Protesting
I believe I witnessed the end of a tradition tonight.
There is a field between the two 'big' freshmen dorms on campus here. It's sort of an anti-hill, actually. It slopes down around all the edges. In the winter, though, they make it into a sort of ice rink by spraying water into it and letting it freeze. Because of this, we usually refer to it as a body of water, not a field, even in non-freezing seasons. The specific name depends on one thing, one event.
The tug of war.
Specifically, a tug of war that takes place between Independence Hall and Gay Hall during Homecoming. This has been going on for quite a few years, since the 1970s, I think. There's a trash can lid that serves as a trophy, that has a record of all the victories. More importantly, the hall that wins the tug gets to name the lake for the rest of the year. They are typically unimaginative and name it either "Gay Lake" or "Indy Pond". While Indy had traditionally been in the lead, in recent years Gay has stepped up their recruiting campaign and had caught up. Last year Gay tied it up, so this year was the tie breaker.
I live in Pine Hall, the 'other' freshmen dorm (it is obviously open to returning students as well), which is completely excluded from the competition. There have been attempts in the past to voice displeasure at our disenfranchisement, including trying to disrupt the event, but last year our hall managed to strike a chord. We protested the war, with a banner reading, "Pine for Peace."
I unfortunately was not there, but a few people went, and brought their sign, and protested. The effect was profound. There was a surprising amount of anger, to the point of one person actually forming a noose with the rope and showing it to the protesters.
So of course we did it again this year.
We had a lot more people this time, because we were better organized and prepared. We made signs, and planned chants. We tried to recruit people from the non-freshmen halls. We even had someone with a guitar and a harmonica playing some Bob Dylan. I formed the "I" in a PINE4☮ shirtless male line up. At halftime during the Powderpuff game, practically the entire crowd took to the field for the tug, and we stood in the middle and protested. We were vastly outnumbered. The two teams were easily more than 100 each. But during the game we had been just as loud or louder than any of them, shouting out slogans and singing songs.
Unfortunately, the war began despite our best efforts. The two teams dug down and pulled with equal might. For a few seconds, the knot in the middle shifted slightly back and forth. And then....
POP!
It sounded like a large balloon popping. Both teams fell back. We started cheering, because something had obviously gone wrong. From the back of both lines, people started celebrating, assuming that they had won. In truth, of course, the rope had snapped. It was chaos, until people started figuring out what had happened. Then we saw that some people who had fallen down hadn't gotten up. The sheer force of the rope snapping and then being pulled by people in the back had ripped the rope from the hands of the people in front. The rope was also unraveling as it flew back at high speed. Eventually, we all cleared the field as ambulances began to show up. One person that we all know from Pine last year who pulled for Indy couldn't move his fingers, and they were beginning to turn black and blue. There's a freshmen living in Pine who had been second or third in line, and got taken to the hospital.
It's the talk of the halls now, and I'm sure will be for some time. There's a lot of questions about what the result is going to be, how the people who are hurt are doing, and what will happen next year. It's pretty clear that things are going to change. I suspect that they'll reduce it quite a bit, probably have designated teams instead of having everyone who wants to participate. It's one of those things, though, that you know was important. At least locally. It's interesting that it happened now, of all times. It's a bit odd, that the record was tied, and our hall was preaching to everyone that we shouldn't have a war, that we should seek peace instead. I suppose our message takes on a bit of a different tone now.
There is a field between the two 'big' freshmen dorms on campus here. It's sort of an anti-hill, actually. It slopes down around all the edges. In the winter, though, they make it into a sort of ice rink by spraying water into it and letting it freeze. Because of this, we usually refer to it as a body of water, not a field, even in non-freezing seasons. The specific name depends on one thing, one event.
The tug of war.
Specifically, a tug of war that takes place between Independence Hall and Gay Hall during Homecoming. This has been going on for quite a few years, since the 1970s, I think. There's a trash can lid that serves as a trophy, that has a record of all the victories. More importantly, the hall that wins the tug gets to name the lake for the rest of the year. They are typically unimaginative and name it either "Gay Lake" or "Indy Pond". While Indy had traditionally been in the lead, in recent years Gay has stepped up their recruiting campaign and had caught up. Last year Gay tied it up, so this year was the tie breaker.
I live in Pine Hall, the 'other' freshmen dorm (it is obviously open to returning students as well), which is completely excluded from the competition. There have been attempts in the past to voice displeasure at our disenfranchisement, including trying to disrupt the event, but last year our hall managed to strike a chord. We protested the war, with a banner reading, "Pine for Peace."
I unfortunately was not there, but a few people went, and brought their sign, and protested. The effect was profound. There was a surprising amount of anger, to the point of one person actually forming a noose with the rope and showing it to the protesters.
So of course we did it again this year.
We had a lot more people this time, because we were better organized and prepared. We made signs, and planned chants. We tried to recruit people from the non-freshmen halls. We even had someone with a guitar and a harmonica playing some Bob Dylan. I formed the "I" in a PINE4☮ shirtless male line up. At halftime during the Powderpuff game, practically the entire crowd took to the field for the tug, and we stood in the middle and protested. We were vastly outnumbered. The two teams were easily more than 100 each. But during the game we had been just as loud or louder than any of them, shouting out slogans and singing songs.
Unfortunately, the war began despite our best efforts. The two teams dug down and pulled with equal might. For a few seconds, the knot in the middle shifted slightly back and forth. And then....
POP!
It sounded like a large balloon popping. Both teams fell back. We started cheering, because something had obviously gone wrong. From the back of both lines, people started celebrating, assuming that they had won. In truth, of course, the rope had snapped. It was chaos, until people started figuring out what had happened. Then we saw that some people who had fallen down hadn't gotten up. The sheer force of the rope snapping and then being pulled by people in the back had ripped the rope from the hands of the people in front. The rope was also unraveling as it flew back at high speed. Eventually, we all cleared the field as ambulances began to show up. One person that we all know from Pine last year who pulled for Indy couldn't move his fingers, and they were beginning to turn black and blue. There's a freshmen living in Pine who had been second or third in line, and got taken to the hospital.
It's the talk of the halls now, and I'm sure will be for some time. There's a lot of questions about what the result is going to be, how the people who are hurt are doing, and what will happen next year. It's pretty clear that things are going to change. I suspect that they'll reduce it quite a bit, probably have designated teams instead of having everyone who wants to participate. It's one of those things, though, that you know was important. At least locally. It's interesting that it happened now, of all times. It's a bit odd, that the record was tied, and our hall was preaching to everyone that we shouldn't have a war, that we should seek peace instead. I suppose our message takes on a bit of a different tone now.