Davidson College - Quips and Cranks Yearbook (Davidson, NC)

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V ' ' - f

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' Xet Learning be Cherished Where Liberty has Arisen. -The Davidson College Seal

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ORIESTATIOX, lauded as an cnUglittniny LA-ptrii iia, pruvcd otherwise. GRUESOME REALITY dawned . . . when the Orientation tests were given. In a year of innovations, Davidson College tena- ciously clung to many of the same weathered faces and conservative institutions which yet remained impervious to the flow of liberalism. The foremost of these traditional elements was the gullible fresh- man who slyly tucked his high school annual under his arm and followed his parents to the registra- tion table on the first day of Orientation. The proud alumnus beamed as his heir carefully chose his hand-blocked beanie. Little did that innocent one realize that in the weeks ahead this bit of red and black was to become his passport to campus distinction — the benign symbol of the bootblack and stud-runner. Proudly he slipped the red badge of courage onto that wee head so filled with the dreams of naivete. This was it — he was the College Man. The Orientation labyrinth, .so lauded in the college propaganda sheets as an enlightening experience, proved decisively otherwise. Long-suffering upperclass- men acted as counsellors to their bewildered charges, and they privately jotted down many pre-Rush Week notes. The chapel .seats were uncomfortable ; the audi- torium was stuffy ; there were no girls ; the reception line was endless and — Say! Was that really a girl? You don ' t mean to tell me she is only 14? Wow! What a girl! What a body! The freshmen adjusted to the norm rather quickly. Gruesome reality dawned upon many an ex-valedic- torian when the Orientation tests were given. The College Man was, after all, only three months removed from high school days and their easy glory. He began to feel homesick.