Tag Archives: alcohol

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

Challenge Coins

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Title: Challenge Coins

Informant info: Craig Serpa, marine. He was stationed in San Diego.

Type of lore: Customary, Game

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Craig Serpa was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Craig was asked about certain games that they had experienced during their time in the military. Craig described a drinking game often often played at bars on their base. Each military man/woman is given a coin that displays their battalion, company, etc. While at a bar, if someone presents you their coin, you must have yours within two steps of you or else you have to buy that person a beer. But, if you present your coin and it is of a higher rank than the initial coin, the first person has to  buy the second a beer.

Associated file:

Transcript:

Interviewer: Speaking of superstition, do/did you have any superstitions? I play softball and I’m so superstitious/well I used to play. I used to have so many superstitions. Or rituals? I guess they’re kind of enforced.

C: One thing I never really got into was the whole challenge coin thing. Did billy talk about that at all?

Interviewer: I don’t think so.

B: So, a lot of regular companies are doing it now, it started as a military tradition I believe where each battalion level has, or it doesn’t have to be level, but each has little coins. And it says like unit name, ahs emblem, you know how each has little emblems for stuff? Black horse is their battalion, 5th marines, stuff like that. And the thing behind is that you’re supposed to carry a coin on you and if you’re out drinking or whatever, and like you present your coin to somebody and if they don’t have one within two steps of them, then they have to buy you a drink. So if you present it, then some coins depending on where you got them or how high up you got them. So some people will present it to their general, they will have a general star on the back, um whoever has the higest ranking one has to buy.

Interviewer: Is this at bars nearby?

C: Pretty much, yeah, so like you know theyre a military person.

(Interviewer and informant talk)

Interviewer: So if you know, then you present it.

C: it’s a marine, military thing. I’m pretty sure army does. It’s a navy thing. Lets think, I never really did anything, or got into the challenge coin thing. I would think that the majority of things I should be talking about is being a drill instructor, because you’re creating a marine from the beginning.

Informant’s comments: Craig admitted that he did not like to partake in this game, although he did lose many a time.

Collector’s comments: Although Craig did not think the game was important, I thought it was very interesting. I am curious if this game is popular throughout all of the branches of the military.

 

The Wine Game

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Informant info: The informant was Ian Raphael, a Dartmouth ’18, who was born in Kirkland, WA and raised in Miami, FL. He learned to climb when he was 18 from an older, close friend in Port Angeles, WA.

Date Collected: 5/16/16

Place Collected: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

Type: Customary Folklore, Ceremony, Prayer

Language: English

Country of Origin: U.S.A

Social/ cultural context: The wine game is ceremonial in climbing culture and is used to bring members together. Climbers often go on day trips together. At the end of each trip, climbers are usually tired and hungry. The wine game is a way to finish off the night and come together to reflect on the day.

Associated File:

Picture1

Lore: After a long day of climbing, climbers gather around in a circle with a gallon of wine and christen it by making toasts into the fire to famous past climbers and the climbing “gods”. The climbers toast to Earl and Valerie, John Joline, DMCers of the past and present, and the “homies and the homeless”. Afterwards, the gallon wine bottle is passed around the circle. Participants may only hold the bottle to drink with their pinky finger. The person who drinks the last drop of wine is considered the winner of the game.

Informant’s Comments: This is a way to celebrate after a climb. It is a fun way to wrap up the day and have fun with your friends. No one knows why we toast to the “homies and the homeless”, but we toast to Earl, Valerie, and John Joline because of their importance to the club.

Collector’s Comments: The wine game begins with a prayer when the climbers christen the wine. It is followed by a game where each player tries to drink the last drop. The game is a celebration of the end of a long day of climbing. It is a way to reflect on the day and relax after a long climb; basically, it encourages mindfulness and team bonding. While playing the game, climbers celebrate their friendships and their outing.

Tags/Keywords: wine, games, prayer, climbing, alcohol, celebration, Customary, DMC, folklore

Link

Title: Drop your cups; How to not get your greek house shut down

Genre: Customary Folklore

S&S Folkore

Informant info: Daniel C. Reitsch, from Rockford, IL, VP at Chi Heorot Fraternity and Dartmouth class of 2016 President

Type of lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: U.S.A

Social / Cultural Context: Greek Houses tend to be lenient in regards to serving minors alcohol; therefore, they can find themselves in trouble if campus security discovers that they are doing such an act. Accordingly, campus security performs “walkthroughs” in which they knock on the fraternity door and then do a walkthrough to make sure that all college rules are being followed. Greek houses have rituals that they perform in order to make sure they pass walkthroughs.

Transcript: When minors who are drinking at a greek house hear or see one of the warning systems, they immediately get rid of whatever they are drinking. And if they don’t then fraternity brothers will slap the cups out of their hands. It is said that S & S officers will check students’ ID’s to make sure that they are of age to drink and the consequences for someone who is not of age and is drinking can be severe.  

Collector’s comments: The informant was very matter of fact about the rituals, he did acknowledge that he had never seen the bell system in use, but that it was a system that he had heard was used in the past very often.

Collected by Robert Moffitt, Class of 2016.

Link

Title: Flashing Lights; How to not get your greek house shut down

Genre: Customary Folklore

S&S Folkore

Informant info: Daniel C. Reitsch, from Rockford, IL, VP at Chi Heorot Fraternity and Dartmouth class of 2016 President 

Type of lore: Customary

Language: English

Country of Origin: U.S.A

Social / Cultural Context: Greek Houses tend to be lenient in regards to serving minors alcohol; therefore, they can find themselves in trouble if campus security discovers that they are doing such an act. Accordingly, campus security performs “walkthroughs” in which they knock on the fraternity door and then do a walkthrough to make sure that all college rules are being followed. Greek houses have rituals that they perform in order to make sure they pass walkthroughs.

Transcript: At some greek houses, when someone believes that S & S is at their door, they flicker the lights in the building in order to warn the other members of the house that S & S is at the door and is about to perform a walkthrough.  

Collector’s comments: This is a ritual I myself have witnessed on many a night out at Dartmouth. It is at the point of common knowledge that when the lights flash S&S is about to come into the basement. 

Collected by Robert Moffitt, Class of 2016.

Link

Title: How to ward off S & S.

Genre: Customary Folklore

S&S Folkore

Informant info: Krissy Saraceno. From Boston Massachusetts. Female Dartmouth ‘19 student. Lives on campus at Dartmouth in Russell Sage Hall. 19 years old.

Type of Lore: Customary lore, Ritualistic

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Students drinking in a dorm room can be faced with a lot of trouble if caught by S&S during one of their walkthroughs. The ritual described below is one that nearly every student performs, but very few notice, because we are all part of the folk. A lot of students at Dartmouth have their friends visit their rooms in order to hang out and possibly drink, therefore in order to escape notice from S&S, students perform this ritual.

Video: https://youtu.be/JQunnbKolsE This is a video interview with informant explaining the ritual. Krissy is walking the collectors through the process of how she would prepare herself and her room on the chance there would drinking taking place. 

Transcript: This is customary folklore, but verbally explained by informant. The informant describes how she locks the door, shuts the blind, and makes sure not to play loud music.

Informant’s comments: The informant described this ritual as a very common practice, and did not have very negative things to say about S&S, merely that many students obviously seek to escape possibly punishment.

Collector’s comments: This item is something I have observed myself in my time at Dartmouth, many students seem to practice this ritual.

 

Collected by Carter Copeland and Luke Hudspeth

May 23, 2016