PACKET EDITORIAL, May 27
By: Packet Editorial, May 27
Last year, it was the incessant din of the cicadas. This year, it’s a rare late spring Nor’easter that threatens to put a damper on Princeton University’s annual weekend of raucous revelry known as Reunions.
But just as those noisy insects that come to town once every 17 years failed to suppress the enthusiasm that invariably sweeps across the Princeton campus whenever the alumni gather at this time of year, it’s doubtful that this week’s dose of autumn-like weather will amount to anything more than a mere inconvenience.
You can bet they’ll be out in force this weekend, outfitted in their odd orange-and-black attire the younger grads visiting familiar haunts like the Frist Campus Center and Hoagie Haven, the older ones taking a trip down memory lane from the Prospect Avenue eating clubs to Tiger Park in Palmer Square. And rest assured that neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night nor, as last year’s experience clearly demonstrated, pestilence shall stay them from the swift (well, in the case of some older alums, perhaps not so swift) completion of their appointed rounds.
Just about every college and university in the country stages some kind of reunion every year but few, if any, do it quite the way Princeton does. Some schools count themselves lucky if they can lure back more than a handful of graduates from a class celebrating a "big" reunion generally defined as one which, when subtracted from the current year, is divisible by five. At Princeton, they show up in droves, even from the off-year classes.
And while other schools may stage a few events to keep the returning alumni occupied for a few hours a golf tournament, a campus tour, a parade, a luncheon, a lecture or two Princeton puts together a program that offers a full weekend worth of nonstop activity. The schedule for today alone is 13 pages long presentations, panel discussions and book signings featuring Nobel laureates and Pulitzer Prize-winners; departmental receptions, library tours and laboratory open houses; poetry readings and organ recitals; improv comedy, the venerable Triangle Club show (culminating in the traditional kick line) and a capella concerts under the archways.
The highlight for most returning alumni and, since 1973, alumnae is what the university calls The One and Only P-rade, the three-hour cavalcade of classes that starts at 2 p.m. Saturday at FitzRandolph Gate and wends its way through the campus to the Poe-Pardee Fields. For participants, it’s a chance to walk, talk, renew acquaintances and consume large quantities of sundry beverages with old classmates and friends. For viewers, it’s a human timeline of the past 80 or so years of Princeton University history, from the polished vintage cars bearing the distinguished members of the class of 1925 all the way up to the continuous ambulatory merrymaking of the youthful, exuberant soon-to-be graduates of the class of 2005.
In what little down time remains between and among all these events, the graduates and their families may gather beneath a patchwork of all-weather tents that have sprung up across the campus, each serving as a gathering place for one or more of the classes. There, they may meet to plan additional activities for their own class, enjoy the company of a long-lost classmate or just sit and relax in the surroundings that became so familiar to them in their undergraduate years. And, while they’re at it, another beverage or two may not be entirely out of the question.
By the time this weekend is over, an estimated 20,000 people will have descended upon Princeton for the Reunions. Most will be gone by Sunday. Others may remain to see their sons and daughters receive their diplomas Tuesday morning. Then they, too, will be gone and summer, though still three weeks away, will have unofficially arrived in this college town. Which, when you come right down to it, is what Reunions really represent on this side of Nassau Street. No matter what the calendar says, and no matter how unseasonable the weather may be, Reunions are the storm before the calm.

