I REMEMBER

CREATING TRADITION

Alice Dunning Flick '03

I remember, especially, the last two weeks of the college year preceding commencement when the Seniors sang their class songs. An early issue of the Kalends says this was one of the first customs adopted by the students of the "infant" Woman's College of Baltimore.
At seven o'clock each evening during the two weeks, the Seniors wearing their caps and gowns stood on the east steps of Goucher Hall and sang their class songs to the members of the other classes and friends promenading on the lawn.
Most of the words of the songs were written by members of the Senior Class and told of the achievements and honors won by the class but they were song to popular tunes of the day. Edith Powell (Pringle) of the class of 1903 wrote:

One evening in May, 1900, when the Seniors had finished singing, something new was added to the program, a lantern chain. In caps and gowns, which then were secured early in the Freshman year and worn to class and to chapel, the Freshmen, carrying lighted Chinese lanters, marched from the east door of Goucher Hall to the court between Fensal and Vingolf Halls and there demonstrated the results of hours spent in drilling to form figures such as W.C.B. '04 or '05. One incident marred the first performance; a high wind blew out the light of some of the candles in the paper lanterns and they were hard to re-light "on the march." Future Freshman classes remedied the difficulty by having metal and glass lanterns made in the class colors for Frshman Lantern Chain.
After the final Senior Sing on the evening of Class Day, the Ivy Oration was delivered by a member of the Senior Class who had been chosen by her classmates to write and give the oration. Then the class ivy was planted by the president of the class, for the odd numbered classes, on the south side of the east entrance of Goucher Hall and, for the even numbered classes, on the north side of the entrance. The ivy was planted with the hope that it would keep the memory of the class green in the heart of the College and "as the ivy adds beauty to the college walls so may the members of the class as they attain their best development adorn the name of the College with increasing honor and glory." (Quoted from the ivy oration given by Anna Haslup on the evening of June 1, 1903.)