Genre Tradition, Legend
Language English
Country of Origin United States
Informant William “Billy” Sandlund
Date Collected March 2, 2018
Collected by Robin Jayaswal
Informant Data
William “Billy” Sandlund was born in California but spent most of his childhood living in Singapore. He travelled often in Asia and has hiked long distances in Nepal, India, and other countries. Since arriving at Dartmouth, Billy has continued his interest in hiking. Billy has done several hiking PE courses, and did hiking for his freshman trip.
Contextual Data
The Dartmouth Outdoor Club does not limit itself to hikes in the immediate Hanover area, but often drives to trails all around New Hampshire and the rest of the Upper Valley. One of the added benefits to this, expressed by several informants I spoke with, is that the students get to know the region much better than they would if they only partook in campus centric activities. The students will often stop in at local shops, eat a post-hike meal at classic diners, and engage with other parts of the community on their way back from hikes. Billy often looks forward to this part as much as the hike itself, and shared with me his favorite store that hikers have a tradition of going to as a reward for a long hike.
Item
According to Billy, Chutters Candy Store is a favorite among his friends in the hiking community and one they have stopped at several times. Chutters claims to be “home of world’s longest candy counter in the world” and Billy says that the long counter does not disappoint. One reason that hikers have a tradition of stopping here, Billy theorizes, is that the title of longest candy counter in the world gets morphed by students telling others about it, and turns into even wilder titles. For example, when Billy was first asked if he wanted to stop there, he was told it was among the largest candy stores (which is of course a much grander claim than having the longest candy counter) in the world. Thus one could say there is a legend of the Chutters candy store among the hiking group, and this helps carry the tradition forward: “who wouldn’t want to visit ‘the largest something something [insert adjective here] candy store’ in the world?” as Billy aptly put it.
Photo of the famous candy counter at Chutters Candy Store