The Troll in the Sock Drawer

CULTURAL ARTIFACT – Prank

Ashley Halverson

Informant: Scott Halverson

Facebook Chat

27 March 2014

Title:

“The Troll in the Sock Drawer”

Genre:

Prank (with supporting photo)

Informant:

Colonel Scott J. Halverson was born and raised in Rupert, Idaho. He is 45 years old. Halverson attended Utah State University and graduated from the school’s ROTC program. He holds a Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Technology. As an Apache Helicopter Pilot in the United States Army, Halverson had the opportunity to live in many exciting places, such as Rhode Island, Arizona, and Germany, to name a few. He and his wife and three children are stationed in Fort Rucker, Alabama, though he is currently deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan as the Inspector General for the NATO Forces. This year-long deployment will end in June 2014. Halverson is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He enjoys fishing, boating, flying, and hunting. I am his oldest daughter.

Context:

This Halverson family prank began in 2001 and has continued ever since. It is because of my father’s position in the United States Army that such a prank was created, as it allowed us to find souvenirs that were as odd as a hand-carved wooden troll. As children, things like trolls, monsters, ghouls, and ghosts are terrifying to behold; our family was no exception to this rule, and so the troll was brought into our lives at the perfect time for it to be completely horrifying. Contrary to what my father says in his account, we Halverson children are indeed still fearful of the troll, even though I am now nineteen, my brother, Joshua, is seventeen, and my sister, Taylor, is fourteen.

Text:

Scott Halverson 4:41am:         So in 2001 I had the privilege of attending the NATO winter survival course in Norway.  The course took place just above Lillehammer where the 1994 Winter Olympics were held.  It was a great course and I had a great time learning to survive in the snow.  Apparently I was pretty good at it and for my skill in the snow I was selected by the Norwegian instructors as the distinguished graduate of the course.  My prize was a hand carved figurine in the form of a Norwegian Troll.  The Troll stood about 8 inches high and had a red felt cap on its head of scraggly grey hair.  Like Trolls you would picture it had a huge nose and eyes that really seemed to stare at you no [matter] where you are [in] a room.  It was pretty much one of the ugliest things I’ve seen but I really liked it as a souvenir from my time in Norway.  When I got back to Germany, where we were stationed at the time, I proudly showed off the Troll to my family.  At the time my kids were six, four, and not quite one.  They immediately identified my prize as one of the creepiest things they had seen which then gave rise to the terror of the Troll.

Scott Halverson 4:43am:         If I remember correctly, my son was the one most freaked by it so I would sneak into his room and place it somewhere he’d see it when he went to bed or woke up.  Sometimes it would be in a drawer I knew he had to open or on a shelf he was going to need to get to – or on the desk at the foot of his bed staring at him while he slept.  I’d be back in the living room watching TV and hear Joshua yell from his room “DAD!!!!!” Truth be told - I probably would have been freaked out by it when I was his age too.  It only took a few times before he started threatening to destroy it.  I, of course, still cherished it as a prize and really didn’t want him too.  Troll found his way into the girls’ rooms over the years.  None of the kids seemed to appreciate it as much as I did.  It’s been through several family conflicts where the kids would hide it from me until I threaten to ground them and then it would miraculously show back up.  Finally, due to the threat to the Troll’s existence in our household, I found a semi-permanent home for him in the drawer of my tall dresser.

Scott Halverson 4:44am:         I’m pretty sure now it doesn’t bug them as much as it did 13 years ago.  I think they still give me a reaction because they know I like to have fun with them.  Still – every once in a while – the Troll will sneak out of the drawer for a night raid into one of the kids’ rooms and they’ll provide me with a cursory “DAD!!!!” and then go hide if [it] from me.  It’s the little things in life that make parents smile.

Texture:

Minor edits have been added to the text in brackets. The manner in which my father writes is very similar to how he talks, though he was aware that the story would be recorded and may have embellished his words a bit. The troll itself is proof that we have done a great deal of traveling and enjoy collecting tokens from the places we have been. The fact that my father knew we feared the troll, yet still hid it around our home, provides evidence of his humorous relationship with us and the way that we interacted on a daily basis.

Meaning:

The troll is only one of the many pranks my family has pulled on one another, which gives great insight into Halverson family life. My family loves to laugh, and we will go to great lengths to bring laughter about. With my dad in Afghanistan, our home feels a little emptier without the echoes of his warm laughter. It is important to my mother and siblings that remember things like the troll in order to help us make it from one day to the next, always moving toward the return of his laughter.

  

Ashley Halverson

Utah State University

Professor Bonnie Moore

English 2010-0035

12:00-1:20
Spring 2014