Tag Archives: Customary

Post-practice chant

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Title: Post-practice chant

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Verbal and Customary Folklore
    • Subgenre: chant
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: USA

Informant Data: Will Kaufman ’20 is a 19-year-old male caucasian light-weight rower from Boulder, CO. He is the middle child between two sisters. He started rowing his freshman fall upon entering Dartmouth. As a walk-on rower, he came in knowing nothing about the sport.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: The chant occurs at the end of each practice. It involves a huddle, hands in toward the center, one person leading the chant, the whole team responding, throwing up the hands, and breaking from the circle. Afterwards, teammates go to dinner together, take showers, or split up. The coaches are not involved in the chant.

Cultural Context: In the athletic team culture, everything is about the group, not the individual. The rowers are a cohesive group that spend a significant amount of time together in the effort of creating strong bonds and success in competition. This chant helps bring everyone together at the end of practice to show that they are part of one team with the same goals. Their effort is beyond one practice or one individual.

Item: This chant occurs at the end of each practice. In a huddle the teammates put their hands in toward the center, recite the chant, throw up their hands, and break up.

Associated media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaI34nMCWuc

Transcript of Associated File: “Let’s get a ‘Green’ on 3! 1, 2, 3 GREEN!”

Informant’s Comments: The informant emphasized the regularity and importance of this chant: “It feels weird if practice ends and everyone leaves” without doing the chant. That never happens.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The chant is a formal indicator of the end of a routine time of bonding.
  • The informant noted that when first learning this chant, the walk-on rowers are separated from the rest of the team, learn the chant, and are incorporated with the rest, where the entire team can perform the chant together. In this way, the events centered around the first chant resemble elements of a rite of passage.

Collector’s Name: Sam Gochman

Tags/Keywords: D150, Dartmouth Light-Weight Rowing, Chant, Customary, Verbal

Bequest – Pocock belt

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Title: Pocock belt

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material, Customary Folklore
    • Subgenre: folk costume, traditions
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: USA

Informant Data: Will Kaufman ’20 is a 19-year-old male caucasian light-weight rower from Boulder, CO. He is the middle child between two sisters. He started rowing his freshman fall upon entering Dartmouth. As a walk-on rower, he came in knowing nothing about the sport.

Contextual Data: 

Social Context: As with any bequest, this item is traditionally passed down from graduating seniors to underclassmen on the rowing team who are deemed most fit to receive the object. This exchange happens annually in the spring after the competition season has come to a close. The event involves the whole team and requires presence for several hours, as each senior may give away several bequests, each with a description of the significance of the item and why it goes to the recipient underclassmen. During the process, teammates must wait until they either bequeath or are bequeathed an item. It is a spectacle for the team and is often humorous and emotional. Underclassmen express gratitude through words and little physical contact as to expedite the process. It has been compared to receiving a Christmas present. This specific bequest is passed down from walk-on rower to walk-on rower.

Cultural Context: Bequests are handed down through a line of rowers throughout the years. This line is connected through a common trait (e.g., captainship, knowledge of statistics, heavy weight). The bequest links generations, creating team cohesiveness through history. The bequest indicates a unique importance and role in the team and generally shows that the recipient upholds the values of the team. Rowers wear bequests to exhibit that they are deserving of the honor bestowed upon them.

Item: This bequest is the Pocock belt. It is a strap used to tie down boats now repurposed as a belt. Pocock is a rowing brand originally made by an Englishman working out of the University of Washington. This bequest is passed down from walk-on rower to walk-on rower. This bequest was given to the informant by Widerschein ’17. The belt is thought to have originally been taken from the Dartmouth boathouse. The bequest is worn during meetings and important events such as socials and an end of the year celebration.

Associated media:

Informant’s Comments: Names on the belt are Widerschein ’17 and Kaufman ’20.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The receipt of the bequest resembles a rite of passage. Before the ceremony, the rower is a freshman member. He is then separated from his fellow freshmen as he is called up by the senior. During the transition phase, he receives the bequest and shows gratitude to the senior. He is then incorporated back into the team as a new version (labeled by the bequest) of his old self.

Collector’s Name: Sam Gochman

Tags/Keywords: D150, Dartmouth Light-Weight Rowing, Bequests, Pocock

Kipsalana Cheer

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Title: Kipsalana Cheer

General Information about Item:

  • Customary: Verbal, Cheers
  • English
  • United States of America

Informant Data:

  • Robert Purvis was born on May 27th, 1997 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He got into swimming because his two sisters were swimmers and inspired him to start. He started swimming year round at age 6 at his local club, the Boys and Girls Club of Northern Westchester. He is now a sophomore at Dartmouth and is a butterfly specialist on the varsity swim team.

Contextual Data:

  • Robert learned this cheer from his captains within his first month on the team. It is taught to all incoming freshmen on the team. This is a video of the team after practice teaching the freshman the day before their first met.

Item:

  • The men’s team cheer reads as follows

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

Informant’s Comments:

  • “No one knows what this cheer means anymore or where it originated from. I once spoke to a ’76 about it and he said the same thing, that no one knew the origin or meaning of the cheer.”

Collector’s Name: Robert Purvis

Tags/Keywords:

  • folklore, swimming, water sports, men’s swimming, cheer, verbal, customary, ritual

Muffin Superstition

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Title: Muffin Superstition

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Superstition
  • English
  • United States

Informant Data:

  • Caroline Poleway is a 19 year old female from New City New York. She currently resides in Hanover New Hampshire, as she is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth College. Caroline swam for the Badger Swim Club for ten years, and has now been competing on the Dartmouth Varsity swim team for two years.

Contextual Data:

  • Social/Cultural Context: Caroline describes a superstition that many swimmers on her club team followed for years. She describes the “if A then B” superstition that many swimmers follow because they believe it will bring good luck before a big race.

Item:

  • Caroline describes a superstition that she has been following since she swam on her club team. One mother baked blueberry muffins for her son the day of a big meet. Although muffins are not typically recommended as pre-competition food, the boy did extremely well at that meet and bettered his times in every event. Ever since then, Caroline has eaten these same blueberry muffins before every swim competition because she believes the muffins bring her good luck.

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

  • Blueberry Muffins

Transcript of Associated File:

  •  “A bunch of kids on my club team, we used to eat a bunch of blueberry muffins. Specifically one mom on the team would make these blueberry muffins and we all started eating them before meets because one time this mom was being really nice and was like I’ll make you guys a bunch of muffins before the meet. We all ate them and this one kid swam really fast so we were like we have to eat a bunch of muffins and we’ll do really well and it just became like a team tradition.”

Informant’s Comments:

  •  Caroline has mentioned that at all levels of swimming, she has encountered people with different superstitions. Although some are related to eating certain types of food or wearing different articles of clothing before a competition, she finds that having superstitions is common among the swimmers she has encountered.

Collector’s Comments:

  •  Food based superstitions were very common among informants. Many swimmers that were interviewed believe that eating a certain type of food will enhance their performance, not because of scientifically proven reason but because of an experience that happened to them in the past. The muffins give Caroline a confidence that allows her to preform exceptionally in the pool.

Collector’s Name: Molly Brickman

Tags/Keywords:

  • Insert Tags/Keywords Here: Muffin, Superstition

 

 

Fall Photoshoot

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General Information:

  • Customary Folklore: Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country: Hanover, NH, USA

Informant Data:

  • Spring Y. Yu is from Wading River, NY. She was born in 1997. She started skating at the age of five. In terms of family, her sister, Iris Yu, class of ’14, also skated as a child and at Dartmouth College as a member of the DFSC. On campus, Spring is a Studio Art Major and is a dancer in Dartmouth’s Street Soul.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context/Cultural Context: Every fall, the Dartmouth Figure Skating Club has a fall photoshoot at the BEMA, an outdoor amphitheater on Dartmouth’s campus. Every member dresses in nice clothing, such as Fall dresses and button down shirts and slacks. Multiple photos are taken by a professional photographer at different photogenic locations in the BEMA. It is unclear how the tradition started, but the interviewee believes it began well before even her older sister was a student at Dartmouth College.
  • This piece was collected during an interview about DFSC with Spring on the the First Floor of Baker Berry Library

Item:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Associated audio file:

Transcript of Associated File:

Spring: “So the photoshoot is something that we do every year, in the fall. Um, it’s just that the entire team basically goes to the BEMA,  and we take pretty pictures, and its just like a pretty fun way to get together, and get to know whose on the team. And overall its a pretty fun time!”

Collector’s Comments:

While it might not appear important at first, the fall photoshoot is the DFSC’s first big event of the year where, as Spring mentions in her interview, everyone finally gets to meet everyone else on the team. The tradition invite the team members to bond with each other through photos and gorgeous scenery. They are able to act silly and goof off with fellow members outside of the serious atmosphere of the  ice rink, and bond with each other through this tradition.

Tags/Keywords:

Photoshoot, fall foilage, team, tradition.

Collected by John Gilmore

Banging Hands on Walls

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General Information:

  • Customary Folklore: Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country: Hanover, NH, USA

John Gilmore III ’17 is currently enrolled at Dartmouth College. John is from Dallas, TX. He started skating when he was four years old at the local ice rink in his hometown. He is an English major with a Creative Writing Concentration. He is a captain of the Dartmouth Figure Skating Club. He is also the events director for the Dartmouth Programming Board and writes for the Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science.

Contextual Data:

John was introduced to this piece of folklore in the fall of his freshman year when he first joined the team. During a routine, when a skater looks as if they need encouragement, other members would bang on the glass with their hands to show support and help the skater through their routine.

Item:

During a routine, when a skater looks as if they need encouragement, other members would bang on the glass with their hands to show support and help the skater through their routine. This has continued every year and has been passed down.

Thompson Arena, where DFSC practices for competition

Thompson Arena, where DFSC practices for competition

Audio File:

Transcript:

John: “At practice and when we perform, when our skaters look tired, and need an extra little burst of energy running through their program, we bang on the glass or on the board themselvves to get the skaters going and motivate them to perform a great program. “

Collector Commentary:

This tradition occurs every year and is used as a sign of encouragement to get skaters through their routines.  This seems Dartmouth specific and furthermore localized to just the skating team.

Tags/Keywords:

Figure Skating, Banging on the Walls, Tradition, Customary

Collector: 

Graydon Peterson

Team Banquet

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General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre
    • Customary Folklore: Tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: USA

Informant Data:

Anna is a ’19 on the Dartmouth Figure Skating Club. She is from New Jersey. Anna started skating in middle school. On campus, she writes for the Mirror, and is a English major. Anna is also one of three social chairs for the DFSC.

Contextual Data:

Anna learned of this entering her freshman year in the spring where members of the team meet up and share stories with one another.  This also includes several different team functions, including handing out of ‘paper plate’ awards, voting for team representatives, and a new member skit, where the new members dress up in flair.

Item:

The Team Banquet  is a yearly tradition for the Dartmouth Figure Skating Club. After its nationals competition, the team no longer has organized practice. As a result, the team is not able to spend as much time together. During this time the team has a dinner where they gather together and tell stories to recap the year that the team had.

New Member Skit

New Member Skit at Banquet

Associated audio file:

Transcript:

“Tradition for the freshman to present a song and dance making fun of the team.  This is a yearly thing that happens every year. There are speeches for captainship”

Collector’s Comments:

This was collected in Baker Lobby.  This tradition fits under the categories of folklore because it has been going on for many years and is recurring and also has specific practices.

Tags/Keywords:

  • Figure Skating, Team Banquet , Tradition, Customary

Collector:

Graydon Peterson

Tying Skates in Specific Order

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Title: Tying Skates in Specific Order

 

Genre: Customary, Ritual, Magic

Language: English

County of Origin: USA

Informant Data: Regina Yan ’19 is currently enrolled at Dartmouth College. She was born in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and moved to Overland Park, Kansas when she was seven. In addition to being on the Dartmouth Figure Skating Team, Regina is also an active member of the Dartmouth Outing Club and a leader in the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club.Regina started to skate when she was 10 years old after watching the 2006 Torino Olympics. She skated for five years with the Silver Blades Skating Club but due to health problems, stopped skating in high school. She began again her freshman year at Dartmouth College.

Social/Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed alone at Dartmouth College. The informant was asked to talk about figure skating folklore in relation to the Dartmouth Figure Skating Club.

Regina encountered this piece of folklore and began to engage in the practice during her time at the Silver Blades Skating Club. She had seen other skaters engage in this piece of folklore but only started to participate after a particularly memorable performance. This is a common piece of folklore across all skating communities and she continues to engage in it here at Dartmouth. , causing new skaters to pick it up as well.

Item:

Often times, skaters will always tie one skate before the other (right before left or left before right). Which skate the skater ties first stems back to exceedingly excellent performance he/she had in the past.

Transcription of Interview

“I always have to tie the left skate first. I never tie the top hook…. I skated well once when I tied my left boot first so I’m going to tie that boot first every single time. I won my first competition tying my left boot first so you always like to attribute good things.

” 

Collector’s Comments:

This is a form of homeopathic magic. Skaters are attempted to channel a previous performance by recreating the conditions that they believe led to that performance.

Collectors: Samuel Lee

Tags/Keywords:

  • Skating, Dartmouth Figure Skating Club, DFSC, Ritual

Secret Psych

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Title: Secret Psych

Genre: Customary, Tradition

Language: English

Country where Item is from: USA

Informant Data: Regina Yan ’19 is currently enrolled at Dartmouth College. She was born in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and moved to Overland Park, Kansas when she was seven. In addition to being on the Dartmouth Figure Skating Team, Regina is also an active member of the Dartmouth Outing Club and a leader in the Dartmouth Mountainering Club. Regina began to skate when she was 10 years old after watching the 2006 Torino Olympics. She skated for five years with the Silver Blades Skating Club but due to health problems, stopped skating in high school. She began again her freshman year at Dartmouth College.

Social/Contextual Data: Informant was interviewed alone at Dartmouth College. The informant was asked to talk about figure skating folklore in relation to the Dartmouth Figure Skating Club.

Regina encountered this piece of folklore in the spring term of her freshman year at Dartmouth College. An email outlining Secret Psych was sent out to the skating team. An upperclassman then explained it to her in depth later.

Item:

A week leading up to any major competition, each skater is secretly assigned another skater to anonymously give small gifts, posters, and encouraging notes to. Your “secret psycher” – the one giving you gifts – is revealed on the push ride up to competition.

Transcription of Interview:

“A week before competition, everyone is assigned a skater to give encouraging messages, gift baskets, posters, and general support to anonymously. On the bus to competition, it is revealed who your secret skater is.”

Informant’s Comments: 

Gifts typically include candy, flaire, posters on doors, and stuffed animals. Small notes of encouragement are often secretly slipped to the recipient.

Collector’s Comments:

This practice is very similar to the popular tradition of “Secret Santa.” The point of this practice is to psych the other skater up so that they become excited and ready competition.

After the interview, Regina remembered the proper name of the folklore item, “Secret Psych” not “Secret Skater”

Collectors: Samuel Lee

Tags/Keywords:

  • Dartmouth Figure Skating Club, DFSC, Tradition, Secret Psych, Secret Santa

Dartmouth Folklore & Collection Process

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Proof of Dartmouth Folklore

The Dartmouth Seven, the Ledyard Bridge Challenge, and the Lou’s Challenge are all well-known challenges among the Dartmouth “folk” (i.e. students, professors). These three challenges are the most well-known among Dartmouth Students. The origin of each is unknown, but there are rumors about where each one comes from. Most Dartmouth students hear about these challenges from either an upperclassman or a fellow classmate. Because these challenges are passed on from incoming freshman class to incoming freshman class, it is proof of its folklore; the Dartmouth Seven, the Ledyard Bridge Challenge, and Lou’s Challenge survive because they are passed down annually to new Dartmouth students.

How We Collected Our Folklore

The stories were collected from a range of Dartmouth students and Dartmouth Alumni, both male and female. Through one-on-one interviews, we were able to collect Dartmouth Challenge stories. In addition, surveys were conducted in order to get the broadest range of contributions possible.

All of the stories we collected were from people who wished to remain anonymous. In order to respect their wishes for privacy, we removed their names from our database and changed the names of people within the various folklore examples.

We decided to choose the most PG-13 related Dartmouth Challenges stories due to the graphic content some stories contain. Because we wished the stories to stay a true as possible from our informants, if a story was too graphic we left it out. We choose the best six stories for each Dartmouth Challenge to include in our collection project.

Finally, participants were asked why they partake in these challenges and what the challenges mean to them. Due to the similarity of many of the responses, we combined them all into one collective response at the bottom of each challenge page under our collector’s comment section.