Informant Information: Anonymous male from San Francisco, California and a member of the Class of 2019 at Dartmouth College. He is also a member of the baseball team. He currently does not have a girlfriend.
Type of Folklore: Customary Folklore (Dance)
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States of America
Social / Cultural Context: Due to a lack of club/bar life in Hanover, dance parties at fraternities create a club like environment for students. These dance parties play a big part in the hookup culture on campus. These parties are sometimes planned ahead of time and announced to campus but other times spontaneously start in a crowded fraternity basement.
Associated File:
Transcript: “The places people meet each other is on a dance floor, or playing pong. But at a fraternity there’s always people around, always good times.”
Collector’s Comments: Two other informants discussed dance parties as a way of getting to meet other students. Dance parties and pong seem to be the main activities of interaction between males and females.
Informant Information: Anonymous female member of the Class of 2017 from Houston, Texas. She is also a member of Alpha Phi sorority.
Type of Folklore: Customary Folklore – Belief
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States of America
Social / Cultural Context: This is referring to the level of attraction for males and females throughout their tenure at Dartmouth. It is the belief that female attractiveness decreases throughout their time at Dartmouth while the male attractiveness increases. Males and females are at the same level of attractiveness over sophomore summer, signaling the middle of the X.
Associated File:
Transcript: “Are there certain trends or things that people do together whether they’re boyfriend/girlfriend or whether they’re in that hookup culture?”
“You hear about the Dartmouth X, which don’t know if I totally believe it. I believe it on the guys side, because I feel like senior guys are obsessed with freshman girls. On the girls side, I don’t really think that senior girls are willing to jump at freshman guys. Like, it’s kind of a one sided x.”
“But there’s definitely that stigma there on campus?”
“Yeah, that once you’re a senior girl you are kind of like unworthy and everyone wants the freshmen. And for the guys, nobody really wants freshmen guys, everybody wants senior guys.”
“Right, so as you move up if you’re a male, you get higher up on that list and it’s a downword spiral for the girls, that’s what I’ve been hearing.”
“Yeah, and the only time that you’re equal is sophomore summer.”
Collector’s Comments: We have heard this belief from a number of informants. Some students strongly believed in the Dartmouth X, while others believe in only one side of the X and others viewed it as a total myth. Girls seem to be more reluctant to believe that their social status on campus slowly diminishes as they get older, so most of the female informant believe that the Dartmouth X is a myth.
Informant Information: Chales Cai is a member of the Class of 2016 at Dartmouth. He is also a member of the golf team and the fraternity Kappa Kappa Kappa. He has had a girlfriend for one of his four years at Dartmouth.
Type of Folklore: Customary (festival) / Material (clothing)
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States of America
Social / Cultural Context: Formal is major dating event at Dartmouth. Inviting a person to formal is a great way to meet someone. Formals vary from fraternity to fraternity and sorority to sorority. Inviting a date to formal is widely thought as a much more serious step in a relationship than asking them to play a pong game. While pong is a game used to get to know people, students usually ask people to formal who they definitely have feelings for.
Associated File:
Transcript: “So you have formals, like fraternities and sororities have formals, all different types of clubs, so asking a girl to formal is a good way to meet them.”
“Are there any traditions in these formals or semi formals?”
“I guess it depends on each fraternity or sorority. Beta always has boat formal where they go out on a boat. Typically they are either around campus or at venues around the upper valley.”
“Do you have to wear anything special to these formals?”
“I mean people dress up, usually girls wear dresses, guys wear a suit and tie. I guess it’s a chance to look good and dress up, whereas most of the time you’re hanging out with a girl in the basement or playing pong.”
Informants Comments: Charles Cai discusses the boat formal that Beta Alpha Omega has every year. He also notes that formals vary from house to house, but that the traditions of folklore are very much alive.
Collector’s Comments:A second informant also discussed semi-formals.This informant told us that semi-formals are much more casual and involve certain themes often accompanied by wearing costumes. Semi-formals involve bringing a date as well.
Informant Information: Duncan Robinson is from Houston, Texas and a member of the Class of 2016 at Dartmouth College. He is a member of the baseball team and Beta Alpha Omega.
Joe Purritano is a member of the Class of 2016 from New Jersey. He is also a member of the baseball team. Joe has been single for one year at Dartmouth and had a long-distance relationship for three years here.
Type of Folklore: Customary Folklore (Game), Dance
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States of America
Social / Cultural Context: Pong is one of the most important games to the Dartmouth dating life. Pong provides an opportunity for a first date and is also a great socialization game. This allows for a couple to break the ice without the formality of a traditional dinner date.
Associated File:
Transcript:(Duncan: 1st video) “You said a lot of time guys and girls meet in basements, I assume you mean like fraternity or sorority basements. Are there games or how do they engage with one another?”
“Pong, pong date is always a classic. You play your date, play pong with her or him and hopefully that leads somewhere even better.”
(Joe: 2nd video) “I would say that pong seems to be a great date night here. Really not a whole lot to do on campus outside of fraternities. So I think people save the actually dinner date for the later steps and get right to it with pong, a pong game.”
Collector’s Comments: The majority of our informants claimed that a game of pong was a great tool to break the ice with girls. Pong was always the first thing mentioned when asked about how people meet at Dartmouth. It is also customary for partners (dates) to incorporate handshakes or dances after hitting a cup to make the event more intimate (see pong dance/handshake video).
Informant Information: Anonymous female member of the Class of 2017 from Houston, Texas. She is also a member of Alpha Phi sorority. She is currently single.
Type of Folklore: Customary Folklore (Customs)
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States of America
Social / Cultural Context: Dartmouth’s proud and dedicated alumni base is evident when you see hundreds of graduated students flock to campus for reunions or party weekends. These alumni often continue to interact with current students, especially the first few years following their graduation. This interaction makes it possible to have a romantic encounter with an entire decade of Dartmouth students. The Dartmouth Decade has become one of the most well-known challenges on campus. Although this challenge is very difficult to complete, each informant seemed to have a friend or know somebody who is either very close to completing this challenge or who have successfully done it.
Associated File:
Transcript: “Another one is the Dartmouth Decade. Which is to hook up with someone from each year within a decade. It doesn’t have to be five years ahead of you and five years behind you, it just has to be the whole decade. I have a couple of friends who are ending with ‘19s but started with 09’s.”
“Really?”
“Yeah it just has to be ten years. I know a couple people who have one or two gaps left in their decade, and it’s usually achieved via reunions or when people come back to visit during big weekends.”
Collector’s Comments: This challenge includes a very wide age range, so it seems that the only people with a chance to complete the Dartmouth Decade are alumni who are still extremely connected to Dartmouth immediately following graduation. This ritual is well rooted in Dartmouth culture and continues to illustrate the hookup culture generated by this campus.
Informant info: Informant name is Jason Laackmann. Jason is twenty-eight years old and attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran. Jason served in the Army for five years in active duty and continues to serve in the Minnesota National Guard. The locations in which he has served are Fort Bend, Georgia, Fort Riley, Kansas, and overseas in Eastern Afghanistan.
Type of lore: Customary Folklore, Superstition
Language: English
Country of Origin: USA
Social / Cultural Context: Jason was interviewed at Dartmouth College. He was asked to talk about any superstitions he may recall during his time in the army. Informant did not state how he obtained the meals regarding this superstition, but focuses more on the content of the meal rather than the way in which he received them.
Associated File: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6KcnEdk7Q4 (start at 2:38)
Transcript:[I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: Um, so one of the things that you do is, uh, when you’re in the woods, if you get a piece of candy called a charm, you, you throw it away immediately, you never open it. Because that’s you know, gonna bring rain and you never want to train when it’s raining. It’s, it’s a terrible feeling, ‘cause you don’t want to be cold and you don’t want to be wet, and you definitely don’t want to have a combination of the two.
Informant’s comments: Jason stated that it seems funny when you hear about it for the first time or when you don’t know much about it, but to them it’s something they take seriously, especially since these charms are considered to bring bad luck rather than good.
Collector’s comments: Jason chuckled when telling the story, but I could also sense how feared the charms were during his time in the Army.
Informant info: Informant name is Jason Laackmann. Jason is twenty-eight years old and attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran. Jason served in the Army for five years in active duty and continues to serve in the Minnesota National Guard. Jason also served as a paratrooper and attended and graduated flight school. The locations in which he has served are Fort Bend, Georgia, Fort Riley, Kansas, and overseas in Eastern Afghanistan.
Type of lore: Customary Folklore
Language: English
Country of Origin: USA
Social / Cultural Context: Jason was interviewed at Dartmouth College. He was asked to talk about his boot camp/training experience during his time in the military. Due to his serving in various locations over the past couple of years, Jason didn’t go into much detail, but rather gave a general summary of what his bootcamp/training experience was like.
Associated File: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6KcnEdk7Q4 (start at 0:45)
Transcript:[I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: The training experience was… was pretty simple, pretty cut and dry. It was sixteen-week officer basic course for infantry. Uh, it centered around tactics, um, platoon and squad level operations and then how to write orders, um, and then how to plan those operations. Um, I did eight of the sixteen weeks where we’re out in the woods actually training where the other ones were just either refitting, uh, resetting your gear and doing, like homework assignments. Um, the officer basic course is much different than the original, uh, basic training of boot camp that enlisted soldiers go through. Um, but I did do a, uh, a basic training as well at Fort Knox, Kentucky where the drill Sergeants come after you, attack you for no reason, verbally. And uh, build the core which they desire.
Informant’s comments: Jason stated that he vividly remembered being yelled at by his drill sergeants. He commented that at the time it was a bit intimidating but the yelling had the purpose of molding them to be strong soldiers.
Collector’s comments: The informant was straight to the point when recalling his experience, but smiled when he remembered being yelled at by his drill sergeants.
Informant info: Informant name is Jason Laackmann. Jason is twenty-eight years old and attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran. Jason served in the Army for five years in active duty and continues to serve in the Minnesota National Guard. The locations in which he has served are Fort Bend, Georgia, Fort Riley, Kansas, and overseas in Eastern Afghanistan.
Type of lore: Customary Folklore, Tradition
Language: English
Country of Origin: USA
Social / Cultural Context: Jason was interviewed at Dartmouth College. He was asked to talk about any traditions he could recall during his time in the Army. The informant discussed a tradition for the youngest members at airborne school.
Associated File: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6KcnEdk7Q4 (start at 3:58)
Transcript:[I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: Um, yeah, at airborne school they also have this thing called the “keeper of the wings”, where they give the, the badge to the youngest person in the, in the class. And it’s their job to maintain it and keep it with them throughout the whole three-week training. And at the end, they’re the first ones who get their wings pinned on them, and I think to this day, the youngest person has never failed the course. Uh, which is pretty cool.
Informant’s comments: Jason commented that this particular tradition has a lot of value to the point that no member to be a part of the tradition has broken it. He has a lot of pride in this fact and believes it to be one of his most memorable traditions.
Collector’s comments: Jason is big on tradition and this idea of passing down a meaningful item to the younger members who come after the older.
Informant info: SuHyeon Kim is a ’19 currently enrolled at Dartmouth College. She is from Daegu, Republic of Korea, and is hoping to do a double major in Government and Economics. She is currently the chair of BSLS (Big Sister, Little Sister) and works for the McLaughlin snack bar.
Type of lore: Customary, Prank
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed alone at Dartmouth College. The informant was asked to retell any rituals she knew associated with any aspect of the Dartmouth Outing Club.
As an international student from Daegu, Republic of Korea, coming to Dartmouth was SuHyeon’s first time coming to the United States. Although she is proficient in the English language, SuHyeon is not used to the American culture that coming to college came to her as a big transition. In the process of the transition, she participated in the Dartmouth Outing Club trip, the Organic Farming section. During her trip, she heard from her trip leader various folklore related to the Dartmouth Outing Club trips, including this raid prank.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file)
Item: When we were having lunch on our second day, I heard this story from my trip leader. Our trip leader told us that when she was having her trip, she and her tripmates were hiking to their campsite. They were heading to the cabin camping section and while they were walking, they walked by a random topless hiker with a huge beard. The trip leader, when the hiker passed by, told the tripees that there were violent hippies that lived in the mountains nearby and that they attacked and robbed many innocent hikers. They were walking and walking when they finally arrived near their cabin and the campsite. They found that one of their other trip leader was tied to the tree, injured, screaming “Run, run away!” And two other mysterious looking people came out of the forest, threatening and chasing the tripees. So the tripees ran away for their lives. And later they found out that this was a joke prepared by the trip leaders. But the thing was that one of the tripees was a varsity marathon runner and that he ran too deep into the forest that the trip leaders had a very hard time finding him. From then, this joke was banned from the trips.
Informant’s comments:
Sadly, she did not experience a prank as such during her own DOC trip but heard from her friends who were tricked into similar pranks.
Informant info: SuHyeon Kim is a ’19 currently enrolled at Dartmouth College. She is from Daegu, Republic of Korea, and is hoping to do a double major in Government and Economics. She is currently the chair of BSLS (Big Sister, Little Sister) and works for the McLaughlin snack bar.
Type of lore: Verbal, Tradition, Legend
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed alone at Dartmouth College. The informant was asked to retell any Dartmouth Outing Club rituals she knew.
As an international student from Daegu, Republic of Korea, coming to Dartmouth was SuHyeon’s first time coming to the United States. Although she is proficient in the English language, SuHyeon is not used to the American culture that coming to college came to her as a big transition. In the process of the transition, she participated in the Dartmouth Outing Club trip, the Organic Farming section. Although she could not recall other rituals associated with the DOC, she could clearly remember the Doc Benton legend. She heard of the legend with all the other tripees on her last day of the first year DOC trip at the Lodj from a trip leader, whom she does not know the name of.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Item:
This is a story annually told to first year DOC trip tripees on the last day night of their trips. Everyone is gathered in front of the Lodj to be told a story about Doc Benton, who is a doctor gone wrong, rumored to murder people. This folklore’s biggest feature is that it has nearly never have been documented nor written down. The only time it was written down was for a scholarly journal, according to the Dartmouth Outing Club Wiki. Another feature is that at the end of the story, the trip leaders surprise and scare the tripees by screaming at the climax.
Informant’s comments: SuHyeon stated that as she is recalling the general plot of the legend, she is not sure about the details of the plot.
