Tag Archives: Boom

Origin Story for “Boom Boom Lodge”

 Title:

Origin Story for “Boom Boom Lodge”

Informant info:

Class of 2018 at Dartmouth. He is from New York City and has been a member of his fraternity since September, 2015. He is 20 years old.

Type of lore, Genre, Subgenre:

Verbal Lore – Legend

 Language:

English

 Country of Origin:

United States

Social/Cultural Context:

The informant is a member of an anonymous fraternity at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. Approximately 70% of Dartmouth students participate in Greek Life at Dartmouth. Greek organizations are some of the only social spaces on the Dartmouth campus. The Greek organizations all have their own traditions and lore which define them. The following is a legend which describes the origin of the informant’s fraternity’s

 Transcript:

“We all call our frat the Boom Boom Lodge, or the Lodge for short. Most people don’t really know what that means or think it means something else, but they tell us the story a few days into our first term in the house. So in the prohibition era, there was a guy living in Golden Coast who was a bootlegger. I think he made rum in his room. There was a guy who was in my fraternity who went to the bootlegger’s room and stole a bottle of rum and the bootlegger saw him running away and followed him back to the house. The guy broke into the house and shot the guy who stole the bottle twice in the chest and killed him. That’s where the term ‘Boom Boom’ came from.”

Informant’s Comments:

The story is very important to the brotherhood. Everyone calls the house “the Lodge,” and most people don’t know why. The story helps the current brothers relate to the history of the house and to past members, specifically the one who got killed.

Collector’s Comments:

This story is a great example of a legend to describe the origin of a part of the fraternity. It is verbal lore shared by all members of the fraternity.

Tags/Keywords:

Legend, Boom, Origin, Fraternity