and contagion
(Riot of 1952)
'Twas a charged day, restless students
Friday afternoon, pep rally
Students charged some more, someone said
"Mainstreet"
Up from the stadium they marched
11th Street full, walk to walk
Turned down "O" Street, now five blocks crowd
Forty thousand strong
Student riot they said, uncontrolled
But as riots go, really calm
No cars overturned, none were burned
Windows and garbage stood
Marching on, singing as they went
"On Nebraska, good old Nebraska U..."
Up 17th, to the dorm row,
Pace quickened
Boy's dorms were left, frat houses right
Further north, girl's residences
Doors locked windows shut, were no bar
Panty raid!
There the boys raided at will, sigh
Underwear first, then some trinkets
Fun by all, girls too, no one hurt
No one arrested
- Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2020, All Rights Reserved
- I'm linked with Magaly Guerrero at Weekly Scribbling, https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2020/03/weekly-scribblings-9-contagion.html?m=1
- Magaly"s suggestion was that we use "“Contagion”—social contagion, or metaphorical contagion, or biological contagion… the choice is yours."
From a google search:
"Social contagion is the spread of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors from person to person and among larger groups as affected by shared information and mimicry.Jul 15, 2014 ;"
and
"'Anonymity, suggestibility and contagion' tend to arouse emotions. In crowd situation inhibitions are forgotten, and people become 'charged' to act."
- There are some exaggerations here. I do not know how many students were out, it was sidewalk to sidewalk for several blocks.
Hi Jim, your linked back to the Weekly Scribblings post, so I found the poem here and fixed the link for you.
ReplyDeleteNot sure I should have, now I've seen the piece! Panty raids belong in the past, I think.
I don't recall any such daring actions as panty raids being acceptable in UK back in the 1950's when attending an Art collage there (luckily) or else arrests would have bound to have been made!
ReplyDelete"Mobs," even panty-raid mobs, get carried along by emotions of their own.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of panty-raids is such a terrifying one to me--the invasion, what it suggested about a woman being able to protect her person and her possessions... I'm glad that in this poem things didn't go anywhere.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what Rosemary and Magical Mystical Teacher said.
Please also see my response to your comment at the PSU blog.
ReplyDeletePanty-raids! It seems that pranks of every kind prevailed in every era, your poem addresses this eloquently.
ReplyDeleteA bit frightening to think what could happen, but I think most of these were meant to be harmless fun. But it wouldn’t hold up today I think! Btw, the link you left on my “Artistic Interpretations” does not work
ReplyDeleteThanks Margaret ~~ I pulled it off to rewrite, almost entirely. My afternoon project. Sorry, I don't want no start with what I have.
ReplyDeleteBest Wishes on the new endeaver!!!
We had something much different when I went to school and nothing I wish to reminiscence.
ReplyDeleteAt the church-sponsored university I briefly attended, there was a tradition of sort of "vegan panty-raid analogues." (Seventh-Day Adventists invented those "vegan meat analogues" like Morningstar Farms Breakfast Patties.) The only thing that made it a violation of rules was that instead of giving their names to the front desk girl and waiting in the parlor for someone to come out and meet them, boys ran through the unlocked doors leading past the parlor, which only girls were supposed to enter without being announced, and then ran through the corridors yelling "Raid!" Most girls' doors were shut and stayed shut but some girls (girlfriends of raiders, or pathetic and desperate types) stepped out into the corridors. A lot of raucous laughter might have disturbed some people's sleep. The stampede through every corridor might have lasted fifteen minutes. No harm was done. Nevertheless the administration had decided these things were sexist, because in a previous year some girls had "raided" the boys' dorm and some boys had thought they were supposed to "defend themselves" rather than laugh, so of about a hundred masked "raiders" four were caught and officially made examples by being suspended during exam week. Thinking how silly it was, how some kids just seemed to want drama and conflict in their lives, was one of the last normal-thought memories I have before suspending myself from exams by sinking into barely-conscious mononucleosis mode.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memories...sort of... :-)