The P-rade steps off at 2 p.m. Saturday. Evening fireworks set.
By: Jeff Milgram
At 1 p.m. Saturday, the main gates of Princeton University will be locked.
As the clock strikes 2 p.m., give or take a few minutes, the Nassau Hall bell will ring, bugles will blare and grand marshal Arlene Pedovitch of Princeton Junction — dressed in blue jacket, white pants and a floppy velvet orange and black Renaissance-style cap — will ask that the fabled FitzRandolph Gates be opened for the annual Princeton alumni P-rade.
Ms. Pedovitch — holding a shillelagh-like mace capped with a tiger head and flanked by two other marshals, Thomas Huntington and Charles Rose — will be joined by university President Harold T. Shapiro; Robert Rawson, chairman of the university’s board of trustees; Joseph Serafini, chairman of the Alumni Council; and Diane Hasling, vice chairwoman of the Reunions Committee.
With the pomp and circumstance that many other schools bestow only on their graduations, Princeton University begins its famous — or is that infamous? — P-rade, one of the key happenings of Reunions Weekend.
Reunions Weekend began Thursday and will end Sunday morning, as the attention begins to be focused on the events leading up to Princeton’s 253rd commencement Tuesday morning.
University custodians will start picking up trash early Sunday morning to make sure the grounds are cleared in time for the baccalaureate service Sunday, which begins at 10 a.m. with a worship service in the university chapel and then continues at 2 p.m. with a speech by Queen Noor of Jordan, the former Lisa Halaby, who graduated from Princeton in 1973.
The P-rade and Reunions Weekend are uniquely Princeton, and uniquely colorful events. The university campus and the downtown shopping district will be filled with 10,000 alumni and their families, many dressed in outlandish class jackets in varying patterns of orange and black.
The P-rade follows a route to the right of Nassau Hall, makes a left turn at West College, passes in back of Nassau Hall and through the arches of East Pine. Picking up parade floats along the way, it then takes two swift right turns to double back, in front of Whig and Clio halls. The route then heads down Elm Drive, past Dillon Gymnasium, to Poe and Pardee fields.
There will be spectator seating on Elm Drive.
Behind the P-rade officials will come the oldest alumnus. Alumni Council officials won’t know until Saturday who that will be. Whoever it is will have the honor of carrying the class of 1923 cane, in honor of his seniority.
There will be 19 golf carts on hand to carry any alumnus who cannot walk the route, according to P-rade marshal Stuart Duncan.
The first class to march will be the members of the class of 1975, who are celebrating their 25th anniversary.
As they enter the campus, they will be joined by members of alumni classes from 1935 to 1998, the oldest first. This year’s graduating class also takes part in the P-rade as a way of transitioning them from seniors to alumni.
The P-rade, as we know it now, grew out of a baseball rivalry between Princeton and Yale. According to “A Princeton Companion” by Alexander Leitch, the teams began playing one of their several games at Princeton on the Saturday before commencement around 1888. Alumni attendance grew, and periodically a class returning for reunion would march to the game behind a band. In 1897, all of the reunion classes joined in a parade to the game.
At first, the alumni only wore badges with their class number. Gradually, classes began to distinguish themselves by using class hats, balloons, parasols, large palm leaf fans and, before long, younger classes wore colorful costumes, carried funny signs and sometimes performed comic stunts.
According to Mr. Leitch, the class of 1897 dressed as Dutch boys, complete with wooden shoes in the 1907 P-rade. In 1908, the class of 1898 marched as a Roman legion — with tunics, shields and swords — wheeling at their head a reproduction of the Arch of Trajan.
As a rule, according to Mr. Leitch, classes wear costumes through their 15th or 20th reunions, class blazers through their 50th and blazers or simply hatbands with class numbers after 50.
Over the years, alumni have appeared as bullfighters, gladiators, convicts, Spanish toreadors, pirates, artists, cowboys, French sailors, Confederate soldiers, African hunters, chefs, firemen and tigers.
From time to time, live animals have joined the excitement. None is planned this year, as far as the Alumni Council knows.
Tradition is a key element of the P-rade, said Ms. Pedovitch, who became the youngest grand marshal five years ago and the only woman to hold that post. Five years ago, her predecessor, Joe Prather, gave her an orange-and- black pocket handkerchief to wear, and she has worn it every year since.
Ms. Pedovitch, who graduated from Princeton 20 years ago, will be marching with Mr. Rose, the father of her college roommate.
She said family ties are one of the reasons alumni remain loyal to Princeton.
Receptions will be held for alumni immediately following the P-rade, and fireworks and a concert will be held at Poe and Pardee fields beginning at 8 p.m.
Michael Pratt will conduct the Princeton University Orchestra in excerpts from Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” joined by members of the Princeton Shakespeare Company and the Princeton Katzenjammers, a vocal group. Fireworks are set to begin around 9:15 p.m.
All Princeton alumni are welcomed during Reunions Weekend. Major events are planned by graduating classes of every fifth year. Class celebrations, compete with music, entertainment, food and, well, lots and lots of beer, are held at several locations on campus, including under tents that will be set up.
Only alumni and their guests are permitted at these reunions and distinguishing wristbands are worn by those over and under the legal drinking age in an attempt to limit the amount of alcohol.