In today’s modern society, we often face the fall of traditions, as old practices are deemed obsolete or impractical and are replaced with more efficient ways of doing things or abandoned altogether. Despite this ever-strengthening trend, this past weekend has shown that Dartmouth traditions are alive and well. This Saturday night, campus received a blitz from none other than Theodore Geisel’s Dartmouth alumni account that read:
Snow! There’s snow! There’s lots of snow!
Lots and lots of snow to throw!
You can throw it if you’re cold,
You can throw it if you’re old,
You can throw it if you’re young
You can throw it with your tongue!
You can throw it on The Green,
You can throw it at your dean!
If in the BEMA you get lost,
Throw your snow at Robert Frost!
At midnight there will be a fight!
A snowball fight this very night!
Come jump and shout and sing and dance!
Come put snow down someone’s pants!
Come and throw some snow with me,
You will like it, you will see!
~Dr. Seuss
The strangely early snowfall this weekend resulted in more than gleeful Facebook status updates and #snowing tweets, as campus gathered on the green in the middle of the night to celebrate. Nothing really says class unity like hundreds of students pelting each other with tightly packed balls of ice!
While the “fight” is all in good fun and celebration of the turning of seasons, the action is very real. As I set out for the green with my friends to take part in this classic experience, we were ambushed by a group of upperclassmen that take this chance every year to initiate the freshmen in their own special way. If my stinging red face had anything to say about traditions, Dear old Dartmouth, set a watch indeed. Combined with the strong showing from the freshmen class in touching the fire and rushing the field like legends, this most recent display of tradition clearly demonstrated that our culture is strong and timeless in the face of modern homogenization of college and world cultures.
—Wills Russell
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