Grinnell College traditions

Kudryavka
Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:28:36 +0000

10/10, Mary Be James, Chains, Drag Show (which is tomorrow, incidentally), etc. We like our parties so much that we have the same ones every year.

10/10 might be the biggest party of the year. It’s held on the Saturday closest to 10/10 for pragmatic reasons. I like to describe it as a bunch of drunk people taking a campus tour. It’s a moving party that starts at North Campus, goes up, over, and back around. The single thing everyone will be talking about the next morning will be “how far did you get”, and they don’t mean with the opposite sex. Most people get tired before the party actually ends, and it’s always tempting to go to your room and sleep when the party gets to your dorm.

Mary Be James is, uh, kind of self-explanatory. It’s a little sketchy, but it’s fun.

Drag Show is like Mary Be James with a runway. It’s less of a party and more of a show, and it’s basically impossible to get seats for it.

Chains is a party where they handcuff people together based on suggestions sent to the party organizers by other students. Both people have to agree to be chained together, but they don’t know who they’re agreeing to be chained to until it happens. It’s kind of funny, but most people don’t actually stay chained more than a few minutes, which kind of ruins it.

Myths? I’ve heard that tons of Grinnellians get married to each other after graduation. I don’t think it’s actually true, though, at least no more than any other college like it.

Also, you didn’t mention it, but catch phrases, or maybe inside jokes, that get brought up a lot on campus: “the train”, “foam machine”, “yellow bikes”, “limestone”, etc. Definitely a big part of campus culture.