upperclassmen. But the majority is what I witnessed.

Informant’s comments: Informant is a member of the marching band and has participated in the parade each year, so she is extremely familiar with the ritual.

Collector’s comments: Many students of Dartmouth who are not affiliated with the marching band or a team do not watch the parade each year and instead go directly to the Green to watch the freshmen to arrive. As a result, the informant has a more detailed understanding of the ritual than the majority of the Dartmouth “folk.”

Tags/Keywords: parade, marching band, sports team, alumni