Category Archives: Dartmouth College

Novack Sushi

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1. Title: Novack Sushi

2. Informant info: 

Cameron is a 19-year-old male from Baltimore, Maryland and was born on November 16, 1996. He is a freshman studying math at Dartmouth College and is not religious. He is on the Smart choice 10 meal plan, which gives ten meal swipes per week. He also likes sushi.

3. Type of Lore: Customary, Magic, Superstition

4. Language: English

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

6. Social / Cultural Context: 

Novack is a café in Baker Berry library at Dartmouth College where people typically go for a cheap, quick snack or coffee. They also sell sushi, which people do not tend to buy, so there is a very low turnover and can sometimes be days old.

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

8. Transcript (if verbal lore): N/A

9. Informant’s comments:

“Everyone knows not to buy Novack sushi. Personally, I don’t know anyone who has actually gotten food poisoning from the sushi, but I have heard reports from Yik Yak and word of mouth. In all honesty, the sushi is probably fine to eat, but it just looks like it has been left in the fridge for days. Also, Novack is like the fast food place on campus, so it is less trustworthy than say, Collis.”

10. Collector’s comments:

“The reputation of Novack as a lower quality food option as well as the purported cases of sickness likely gave rise to this aversion to their sushi. The magic behind this logic follows the format of if you do A, then B will happen: if you eat the sushi, you will get sick. Thus, it has become a superstition to avoid Novack sushi.”

11. Tags/Keywords: Novack, Sushi, DDS, Food Poisoning, Customary

Freshman construction of the bonfire

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Title: Freshman construction of the bonfire

Informant info: Savannah Moss is a current member of the class of 2018. She is 19 years old and is from Palo Alto, CA. Her father attended Dartmouth and was a member of the class of 1988. On campus, she is involved with the Student Organization Accountability Board, Alpha Phi, Wellness Center, Rockefeller Center, and Tucker Center.

Type of lore: Customary, traditional, ritual

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context: Savannah was interviewed alone at Dartmouth College. She is a current student and has experienced the bonfire ritual twice (her freshman year and her sophomore year.

Item: Each year, the freshman class constructs the bonfire that they will be running around during the homecoming ceremony. A committee of freshmen including the class council president oversees the construction of the bonfire. Although the freshmen used to build the bonfire entirely by themselves, a construction company now does much of the manual labor. Different clubs, teams, and organizations paint panels with their logos and symbols on them that go into building the fire. A wooden number of the class year goes at the top of the fire.

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

bonfire-kids-590

Transcript (if verbal lore):

What special traditions are related to the bonfire? Running around the fire 100+ your class year times, or your class year +1 if you can’t run that far, is a big tradition. Someone in the class has to touch the fire. There is also a freshman sweep where you walk around and pick up all the freshmen in their dorms. It’s led by the class that graduated 50 years earlier. Having alumni come back is also a big part of homecoming. Everyone wears class jerseys, and freshmen have to build the bonfire. Freshmen are required to build the bonfire. The class council and a committee is responsible for building it in the days leading up to homecoming. Student organizations make little painted signs that are part of the fire. They paint team logos and things on them. The class council is responsible for building it but it’s mainly just a construction company now. At the very top is the number of the class.

Are there any stories you heard before/after homecoming about things that happened? I heard from my dad about the bonfire. My mom thought it was crazy and seemed pagan. My aunt also went here so I heard stories about when my mom tried to visit my aunt during the bonfire and then got lost. A lot of people touched the fire because S&S and Hanover Police each thought the other was responsible for catching them.

Where did you hear these stories? I heard them from my parents and my trip leader. I also heard things from other upperclassmen and other freshmen.

Informant’s comments: Informant joked about the fact that even though the freshmen are technically required to build the bonfire, a construction company now does most of the work.

Collector’s comments: Informant has experienced the bonfire twice, as she is currently a sophomore. She also gained knowledge about the ritual from her father who also attended Dartmouth.

Tags/Keywords: bonfire, freshmen, teams, clubs, panels, class year

Hot KAF Guy

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1. Title: Hot KAF guy

2. Informant information:

Kyra Maxwell was born and raised in Washington D.C. She is studying Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Computer Science as a sophomore at Dartmouth College. Her favorite place to eat on campus is KAF, and she can often be found in Baker Lobby with 2-3 empty KAF cups strewn about.

3. Type of lore (Genre and Sub-Genre): Verbal Lore, Legends, Urban Legend

4. Language: English

5. Country of Origin: Hanover, NH, USA

6. Social / Cultural Context:

KAF is one of the most popular food spots on campus, especially among coffee-addicted females. Certain social media forums and blogs such as YikYak and Dartbeat have posted about a certain ‘hot KAF guy’ who allegedly works at KAF.

7. Associated File: N/A

8. Transcript:

“Hot KAF guy is like a legend around Dartmouth. You read about him on social media, people talk about him to their friends, but no one actually knows if he exists, or more importantly, no one knows which KAF worker he is. Everyone has different opinions – some think he’s the young blond who went to Hanover High, and others think he’s the older, dark-haired guy with the piercings.”

9. Informant’s comments:

Because everyone has different perspectives on what “hot” means, ‘hot KAF guy’ means something different to everyone at this school. It’s a cool, different way of viewing diversity on campus.

10. Collector’s comments:

Hot KAF guy is only one of many legendary figures on campus, and a good demonstration of the shared nature of dining facilities on campus. Every student uses the same facilities and interacts with the same people, giving rise to shared stories such as this one.

11. Tags/Keywords: hot, KAF, guy, food, student dining

Foco Apple Game

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1. Title: Foco Apple Game

2. Informant Information:

Parker Johnson was born on October 24, 1996, and he grew up in Houston, Texas. He is currently a freshman at Dartmouth College. He is on the track team and wants to study Economics, and he has participated in this game.

3. Type of Lore (Genre and Sub-Genre): Customary Lore, Game

4. Language: English

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

6. Social / Cultural Context:

Three important pieces of Dartmouth slang that are necessary for understanding this game are “Foco,” “Droco,” and big weekends. Foco is short for Class of 1953 Commons, which is the main dining hall at Dartmouth. Droco is a combination of the words ‘drunk’ and ‘Foco,’ referring to when people go to dinner at this dining hall after consuming alcohol. Big weekends constitute Homecoming in the fall, Winter Carnival in the Winter, and Green Key in the Spring.

7. Associated file: N/A

8. Transcript: “The game involves throwing an apple from person to person at the dining table, but the catch is that you can only catch the apple with a fork. So, the object is to stab the apple you’re your fork and get the apple to stay on the fork. And you try to keep passing it down the row and across the table, and see how many people can catch the apple with the forks in it. And you leave the fork in the apple once the person catches it. Then you just keep passing it. By the end, you have six or seven forks stuck in the apple until someone misses or the apple breaks.”

9. Informant’s comments:

“It can be a lot of fun, I’ve played it myself.”

10. Collector’s Comments:

“Usually, the game is played on Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday, and especially on big weekends when people tend to go to Foco a little inebriated. The apples at Foco are notoriously bad, so maybe it originated as a type of statement against the quality of apples. Ultimately, nobody really knows how the game was invented, but it caught on.”

11. Tags/Keywords: Game, Apple, Foco, Alcohol, Droco, Customary

Red Social Cup

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1. Title: Red Social Cup

2. Informant info:

Chris Boone is an student at Dartmouth, part of the class of 2017. He is from Trumbull, Connecticut, and is studying government. He was a trip leader for some of the incoming freshmen, including me. He tends to eat at foco on most days.

3. Type of lore (Genre and Sub-genre): Material, Tools

4. Language: English

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

6. Social / Cultural Context:

Class of 1953 Commons is one of the dining facilities known at Dartmouth. Many refer to it as ‘Foco’ for short, a phrase adopted by all students. At this dining hall, you pay to enter and get an unlimited, all-you-can-eat meal. Often you can see sports teams and fraternity/sorority members sitting together, or floor mates and close friends sitting in groups and talking about their day. But sometimes, there people who go to Foco solo, although it is known for being a very social space on campus. Today, Foco has only one kind of cup, a clear plastic one in fact. However, in the past, many claim that Foco had a red plastic cup, a cup used to solve the problem of solo dining.

7. Associated File: N/A

8. Transcript:

“The red social cup was designed to be a means of eating with people even if you went to foco alone. The way it worked was that after you sat down at a table alone, you would grab one of the red cups instead of a clear cup, and sit at an empty table. Then, other people who went to Foco alone would see you sitting with the red cup, and would then join you.”

9. Informant’s comments:

“Grabbing a red social cup was a bold move…. and it was unsure if people actually did it or not. To be honest, I might’ve tried to do it if it still existed, sometimes you just need the friendliness. Always gotta have someone to sit with at Foco.”

10. Collector’s comments:

Since the use of red cups in Foco have been discontinued for some time now, there is no way of knowing how widely this practice was used, or if it was used at all. I believe it was one of those things where people may have tried it for fun or just to see if it would happen, but i doubt that it was taken very seriously.

11. Tags/Keywords: Red Social Cup, Foco, Items, DDS, Class of ’53 Commons

Third Battalion

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Title: Third Battalion

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 Folklore, Myth, Song

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about certain superstitions or rituals that they had experienced during their time in the military. The informant described a myth that the third battalion group being tougher than the other battalions, even though there was no difference between the battalions.

Associated file:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByAeKMYqcV3uc1FlcG9SYWY5dHVtMkdtWDBfLTV3TFh6Y2hV/view?usp=sharing

Transcript:

[I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: “I was in the second battalion. There’s three battalions, like thats how they would separate all of these people that were coming in. Like, ‘hey you’re in the second battalion’ and then the next group that’ll come in… they sort of rotate between these battalions and the companies between them. There’s always this sort of idea that the third training battalion was a harder group of marines, if you came out of third battalion boot camp. But it’s really just a load of crap. They think they’re harder because they’re sort of in a different section of Parris Island, an older section. Where there’s more woods and stuff and i think thats it. But they think ‘well we’re kinda out in the woods by like 400 meters’… you know what I mean. It’s not like they’re out in the middle of nowhere. There’s just more trees.”

Informant’s comments: He did not believe in this tradition at all, but he believed that the soldiers in the third battalion strongly believed it.

Collector’s comments: Interesting how offended the informant seemed to be by the thought that their battalion was thought to be better than his for no good reason. Especially since he thought that boot camp was pretty easy for himself.

Tags/Keywords: Third Battalion, Military, Myth

Poop in the Soup

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1. Title: Poop in the Soup

2. Informant information:

Claire Votava was born on May 21, 1996, and grew up in Los Angeles, California. Her father is from Haiti and her mother is from Syria. She is studying History as a sophomore at Dartmouth College, and hopes to one day work in a museum. On campus, she is a tour guide, and her favorite spot to eat on campus is KAF, which she frequents at least twice a day.

3. Type of lore (Genre and Sub-genre): Verbal Lore, Legend, Urban Legend

4. Language: English

5. Country of Origin: Hanover, NH, USA

6. Social / Cultural Context:

YikYak is a social media site where people within a certain radius can post anonymously to a constantly updated feed, and it is very popular on college campuses. During the infamous poop-in-the-soup event, Claire was in her dorm room. Someone sent her a text message to check YikYak, which can be a useful source of campus news. She opened YikYak to find a plethora of recent posts about an alleged event that had just happened in Collis.

7.IMG_0672

8. Transcript:

Last winter, this event happened at Late Night Collis that got the catchy name of “poop-in-the-soup.” According to the story I heard, a homeless man came into Collis during late night and was wandering around, and then suddenly he pooped in one of the Collis soups and ran away! Apparently the police were chasing him and arrested him in front of Psi U. The word spread like wildfire through the school, and everyone was talking about poop in the soup all the time over the next week. Once in a while, someone will post on YikYak something like “#neverforget poop in the soup” because it’s something of an urban legend around campus nowadays.

9. Informant’s comments:

I still don’t really know whether or not poop-in-the-soup is real, because I also heard a rumor that the track team made it up. Whether or not it actually happened, I love the story because it is a hilarious shared joke throughout the entire student body.

10. Collector’s comments:

Poop in the soup is a much more recent urban legend, since it was formed when I was here. I think that the fact that the story spread so fast demonstrates the closeness of the community formed by the students at Dartmouth. Stories like this serve to unite the past, present, and future students of Dartmouth.

11. Tags/Keywords: poop, soup, collis, late night, food

Football Game

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  1. Football Game
  2. Informant Data: Brooke Hilliard is a 20-year-old, female, sophomore who attends Dartmouth University. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, but she now lives in Hanover, New Hampshire during the school year.
  3. Type of lore: Customary; Genre: game
  4. Language: English
  5. Country of Origin: US
  6. Contextual Data: Brooke Hilliard attends Dartmouth College, and has attended the game herself.
  7. Item: Every year during homecoming, there is a homecoming football game. Usually, it is the biggest and most well-attended football game during the year. A lot of the student body and Dartmouth community attends this football game.
  9. Informant’s comments: it helps welcome the freshmen class and enable them to feel like they are part of the community.
  10. Collector’s comments: The football game is a traditional game that is really important for Dartmouth. Homecoming is centered on the football game; all events are planned around the football game. The game brings a great deal of pride to Dartmouth every year, and creates a space for the entire community to join together.
  11. Ritual, football game

Alumni Hookups

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  1. Alumni Hookups
  2. Informant Data: Chris Rowan is a 19-year-old, female, first year student who attends Dartmouth College. She was born in New York, New York, but she now resides in Hanover, New Hampshire during the school year.
  3. Type of lore: Customary/Verbal;Genre: Ritual/Myth
  4. Language: English
  5. Country of Origin: US
  6. Contextual Data: Chris Rowan attends Dartmouth College and participated in homecoming rituals her freshman year. She has never witnessed or participated in this ritual herself, but has heard about it from other students and upperclassmen.
  7. Item: Every year during homecoming, alumni couples return to the rooms where they first hooked up and try to recreate this moment.
  9. n/a
  10. Informant’s comments: This ritual is weird and disturbing.
  11. Collector’s comments: Dartmouth homecoming is a time for unity, bonding, and the incorporation of a new class. Even though the alumni are still a part of this community, they are also very distant from it at the same time. Hooking up in their old rooms makes alumni feel as though they never left; they are very much so a part of the Dartmouth community.
  12. Ritual, myth. Alumni hook-ups