Title: Same Socks Skier

General Information about Item:

• Genre: Magic Superstition, Homeopathic
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: United States
• Informant: D.P.J.
• Date Collected: 10-29-21

Informant Data:

• D.P.J. is a 21-year-old student athlete at Dartmouth College in the class of 2023. He is from California originally but then moved to the area of Vail, Colorado.  He is a member of the ski team. He was raised very closely to his family and has a special relationship to his father.    

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: Skiing is an individual sport but also has team competitions as well. D.P.J. has been skiing since he was young and has always lived in mountainous areas where skiing is popular. The team competition has always driven him to succeed.
• Social Context: Skiing requires a lot of detail put into their equipment and skill into their performance. D.P.J. learned of his superstition from an older teammate and was told that this was something all great skiers have done since skiing was first invented. Dash believes it has been the key to his success.

Item:

• The item here is a superstition where D.P.J. has worn the same pair of lucky socks his whole ski career. He still washes them and keeps them clean and sanitary but he has the same ones that he always wears in his ski boots.

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

Transcript:

• “When I was young, an old captain on my team said that I should pick out a pair of socks and make them my lucky socks. He said it was a superstition that all the great skiers have and that if I wanted to be great I had to do the same thing. So when I was 13 I picked out a pair and have been wearing the same socks ever since. I think now looking back, I realize it was just a mental tactic to make yourself think you have luck on your side, but I am a believer in the motto of ‘You create your own luck’”.

Informant’s Comments:

• He is not a strong believer in this as shown in the transcript. Even though it has always been a popular thing in the ski world, at the end of the day you just need to perform. There is no actual magic that will help you.

Collector’s Comments:

• This superstition made me laugh a little bit. It’s interesting to see what pieces of equipment (merely socks in this case) are valued throughout different sports.

Collector’s Name:

Tanner Palocsik

Dartmouth College

Russia 013 Fall 2021

Professors Apresyan and Gronas