100 years of paw - February 23, 2000

Princeton Alumni Weekly remembers
Selections from our first century of publication

February 22, 1984

The inspiration for the cover of this annual special economics issue came from the board game "Trivial Pursuit," a new campus fad. At the time, the game sold for $38, and students ordering it through the U-Store had to get on a waiting list.

February 28, 1917

Wolves at the Junior Prom

For some unknown reason a man who goes alone to a dance is called a "Stag," although he resembles nothing so little as he does his stately namesake. To see the long, uneven, closely huddled ranks of the "stag" line at a prom. and to watch them dart out onto the floor for a few minutes and then back to their fellows again,-they are more like a great pack of hungry but thoroughly tame and harmless wolves. Every fellow thinks that his girl at a prom. is the best one there, but the "stags" divide all the guests into two classes, the "good" girls and the ones who "have not got it." . . . The poor girls who "have not got it" are paraded up and down the "stag" line, around and around the fat tiger which guards the island, and finally surrendered at the chaperones' box to the youths who stand sponsor for them.

February 22, 1946

Married students

Of the 500 students who have returned from war service to begin or resume their studies, seventy-seven are married. . . . For better or for worse, all married couples have a roof over their heads. . . . the University has turned over Upper and Lower Pyne, Gateway Club and its freshman houses on University Place. . . . The major inadequacy of these housing arrangements is a place to cook something-a serious lack considering the meager budgets of most couples and the price of restaurant meals. . . . Parents and older friends have expressed distress at the lack of privacy afforded by the accommodations. This does not seem to bother the couples so much. As one veteran put it: "Privacy is something this generation doesn't know anything about."

February 29, 1952

In short

Three PJ&B coaches [Princeton Junction and Back, i.e., the Dinky] were decorated last week with the inscription "P'55" daubed on their sides in orange paint. The culprits have been apprehended, but their fate is undetermined. What really irked the Pennsylvania Railroad was that the scriveners had worked with enamel paint, impossible to remove until the cars could be moved to a roundhouse. Estimated cost of joke: $500 to $600.

February 26, 1960

On the campus

The Director of Admission reported the other day that a record 5,700 boys are seeking admission to next year's freshman class. This cascade of would-be Tigers represents an increase of over 1,000 applicants from last year, and is attributed to something known frighteningly as the "war babies." For years, the present body of Princeton undergraduates has been made uncomfortably aware of the "war babies" breathing down its collective back.

No one knows why, but there was apparently something sacred about being born during the war, for the approach of its infants has always been treated like the second coming. "The war babies will be along soon," laughed our teachers in elementary school "The war babies are coming," cried gleeful prep-school masters, flinging bits of confetti into the air. And now, 5,700 of them have applied for the Class of '64. Next September , diapers secure, bayonets drawn, 800 of them will march onto campus, the most resented class in the history of Princeton.

February 25, 1975

Bad Vibrations

During a concert given last November by the Beach Boys, a popular rock group, the audience in Jadwin Gym began stomping its feet in rhythm to the music. The resulting vibrations caused the building's steel support columns to sway and made the front doors swing open and close by themselves. A subsequent study by engineers found no structural damage, but concluded that since the gym's floor is flexible, another foot-stomping concert could do harm to the building. So the university has banned rock in Jadwin, pending an investigation to determine whether the floor can be stiffened at reasonable cost. Concerts not evoking a rhythmic response from the audience will be allowed.

February 24, 1988

Drinking incident

In an incident that made headlines nationwide, seven university students were hospitalized and dozens more were treated for alcohol poisoning after initiation parties at the eating clubs on February 6. Following hard upon the death of a Rutgers student from excessive drinking at a fraternity party, the Princeton incident caused both the university and the clubs to reevaluate their alcohol policies.Sign-ins weekend, when sophomores join the thirteen upperclass clubs, has traditionally been one of the highlights of the Princeton social calendar, and the amount of beer and liquor consumed usually rivals spring houseparties. This year, club officials concede, drinking "got out of control" at a number of clubs, especially Charter Club and Cloister Inn.

To order the best of paw

The Best of paw is a 448-page anthology edited by former PAW editor Jim Merritt '66. The anthology will celebrate the history, traditions, character, and culture of Princeton and will be available this summer. To order, send $35pp to Best of PAW, Princeton Alumni Weekly, 194 Nassau St., Princeton, NJ 08542. (See ad on page 32.)

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