Title: Good Luck Charms
Informant info: Matt Menezes. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran (2004-2013) . Informant was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and deployed twice to Afghanistan (2007-08, 2008-09) as well as spent two years as a drill sergeant for basic combat training (2011-13).
Type of lore: Customary/Verbal Folklore, Superstition, Myth
Language: English
Country of Origin: USA
Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about good luck charms during their time in the military. Informant discussed how in their MRE (food rations) there were pieces of candy called “charms” that nobody ate because they were considered bad luck.
Associated file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/11vv5a27kzlycgq/Dartmouth_Folklore_Collections_Matt_Menezes.mp4?dl=0
Transcript:
Item: [I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]:I wouldn’t say there are good luck charms; I would say that there are a lot more bad luck charms. I was a paratrooper so I used to jump out of airplanes all the time and something you never tell anyone when they are about to jump is good luck. It is just one of those things that whenever it is said somebody gets hurt. One of the other things is one of the pieces of candy that comes in your MRE or field rations are called “charms,” but you’re not supposed to eat those because it’s really bad luck. One of the other things is there is something called the rain turtle. So what you do is, because I was and infantryman and we were always outside, is the rain turtle is somebody draws a turtle on the ground and if you urinate on the turtle it’s supposed to summon the rain gods and have it torrentially downpour.
Informant’s comments: During the informants response he commented on MREs which is an abbreviation of meals ready to eat. Informant told me that the following is a common superstition across all branches of the military.
Collector’s comments: Another one of the veterans we interviewed from a different part of the military also followed the rule about not eating the “charms”