P-Rading down the years

A colonially-dressed man in a horse-drawn carriage, a firetruck tooting a melody on an organ and thousands of old men in bright funny clothes. What kind of circus is this? The reunions P-Rade is undoubtably deserving of the moniker "greatest show on earth," and it is a sight to behold. Brimming with pride for their alma mater, hordes of Princetonians mingle in reunion in wide bands around the central artery of campus, Elm Drive, through which the grand parade progresses.

Hearing sporadic cheers for particularly vibrant classes, it's clear there is inevitably a direct correlation between the brightness of an orange jacket and the width of the smile upon the bearer's face. As the classes walk past your field of vision they seem to grow younger against the passing of the years, beginning with that lone fellow from the Class of 1925 and reaching the climax with the 2006 grads, old men returning to their youth. After continual bursts of rain throughout much the day, the skies finally parted, the sun shone down and a rain-soaked Princeton campus reveled.

Also, an update for Princeton sports fans, we've just heard that the men's heavyweights, ranked No. 1 all season, fell to Cal by a slight margin at IRA nationals today, ending a dominant season just shy of a gold medal. A web update on the main page will follow soon.

-- Tyler Woulfe '07, Princetonian executive editor