Tag Archives: game

Thumb On Rope

Dartmouth Climbing Customary Folklore
“Thumb On Rope”

Sarah Jennewein
Hanover, NH
May 22, 2019

Informant Data:

Sarah Jennewein is a sophomore at Dartmouth College. Sarah grew up in Tampa, Florida, before coming to Dartmouth. Sarah only began climbing when she got to Dartmouth. She was a member of a Hike and Climb freshman trip. While she initially found climbing at Dartmouth to be intimidating, after going on a climbing trip with Dartmouth students during a break freshman year, she fell in love. She now climbs and attends mountaineering events regularly. She is a member of the Dartmouth climbing team and has the designation of a leader in the mountaineering club for sport climbing, ice climbing, and top rope climbing. Climbing has made Dartmouth feel like home for Sarah.

 

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: This piece of folklore was collected via a video interview with Sarah Jennewein while at Dartmouth College. Sarah learned about this piece of folklore as a freshman on the Dartmouth Climbing Team. This tradition is not unique to only the Dartmouth Climbing Team, but it is routinely performed by the team each time they climb outdoors. This tradition is performed by members of the team only; non-climbers typically do not participate. The “thumb on the rope” game is played specifically when climbing outdoors with a top rope. At Dartmouth, this usually means that the game is performed at a climbing location called Rumney or on a trip during a school break to other outdoor climbing locations. Typically, only a small group of all climbers are present on these trips, and the game is performed as the group is getting ready to end the climbing for the day. Specifically, this game occurs as the top ropes are being taken down. Sarah noted that the tradition gives a sense of bonding and fosters the feeling of family. She added that the game is both fun and competitive, and it provides a forum for jokes and entertainment. Whoever manages to get their thumb on the top of the rope has bragging rights within the community.

 

  • Cultural Context: The two major types of climbing are bouldering and sport climbing. Unlike bouldering, sport climbing involves being roped in and wearing a harness while being belayed by another climber on the ground due to the dangerous heights that the climbers can reach. Top rope climbing is a type of sport climbing. The rope is attached to the climber,  passed up through an anchor at the top of the climb, and then passed down to a belayer at the bottom of the climb. At Dartmouth, top rope climbing is not performed in the climbing gym on campus, as the climbing gym on campus is a bouldering gym. Therefore, no ropes are used in the Dartmouth Climbing Gym, and the “thumb on rope” game cannot be played unless the climbers are not on campus. Dartmouth climbers typically top rope climb at an outdoor area called Rumney or on break trips. This item of folklore is a fun and competitive way for team members to bond after top rope climbing.

 

Item:

(While i have recorded the Dartmouth climbing tradition of the thumb on the rope game as closely as possible to Sarah’s exact words based on notes taken during the interview, this is ultimately my own phrasing of Sarah’s words.)

The “thumb on rope” game does not have an official name, but rather is a game commonly known by the climbing community. This game is played by members outside of the Dartmouth community, but these are the specific rules that the Dartmouth community adheres to. When disassembling the setup of a top rope climb after everyone has finished climbing, the top rope must be allowed to fall from the anchor at the top of the climb. Before the rope hits the ground, if you are able to catch the end of the rope within a thumbs length of the end so that you can put your thumb on the very top, someone who you are climbing with has to buy you a beer or other beverage.

 

Kelly Peterec, Age 20
Hinman Box 3552, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Dartmouth College
Russian 013
Spring 2019

 

Rubber Band Game (Jacob Cruger)

Title: Rubber Band Game

General Information About this Item:

  • Game, workplace folklore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Informant #4
  • Date Collected: 3/9/2018

Informant Data:

  • FO+M student employee, works in Hinman Mail Services. Also a Dartmouth student in the class of 2021 hailing from Western Massachusetts. He is involved with a variety of activities across campus and considering majoring in mathematics.

Contextual Data:

  • Started working at Hinman Mail Services this year. Often works at the window, handling packages and envelopes for students, faculty members, and staff. This job can sometimes be slow, so the informant and his coworkers play a simple game to pass the time. The informant does not know the origin of this particular tradition but knows it predates the beginning of his time working at Hinman.

Item:

  • The Hinman Mail Services window looks into a room that contains shelves for packages and large envelopes. This room also has direct access to some student mailboxes (“Hinman boxes”). When work is slow the informant and his coworkers try to shoot rubber bands into the mailboxes near the window.

Transcript:

  • “There is a habit, I guess, that we have, those of us who work at the window. Some of the Hinman boxes are open and within like arm’s reach or available within the vicinity. So something that we try to do to pass the time that, I’m not sure when exactly it started but that has been consistent since I’ve been there, is just shooting rubber bands into people’s Hinman boxes. And that’s just something that has definitely been around since before I’ve been there.”

Collector’s Name: Jacob Cruger

Tags/Keywords:

  • Game
  • FO+M

Image Credit

Goalie Warm Up

Title: Goalie Warm Up 

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Game/Ritual
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Canada
  • Informant: Christie Honor
  • Date Collected: 2-22-18

Informant Data:

  • Christie Honor is a Junior at Dartmouth College and a goalie on the Varsity Women’s Ice Hockey Team. She was born in Mississauga, Ontario in Canada, and has lived there her whole life. She started playing hockey when she was five years old because she looked up to her two older brothers who played. She is a biology major and just finished her first year as the starting goalie.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Goalies are a unique position. They do workouts that are a little bit different than the rest of the team, thus explaining why they have a different warm-up routine. A very important task for a goalie is to track the puck with their eyes and catch pucks with their glove
  • Social Context: There are two goalies on the team in the same year: Shannon and Christie. They are very good friends and share a special bond, especially since they both play the most unique position in the game: goalie. Although Christie plays in a majority of games, this does not affect their bond as they are still great friends and roommates. This item has been practiced for three years.

Item:

  • During the teams off-ice warm up, the two junior goalies, Shannon and Christie, started getting a racquet-ball and throwing it off the wall back and forth to each other. While throwing the ball back and forth to each other, they maintain a low squat position. This is an important ritual to them as it warms-up their hand-eye coordination that is crucial for peak performance.

 

Transcript:

  • None

Informant’s Comments:

  • I find this pre-game routine particularly interesting because to be a goalie in hockey is a very different, particular position. It makes sense that they should warm-up in a different way than the rest of the team. They also carry this special bond by doing this warm-up together which I could see through Christie telling me about this ritual they do together.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Christie Honor was interviewed by Brooke Ahbe in Thompson Arena, Dartmouth College. Webpage was published by Sarah Tabeek.

Collector’s Name: Brooke Ahbe

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Game
  • Goalie Warm Up

“Andy’s Coming!”

General Information about Item:

  • Customary lore, game
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: Nandita Kasireddy
  • Date Collected: 2/23/2018

Informant Data:

  • Nandita Kasireddy is a female Dartmouth student in the class of 2021. She is majoring in Neuroscience. She intends on pursuing a career in medicine. She grew up in Bow, NH. She has one older sister. She has visited Disney World in Orlando, Florida five times with her family. She loves Disney and her favorite Disney movie is the Little Mermaid. When she is at the park, she tries to find the park characters, Ariel, Jasmine, and Minnie Mouse.  Nandita would stay on the park premises during her visits to Disney World. She is also a Disney Vacations Club Member.

 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Toy Story is a popular Disney movie that features toys that come to life when their owner, Andy, is not present. The main characters in the movies are Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and Jessie. In the movie, all the toys talk and go on adventures together when their human owners are not present. If a human is coming, they fall to the ground and pretend that they are “only” toys and not alive. The main characters from the movie can often be found in Magic Kingdom at Disney World. At the Disney parks, the employees, who are dressed up as the Disney characters, have a specific set of rules that they must follow to maintain a certain authenticity for park visitors. The Disney employees’ jobs are to make sure that they appear as true to character as possible when interacting with park visitors.  
  • Social context: The informant first participated in this game when she visited Disney World for her second time in 2011. Nandita and her older sister decided to yell the phrase “Andy’s coming!” when they saw the Toy Story character, Buzz Lightyear, in Magic Kingdom. Nandita and her sister were active participants in this game, but they learned the rules of the game by watching other park visitors partake in it.


Item:

  • The informant states that when any park visitor yells the phrase “Andy’s coming!” at the park, the Toy Story characters, in proximity, will drop to the ground to pretend that they are inanimate objects. This is a type of folklore game. The main rule in the game is Toy Story characters must drop to the ground and pretend that they are not alive when a park visitor yells the phrase, “Andy’s coming!” If the rule is broken, the park employees will face some negative consequences. This is a game that all park visitors can participate in.

Transcript:

  • “My sister and I just came out of the Buzz Lightyear ride in Tomorrowland, and we saw Buzz and Woody. We had heard from other park visitors about what happens when you yell the phrase, “Andy’s Coming!” We decided to try it out and it was super funny cause once we yelled the phrase, both Buzz and Woody dropped to the ground, and they got up only as we were leaving.”

Collector’s Comments:

  • This item was unique to me because I usually go Disneyland and I have not heard about this game. I wonder if it holds true in California parks or if it is more of a tradition in Orlando. My little brother loves Buzz Lightyear so we always try to take a picture with him, but now I want to try yelling this phrase and see what happens.  

Collector’s Name: Meghana Reddy

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Folklore Game
  • “Andy’s Coming!”

The Jelly Bean Game

Title: The Jelly Bean Game

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Game
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 female. She went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was hiking (level 3).

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • All the trippees sitting around a circle together while taking a break from physical activities
  • Cultural Context
    • Provides a way for the trippees to share things about themselves with the group to get to know each other — common to play games to get to know one another in American culture.

Item:

  • The Jelly Bean game: each jelly bean color corresponds to a different category of story. Each person then picks a jelly bean and tells a story corresponding to that color of jelly bean.

Transcript of Informant Interview:

“We only played the jelly bean game one time. We sat around at a rest stop and there were six different colors of jelly beans in this gigantic bag and we labeled each color a different category. So purple might have been like a horror story or a scary story and pink might have been like a story from your childhood and red is an embarrassing story. And then person by person, someone reaches in and randomly picks a color of jelly bean out of the bag. So the person would then tell a story based on the color of jelly bean that they picked.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • It was a really fun game, and a cool way to learn interesting things about the other people on my trip.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant was able to give a detailed account of the experience that he had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Game, Jelly Bean, Stories, Bonding

The Whoosh Ball Game

Title: The Whoosh Ball Game

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Game
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 male. He went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was canoeing.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • All the trippees and trip leaders stand around in a circle together with a ball in someone’s hands
  • Cultural Context
    • Trippees bond with each other over a fun and simple game
    • It is nice to be able to play a relatively easy game to allow everyone to relax

Item:

  • The Whoosh Ball game: the group stands around in a circle passing a ball and saying whoosh. There are specific rules about what a person is allowed to do when receiving the ball.

Transcript of Informant Interview:

“We played the Whoosh Ball game. This game gave trips a very “campy” feel. You play by passing the ball to the left and saying “whoosh.” And then the person receiving the ball can either ramp it or put up a wall with his/her hand to deflect the ball.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • It was a really fun game, and a cool way to learn interesting things about the other people on my trip.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant was able to give a detailed account of the experience that he had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Game, Whoosh Ball, Ball, fun, trippees, bonding

The Waa Game

Title: The Waa Game

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Game
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a Dartmouth ’21 male. He went on a first-year trip in September 2017; the trip was canoeing.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context
    • All the trippees and trip leaders stand around in a circle together
  • Cultural Context
    • In the game, individuals often make silly mistakes in what should be a basic / straightforward game. Laughing with one another at these silly mistakes leads to bonding
    • It is nice to be able to play a relatively easy game to allow everyone to relax

Item:

  • The Waa game: In the Waa game, everyone in the group stands in a circle facing each other. One person then starts the game by pointing with both hands together at another person in the circle and screaming “waa.” The person who was pointed at then must raise her/his arms and scream “waa.” The two people next to that person then swipe their arms across the person who was pointed at and scream “waa.” The game then continues with the person who was pointed at pointing at someone else.

Transcript of Informant Interview:

“We played the Waa game. In the game we are all standing up in a circle. And one person points to someone else in the circle screaming “Waa” and then the person who received the point then puts both arms in the air screaming “Waa.” And the two people beside that person both chop the person down while also screaming “waa.” And then if you don’t follow those rules you are out. So we bonded over those.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • It was a really fun game, and a cool way to learn interesting things about the other people on my trip.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Informant was able to give a detailed account of the experience that he had on trips.

Collector’s Name: Madison DeRose

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Folklore, Game, Waa, fun, trippees, bonding

The Legend of the Frat King

The Legend of the Frat KingScreen Shot 2016-05-31 at 3.34.07 PM

  • Informant Information: Current member of the class of 2018 at Dartmouth and an active member in his fraternity.
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: South Africa
  • Collected information: Every year, this house holds what is known as the “Basement Olympics,” where drinking competitions are completed by all willing members. The brothers competing and those watching will often chant  “Oh, frat king does it faster” at one another during the course of the games. This is referring to the legend of a light weight rower who is known for his ability to drink excessive amounts of alcohol quickly, and supposedly he holds the records for every one of the drinking events.
  • Social / Cultural Context
    • This story is passed down through the generations of the house using oral communication.
    • It is used in a joking manner to bring together the brothers in the context of every day life, but it is primarily used in settings similar to the “Basement Olympics” or during the games themselves.
  • Informant’s comments: This legend was most likely developed as an “anti-story” about a brother. There is a known alumni brother from the class of 1993 who recalled the tale, so it is over thirteen years old at least.
  • Collector’s comments: The informant would not release any details on the type of drinking events that are done during the “Basement Olympics”, nor did he know any other details about the frat king/whether he really existed.
    • Similar tradition was reported in an interview with a member of the 2017 class at Moravian College in Pennsylvania, except it did not include the frat king. Also, contrastingly, the event was open to potential brothers and sorority members and did not have the same clandestine nature as the “Basement Olympics”. The same trend can be seen at Fairfield University for the year 2016 (as shown in the video below), but they are also devoid of the legend of the Frat King.
    • The Dartmouth Interviewee stated that the folklore and traditions associated with the house were taken seriously, but that “they don’t shape what we do, they shape how we do it” and “they enhance the experiences (of the house)”.

Foco Apple Game

 

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

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.