The Monday after a big weekend's "Toe to Toe" is always one that promises to be entertaining. Last spring, after Green Key weeekend, Hodes and I had a "Pong vs. Beirut" showdown. Needless to say, Hodes went down in flames that Monday -- I'll admit, I still, to this day, cannot figure out what possessed Hodes to argue the notion that Beirut is a superior game to Pong, especially considering the school we attend. Anyway, I digress. This week's column debates a topic central to Homecoming -- that is, which is a bigger Homecoming event: the bonfire or the football game?
While I'd like to believe that everyone, like this writer, is a football fanatic -- and that an in-depth X's and O's discussion about football would leave people convinced -- I'm not naive or misguided. The football game is a superior Homecoming event for a variety of different reasons, the first couple of which certainly have nothing to do with the football game.
For starters, the bonfire's appeal tempers each subsequent year after one's freshman experience. I will admit, the atmosphere is still exhilarating, but it is just not the same experience as a senior as it was when I was an impressionable, keyed-up freshman running pell-mell around a bonfire with upperclassmen screaming everything from encouragement to drunken obscenities at me. As a sophomore, I was still excited for the event, but it just was not the same.
Secondly, what does the bonfire ultimately accomplish for the school? Yes, I realize that it is considered by many to be sacred, and that it is an event rooted in Dartmouth's rich tradition. When it comes down to it, though, it is nothing more than a fun event that has no lasting positive effects.
Now that I've hopefully undressed Hodes's bonfire argument, let's move on to the real star of the Homecoming weekend calendar: the football game. The appeal of the bonfire, as I elucidated above, is more or less limited to the enjoyment one can glean from harassing out-of-control, vulnerable freshmen who are confusedly sprinting around a large, smoldering structure. During the football game, it's easy to socialize -- everyone who is "anyone" is there for at least a small amount of time, and it is not impossible to hear the person sitting next to you because of either the loud smoldering of the fire or the obnoxious person next to you who gets just a little too much enjoyment out of telling freshmen that they are the "worst class ever."
Lastly, each year, a few brave freshmen give fans some quality entertainment by rushing the field. I'll admit, considering I never would have done so myself, I felt extremely hypocritical on Saturday as I screamed, "rush the field," but nonetheless continued to do so and was rewarded when those valiant freshmen (big props, whatever your names may be) sprinted across the field. Though I would have enjoyed an on-field chase more, the end result was certainly satisfying enough -- particularly so given how smug Safety and Security and the Hanover Police looked as they stared the student section down from their prominent positions on the track as we all chanted, "Rush the field!"
