Taylor Memorial Library Archives: Archives Blog

All-College Weekend

Centenary’s students have already finished their semester, but in years past the students were gearing up for (or winding down from) All-College Weekend.

The Country Trio perform at the Hootenanny.

The All-College Weekend was a popular event for students back when the school was all-girls. Dancing was the main event – there were two (a semiformal and an informal)! There was also musical entertainment. Performers included singing groups or men’s university choral groups.

The Princeton Nassoons.

Centenary held several All-College events throughout the year where students from every class could join in on the fun. Normally, dances were held by individual classes (for example, before the Winter All-College Weekend was created, there was a Senior-hosted dance in December and a Freshman-hosted dance in January), so All-College events were a time where all students could socialize together. There was also Dad’s Day, where students and their dads teamed up to win relay races, egg tosses, and other fun carnival-type games. Other All-College events were the song contest and the trophy contest – where sororities competed against one another for best song and best essay, respectively.

                                        

The December All-College Weekend wasn’t about competition, though. It was purely a winter themed weekend of fun and flirting. Buses of young men from area colleges and universities all swarmed the campus for the weekend. They had a separate dormitory reserved for them or rooms in private homes or hotels.

          From the 1964 Hack Yearbook:

         All-college weekend, a yuletide affair
         Contained music, dancing and entertainment to spare.
         A movie was shown “An Affair to Remember,”
        Which warmed students’ hearts in the cold of December.
        There was a casual dance and a semiformal one,
        Which afforded the students and faculty fun.
        For added amusement was a hootenanny show
        With entertainment that was raring to go.
        Snowed Inn, the theme, was played to the hilt;
        Even in Reeves a ski lodge was built :
        A fantasy erected before students’ eyes
        Beheld a weekend memory never to disguise.