Grand March Article Published in 2005 Cabin Log

Spotting your friends among a crowd is normally an easy task, but on Mountain Day the sea of pink and blue shirts and the additional crowds of alumni, along with their spouses, babies, and dogs made finding a friend to eat with, nevertheless a place to sit a much more difficult task than any typical day. Mountain Day is anything but typical, and the Grand March is a unique experience every year. On a typical day students are creative with ways to avoid unnecessary exertion in walking to class: driving from Ford, riding the class bus, roller blades, bikes or even unicycles; however, during the Grand March on Mountain Day students line up to walk a long distance, uphill, in the sun and in a giant dust cloud.

The Grand March was the highlight of an anything but typical day. However, in the crowd with the orchestra playing it was easy to almost miss the start of the march. Lining up on the side of the hill, the girls were strategizing where to stand in line to have the best chance of holding hands with a boy. Yet, the planning did not work for some when many of the freshmen girls had to move to the boys side to compensate for the skewed ratio. While everyone was lining up questions of, “Where are we supposed to go?” and “Why am I doing this?” came not only from freshmen, but also from the upperclassmen who were finally marching for the first time. As the march got underway, the same echoes of confusion could be heard from those who did not understand what the pennies were for, and wondered why the nineteen or twenty cents was not covered by tuition. The pennies in the birthday basket actually went to the Martha Berry Memorial Endowment Fund, which was established by Miss Berry.

As everyone neared the top of the hill for the first time, girls quickly realized who was going to hold hands with a boy, and who was too far back in line. Students crept down the hill in the large crowd slowly, and students would bump into each other when the crowd would unexpectedly come to a stand still. When students turned at the bottom of the hill, some broke out into a run, while others walked slowly and created a gap in the line.

With each trip up and down the hill, the excitement of getting new people in your line was increasing, but so was the heat. Girls in long pants and heels, and guys in dress shirts and ties suffered the most, but everyone felt the effects of the summer-like weather and lack of shade. Even the girls would have to drop hands with their partners for a break to wipe their sweaty palms on their pants. As the lines grew, more and more dust was stirred up, coughing could be heard from those in the back of the line. Freshman Laura Hale said, “The dust was worse than the heat because there was no where you could go to escape it. The grass had been worn down on the entire hill, and a huge dust cloud formed.”

                On the final walk down the hill with lines of sixteen, the students in the middle of the lines were squished as the two ends of the line would push one way or another. At the bottom of the hill, the crowd was closely packed and extremely hot as everyone stood while the alma matter was sung and the pennies were presented to President Colley. As students left the hillside in search of their parents or friends, most students were glad that they had done the march, even if they planned only to do it once in their four years.

                Students have mixed opinions on the march, but most upperclassmen tell the freshmen to do the Grand March before they leave Berry, if not just for traditions sake. Sophomore Chris Adkins said, “It is a great tradition, except when you try to explain in to someone from another school, but I guess that is what makes it a good tradition.”