Author Archives: Zoe Warganz

H. E. Widener “Ice Cream Endowment” at Harvard University

Age: 44
Residence: Maplewood, NJ
Performance Date: 12/27/2010
Primary Language: English

In the freshman dining halls at Harvard University, there is always ice cream available for dessert. Supposedly, this is because the mother of a student named Harry Elkins Widener endowed the school with an “ice cream fund” following his death in the Titanic disaster, because ice cream was her son’s favorite food.

The “ice cream fund” has never been confirmed, but it lives on through generations of Harvard undergraduates. Joseph heard this legend in his freshman year at Harvard. Despite total lack of evidence, (even evidence to the contrary) the story persists. Students keep up the story, perhaps, because it reinforces a sense of elite identity. To have something as indulgent as an “ice cream endowment” to attribute to the identity of being a Harvard undergraduate.

Harvard Swim Test

Age: 44
Residence: maplewood, NJ
Performance Date: 12/27/2010
Primary Language: English

Every freshman at Harvard University must pass a swim test. Supposedly, this is because Eleanor Elkins Widener made this a condition of the massive endowment she gave the University to build the Harry Elkins Widener library.

Harry Elkins Widener was Eleanor’s son, and a student at Harvard, who went down with the Titanic in 1912. After her son’s death, Eleanor supposedly imposed the swim test condition on her endowment, so that no student should suffer the same fate as her son.

Joe and nearly every Harvard University undergraduate heard this story before he had to take that swim test. It is a story unique to Harvard. Yet, there is no documentation or legal record of any such condition with the library endowment. The story has been passed down through the years by the student body, and is attached to the initiation of being a Harvard freshman.

H. E. Widener Pornography Collection

Age: 44
Residence: Maplewood, NJ
Performance Date: 12/27/2010
Primary Language: English

Harry Elkins Widener was a 1907 graduate of Harvard University, who tragically died the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Harry’s mother, Eleanor Widener, donated a large amount of money to the university following her son’s death for the construction of the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, more commonly known as Widener Library.

Legend has it that H. E. Widener had an extensive collection of pornography, and that this collection has been stored away in the deepest vaults of Widener library, inaccessible, alongside famous texts like a copy of the Gutenberg Bible.

Joseph heard this legend as an undergraduate student at Harvard University. This particular legend is rarely heard outside of the university student body, probably because it is hardly the sort  of knowledge any of Harry’s relatives would want to be spread around. Also, students harboring some resentment toward the library (and all the work they must do there) might find a release in mocking it’s namesake in such a way.

“The Retarded Farmer”-ghost story

Age: 44
Residence: Maplewood, NJ
Performance Date: 12/27/2010
Primary Language: English

Summary: Take the little campers out into the woods to ”hangman’s tree” in Sussex county, near Newton, NJ. Gathered around a fire, one of the leaders tells the story of “The Retarded Farmer,” which goes something like this:

There was a farmer who lived on a farm up in those woods, and mostly kept to himself. Some punk kids got into his barn while he was away, knocked over a lantern, and the house and barn caught on fire. The farmer comes back in time to hear his family’s screams, and he goes to save them. The last thing he remembers is the smell form the burning flesh of his family. All the flesh was burned off of his hands and face, leaving him with claws. Somehow, he survives and ends up living in the woods. One of the kids who was responsible for burning down his home goes missing six months later. Then another one disappears. The third kid gets dragged into the woods by the farmer, and taken to a huge oak tree. There, he sees the hollowed out, burned corpses that were his friends hanging from a branch. The farmer lights the boys on fire because he has to smell the burning flesh to fulfill his appetite for revenge. But he is insatiable, and it is said that he still lives in these woods….

Then someone jumps out from behind the campers and scares the shit out of them.

Joe experienced this ghost story himself when he was a boy scout in middle school. He says it was absolutely terrifying at the time. Now that he has two boys of his own, who also happen to be boy scouts, and who are also growing up in New Jersey, he’s especially excited to share it.

“The Retarded Farmer” has many of the most effective elements of a scary ghost story. Firstly, it is set in a local area. Secondly, the victims are of the same age as the captive audience. Thirdly, the antagonist is both (a) physically disfigured and subsequently monstrous and (b) seemingly immortal. And of course, there are just enough realistic elements to make the story believably scary.

No one is sure why the farmer is “retarded”…perhaps an element of the story which was lost somewhere along the oral tradition.

“nose goes”

Age: 19
Residence: San Francisco, CA
Performance Date: 4/21/2011
Primary Language: English
Language: French

A method of deciding who has to do a task, generally one that nobody will volunteer for. Sometimes, someone will call out, “Nose Goes!”, but often, there will be no indication that the game has started. One person will simply put their finger on their nose, and as the others notice, they will, too. The last person to have their finger on their nose loses, and has to perform whatever task or make whatever decision had been the point of contention.

Lauren learned this game pretty early in high school, at lunch. There was a system, in which one person would take up all the trays and garbage for an entire table, and generally determined who got to carry out this chore by playing “nose goes.” The game has also been called “noses” or “the nose game.”

I found it to be well-know across the country, as most everyone I have met from different states and backgrounds is also familiar with the game.

Of course, if you don’t know about “nose goes,” you will obviously be the loser, and be on the lookout for next time. It is a game about being observant, and of course, quick. This game can get pretty competitive, which may be why I have found that the game is most prevalent among teens and young adults.