Word: treeing
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Since the Twenties, many of the more extravagant features of Class Day have been sternly laid away by the authorities. The confetti battles in the Stadium and the infamous dirty joke contests at the Tree have both vanished, as did the 19th century spiked punch tradition. During the war, Class Day itself was submerged. But it has since risen with surprising vigor, and some of its ancient and less decorous traditions may even be revived...
Liquor also was used to lubricate the famous Tree Exercises on occasion. This tree stood between Harvard Hall, Hollis, and Holden Chapel; around 1815, seniors used to gather around it to sing and give cheers for such individuals as the president or a favorite janitor at the direction of the marshal. Later on, all classes joined hands and whirled in dizzy circles around the tree, "till all the college is swaying in the unwieldy ring," as Lowell reported it. A wreath of flowers was hung from one branch, and there were horse battles among the crowd to reach the wreath...
...violence of the scramble for the flowers came under severe attack late in the century, and was finally abolished in 1899. The Tree Exercises remained in watered down form until late in the 1920s. For a time, the tree was the scene of unofficial ceremonies built around a dirty story contest; women were strictly barred, but many of them used to sneak late the lower floors of Yard buildings and listen in through half-closed windows. This too was finally forbidden...
...police had disappeared from Nanking's streets; many had put on civilian clothes. A wave of looting swept the city. A mob swarmed up the long, fir-tree-lined driveway to President Li's grey brick home. A ragged boy shoved a porcelain sink through a smashed door panel to three of his friends outside. Li's housekeeper helped the looters take out scrolls and furniture, explained: 'The sooner they clean out the place the better. Then I will have peace...
...group is that of George H. Thomas, "the old gray mare of the Union," a Virginia-born artilleryman who commanded infantry and was certain that the chief role of the big guns was to give the footsloggers a hand. Wearing his finest uniform, "all togged out like a Christmas tree," the famed Rock of Chickamauga "rode along the line, bellowing in a voice audible to every man within a hundred yards that help was coming; all they had to do was keep down and shoot...