Rebecca SmithFollow

Date Collected

Fall 11-29-2018

Place item was collected

Smithfield, Utah

Informant

Rebecca Smith

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

My name is Rebecca Smith, I’m a 41 year non-traditional student in the English program at Utah State University. I was a stay at home mom for the last 18 years and I homeschooled my children a good portion of that time. I have 2 children (both boys) and a dog ( chocolate Havanese). Currently I live in Smithfield, Utah, but my husband is career Air Force so I have moved around a lot in my adult life.

Context

In my folklore class (Introduction to folklore - English 2210) we were discussing children’s folklore on 11/13/18 and talking about the games children play and the rules they make up. There was a lively discussion of different games people had played and I remembered an experience I had approximately 22 years ago when I was a member of the A-team (a group of students hired by the university to help acclimate new students top the university). We would facilitate the new student orientation program called S.O.A.R - student orientation and registration. All new students were required to attend one of the dates to register. Our director thought it would be a fun / a good idea to have an outdoor S.O.A.R as an overnight activity in Logan Canyon. We camped at Guinavah Campground (a campsite about 5 miles into the canyon right on the Logan River) in Logan Canyon. There were approximately 30 new students, 15 A-Team members, and our director. We all went on a hike to the Wind Caves (tunnels formed in limestone created by water and wind over many years) in Logan Canyon, did orientation (which included class registration) and had dinner. After dinner the new students and the A-Team members played games. One of the games we played was kissing rugby and I explained the game, and what happened while we were playing the game, to the Folklore Class in a similar manner as to the text below. I’m using WC as initials for whole class. I often tell this story at gatherings with friends because it’s hilarious( in a very messed up sort of way). It seems like a lot of younger people haven’t heard of kissing rugby (which is sad) and I’ve explained it to my 18 year old son, but I’m not sure if he’s ever played it. The rules of kissing rugby sound complicated but its actually really easy and fun!

Text

RS: Have you guys ever heard of kissing rugby?

WC: No.

RS: It’s hilarious. What you do is all the girls from one long line- everyone is sitting on the ground, and the girls are all given letters of the alphabet “A” though whatever it goes to , and then the boys sit in a long line facing the girls but about 25 feet apart and they all get numbers, “1” to whatever. Then there’s a person that’s sitting in the middle between the 2 lines and they call out a letter and a number. If it’s a girl in the middle the girl letter called tries to kiss the boy number called while the boy number is trying to kiss the girl in the middle who is trying to get back to the open spot of the girl alphabet. Its opposite if it’s a boy in the middle. Then whoever is the person that gets kissed is the person who has to stay in the middle.

WC: [various laughter and small comments to each other]

RS: So I used to work for the university on the A-Team- do you guys know what that is?

WC: [various yes’s from class]

RS: So we did a camping trip registration and we were playing kissing rugby and this boy was trying to kiss a girl who was trying to kiss the middle boy and it got really crazy and one of the boys broke his nose!

WC: [various laughing and exclamations of surprise]

RS: Yep, it was all university sponsored too.

Texture

Everyone in the class was laughing and having a fun time telling stories. They were surprised something so crazy happened on a university sponsored trip.

Course

English 2210

Instructor

Lynne McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2018

Theme

G6: Socializing Games

EAD Number

3.1.10

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