Tag Archives: sleep

“Go to Sleep” (Lucy Murray)

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Title: “Go to sleep”

General Information about Item:

Verbal Folklore

Language: American

Country of Origin: USA

Informant: P.S.

Date Collected: 11-5-21

Informant Data: 

P.S. is 20 years old from Orange County, California. She has grown up in California and loves to be outside surrounded by family and friends. She is the oldest of 3 girls and plays lacrosse at Dartmouth College. Her parents are extremely supportive and important to her. Her Dad is involved with the football industry and is a very intelligent, creative man. This lullaby collected from P.S. has been a staple in her family for as long as her grandparents can remember. 

Contextual Data: 

Social Context: 

This lullaby was sung to P.S. growing up. Her parents shared that they heard this lullaby as children as well. P.S.’s siblings also sung this lullaby and they appreciated that for whoever it was sung to, they could change the name to personalize the lullaby. Growing up, P.S. would not be able to fall asleep without hearing this lullaby before bed.

Cultural Context: 

P.S.’s family is from the Netherlands, but for as long as she can remember her family has been in the US. So, this lullaby is American and has no relationship to P.S.’s Dutch heritage. It has become a staple in her life and her siblings’ life, and she would consider it a fundamental part of her childhood and culture growing up. 

Item: 

Go to sleep,

Go to sleep,

Go to sleep my little Peyton, close your eyes, and have sweet dreams

And in the morning we will play 

Audio: 

Informant Comments: 

I’m not really sure where this lullaby originated but it has been in my family for as long as I can remember. I love that I can vividly remember hearing this before bed and I can’t wait to pass it along to my children.

Collector Comments: 

This interview was very relatable to my own life as I did not have any lullabies that originated from a different country. However, I had many that my family has passed on throughout the years. Overall, this interview was productive and I really enjoyed speaking with Peyton. 

Collector’s Name: Lucy Murray 

“Sleep baby sleep” (Lucy Murray)

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Title: “Sleep baby sleep”

General Information about Item:

Verbal Folklore

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Informant: K.E.

Date Collected: 11-4-21

Informant Data: 

K.E. was born October 5th, 2001. She is currently a Junior at Dartmouth College studying History. K.E. has lived in Darien, Connecticut her whole life and is a middle child. Her parents both work full time and are supportive of all her endeavors. Her mind is constantly wandering and she’s intrigued by our imagination. She remembers one lullaby as it was one that she used her imagination the most. 

Contextual Data: 

Social Context: 

K.E. shared with us that this lullaby came from her grandmother. It was just a lullaby to others, but to K.E. it meant so much more as it bonded her to her grandmother, Josie. “Sleep, baby sleep” was a staple for K.E. growing up. She would not be able to fall asleep without hearing it before bed. Although this lullaby does not originate from a specific place that K.E.’s family is from, it still helped shape her and stay connected to her family, especially those who she may not have been as close with. 

Item:

Sleep, baby, sleep 

Your father tends the sheep 

Your mother shakes the dreamland tree 

And from it fall sweet dreams for thee 

Sleep, baby, sleep 

Sleep, baby, sleep 

Audio: 

Informant Comments: 

This lullaby will forever hold a special place in my heart because my grandma is such an important person in my life. To this day she is someone I am incredibly grateful for and being able to share this lullaby with her early on in life helped our relationship flourish throughout my childhood. 

Collector Comments: 

This interview was incredibly sentimental and I really appreciated K.E.’s willingness to open up about her relationship with her grandma. She loves her grandma so much and it shined through during our conversation. 

Collector’s Name: Lucy Murray 

Direction of Sleep

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Title: Direction of Sleep

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Lore, Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: India
  • Informant: Rama
  • Date Collected: 10-10-18

Informant Data:

  • Rama is a female software engineer of Houston, TX. She was born in Tirunelveli, India in 1975. She moved to the United States, however, at the age of 21, with her first job. Besides work, she enjoys gardening and reading. Today, Rama lives with her family in a suburb just outside of Houston.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In India, bodies are often cremated. However, if a body is buried, it is always, without fail, placed with the head pointing towards the North and the feet towards the South. This is due to the belief that Yama, the God of Death, resides in the south.

 

  • Social Context: This superstition is particularly prevalent in South India. Houses are often constructed with properly oriented bedrooms to allow for beds to fit in the “auspicious direction” (East-West).

Item:

  • This superstition declares that if one sleeps with his/her head pointing towards the North, he/she will experience bad luck. This is because if one’s head is pointing North, his feet are pointing to the South, where Yama resides. On rare occasions, sleeping in this direction is believed to bring death.

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

Transcript:

  • “If you sleep with your feet pointing towards the South, you will be plagued by bad luck. At its extreme, you may die.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • According to the informant, this belief stands strong within her family. Each and every bed in her house, prior to its placement, was ensured to be facing the correct direction.

Collector’s Comments:

  • This is a concrete example of a Magic Superstition, as it follows the form of “If you do A, Then B”. If one sleeps with his feet pointing towards the south, then he will face bad luck in the near future.

Collector’s Name: Sanjena Venkatesh

Tags/Keywords:

  • Customary Lore
  • Superstition
  • Sleep

Singing Samples

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Singing Samples

The following five recordings are not folklore. These are video and audio recordings sent in by parents of either their children or them singing to their children.

Informant Information:

Mary Kate resides in Andover, Massachusetts. She has a daughter who has an undiagnosed developmental disorder. Her daughter is nine years old and participates in the” My Own Voice” choir, a choir for children with special needs in Andover.

Pam is from Andover, Massachusetts. She has a seven-year-old daughter with Down Syndrome who participates in the “My Own Voice” choir, a choir for children with special needs in Andover.

Linda is from North Reading, Massachusetts. She has a thirteen year old son with autism who has been in the “My Own Voice” choir since its very founding four years ago.

Type of Lore: Not Applicable

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States of America

Social/Cultural Context: 

The following recordings show how music is used in typical home life for these children and their families. The first demonstrates a mother singing her daughter to sleep, a lullaby is not an uncommon practice, but typically is not performed when the child is nine years old. The singing of the lullaby helps Mary Kate to connect with her daughter, who is non-verbal. The second demonstrates a child singing to her mother before bed. This girl with Down Syndrome is able to use the music to express herself, which is typically difficult for her to do with conventional language. These two recordings share the aspect of being popular songs.

The last three recordings are of Linda’s son, he over the years has found a way to express himself through songs that he writes himself. They do not have particularly advanced tunes or lyrics, but it allows him to be creative with his own thoughts when typical communication is difficult.

Sample 1: Mary Kate singing her daughter to sleep (2016)

Sample 2: Pam’s daughter singing to her at bedtime (2016)

Sample 3: Linda’s son experimenting with Rap part 1 (2014)

 

Sample 4: Linda’s son experimenting with Rap part 2 (2014)

 

Sample 5: Linda’s son’s Mother’s Day video (2016)

Collector’s comments:

While as we said before these videos are not recordings of folklore, we think that these exhibit very important examples of these children trying to both make sense of their surroundings and communicate in their own individual ways. This is especially seen in the last three clips. These videos were taken a few years apart, and it is apparent how much progress that Linda’s son has made in creating his songs. The last clip is especially touching, it is a song that Linda’s son wrote for her for Mother’s Day, a truly unique gift that he made in an attempt to express his gratitude for her.

Tags/Keywords: Special Needs, Autism, Down Syndrome, Music, Songs, Sleep, Communication, Family

A Rude Awakening

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Title: A Rude Awakening

Informant Info: Charles Jang is an Executive Editor Emeritus and former Office Manager of The Dartmouth Review. He is a ’16 from Fort Worth, TX. He was interviewed on May 24, 2016 at the Review office in Hanover, NH.

Type of Lore: Verbal, Legend

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Social / Cultural Context: This story is about one a prank pulled on one of the Review‘s former Presidents. It is indicative of the ways in which the members of this folk interact with each other.


Transcript:

So we are working at the office one night, he’s laying down on the couch, watching some TV show on his phone, as he is wont to, instead of like, I don’t know, using one of our computers, so he doesn’t have to squint at it. And inevitably of course he falls asleep. So we’re working and then about an hour later, we get the great idea of convincing him that he’s been asleep for longer than he actually has. So we shake him awake and we’re like, “hey, we’re going to get breakfast, do you want anything?” And he’s like, “no I’m gonna go back to sleep.” And so he goes back to sleep, and then 3 minutes later we shake him awake again, and we say “hey it’s lunchtime, dude you really need to get up, don’t you have class soon?” and he’s like “no, I want to go to sleep, no.” And then we shake him awake for dinner time like an hour later and he finally gets up and then we take him outside and of course it’s really dark outside because it’s like 2 AM or something, it was pretty good.

Collector’s Comments: This legend is indicative of the fact that members of the Review are a tight-knit community who know each other well enough to have fun and mess with each other. How much of this legend is true and how much is exaggerated cannot be verified, but it speaks to the broader culture of the organization in that this type of behavior would not be considered out of the ordinary in the organization.