"Fun? Well Rather" The Diary of Virginia Clay McClure - part of the Sesquicentennial Stories Series

October 31, 1910

Faculty dance and reception – lost my souvenir, which was a programme of the exercises in honor of Prof. White.  [Illegible name] Cafers and Dr. Reynolds both made addresses, and G. Stole presided and made remarks.  Glee club gave some selections and a soloist from Sayre sang several songs.  About a thousand people there, and we had an awful time trying to serve them in the gym.  After the program, bub finally got through.  There was an awful crowd dancing in the Armory.  We stayed awhile and looked on, and then came home.  “Shiney” came in and spent the night with me and we talked until about two o’clock.  Nearly everybody had a good time.  The gym and Armory were beautifully decorated with leaves, ferns, Hallowe’en lanterns, pumpkins, etc.

*Inserted is a small clipping from a newspaper or magazine.  It reads, “If a pig were caught in a fence and it squealed and you pulled it out, merely because it bothered you, would you be committing an immoral act? Ask Poet Schultz?” 

 

Virginia's friend, "Shiney" Katharine Margaret Schoene class of 1910

Happy Halloween!

From the James Edwin "Ed" Weddle Photographic Collection, which will be online soon!

"Fun? Well Rather" The Diary of Virginia Clay McClure - part of the Sesquicentennial Stories Series

October 1910

Ruth’s New Song for the Rally

With a boom and a bang and a bing,

We’re here to make things ring.

With a jing and a jangle, a jump and a tangle,

The game will now begin.

Kerflunk! The ball they sling,

By jings that’s the thing!

It’s over the goal, they’re in the hole,

Just hear Kentucky sing-

When Kentucky’s foot-ball boys come on the field

The other team is going to have to yield!

For K.S.U. lets yell, yell, yell, yell, yell,

For Ky. State let’s “  “  “  “  “

                               “  “ like  “

And fight for every yard,

Circle ends and buck their line so hard

That we’ll leave old Central on the sword,

Rah! Rah!! Rah!!!

Oh! The moon shines tonight on poor old Tulane,

She’s got an awful pain,

We licked her in the game;

When a team goes up against Kentucky

They’re mighty lucky

To come out whole.”

Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah

Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah

Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah

Team! Team! Team!

Here comes Kentucky, the team that

Always wins in football,

And every fall, we beat them all

The stunts we’ll pull off will show old

Central how to play the game,

In all but name we’re champions now.

 

46 years ago today...

46 years ago today this photograph of the construction of White Hall Classroom Building and Patterson Office Tower was taken from the Margaret I. King Library, the current home of the Special Collections Research Center.

"Fun? Well Rather" The Diary of Virginia Clay McClure - part of the Sesquicentennial Stories Series

October 13, 1910

Freshman girls all went to town after breakfast and got their caps.  They look too cunning for anything – you see red caps everywhere, and only a few minus the red button.  Freshman took the day, marched into chapel, had songs etc.  Robinson not present, Jackson very sore and “disrespectful” to Seniors.  Duncan, Senior yell leader, was kissed by some of the green Freshman, and his “Raw” for them might be taken in another way for “Ra”, but he did it all gracefully.  Freshman pined red and yellow on all the Profs. Their yell is, “We wear red caps we do, we wear red caps we do, They may look well, they may look like hell, But we wear red caps we do.” Oh you fresh Freshies!!

 

"Fun? Well Rather" The Diary of Virginia Clay McClure - part of the Sesquicentennial Stories Series

October 12, 1910

 Very exciting time over the Freshman “little red caps with the yellow button.”  Miss Chinn excused some of us to go to the mass meeting of Sophomore, Junior, and Senior classes in chapel.  Everybody there, some music by Theising, [illegible name], and Neller, and then after it was found Freshman were willing to compromise, we left.

Coons-Atkinson

 *Pink, Wrigley’s Chewing Gum wrapper pasted in.

Chewing gum given me by the groom, shortly after the ceremony. Pearl looked very sweet -  had such a pretty suit and hat.   Emma wouldn’t see them married – couldn’t stand it.  Albert looked awfully nice, too.

Address to the girls by Miss Hamilton, after which we almost all adjourned to the Gym. To the Freshman class meeting.  Very serious and critical time, when three upper classes threaten to leave school if “Freshies” don’t wear caps.  Robinson and Jackson very stubborn.  Committee finally made a compromise by which Freshman agreed to wear the red caps, but without the “yellow button”.  Feel that they have forced the Seniors to make a great concession.  Got back at 10:30, no lessons studied, but very happy.

 

"Fun? Well Rather" The Diary of Virginia Clay McClure - part of the Sesquicentennial Stories Series

October 11, 1910

Surprise from Pearl – wasn’t expecting them to come to Lexington.

*Letter from Pearl Coons inserted here.  It reads;

At-Home

Mon. Morn.

Dear Virgie;

         Would certainly be glad to see you at the Phoenix Hotel about 1:30 P.M. this Wednesday, Oct. 12^th for I think there is going to be something doing.

Lovingly,

Pearl Coons.

Junior class meeting, and all decide to stand by Seniors and leave school if necessary.  Paper sent around to sign, which I didn’t sign.  Glad I have courage enough to face criticism – didn’t know whether I had or not.  My education means too much to me to jeopardize it so rashly.  Don’t know whether I’ve lost one who was a very dear friend or not, but guess I can stand it if I have to.

  

"Fun? Well Rather" The Diary of Virginia Clay McClure - part of the Sesquicentennial Stories Series

October 8, 1910

Went with Miss Whaley to Experiment Station and then to Transylvania.  Like State much better.

Jessie Milton persuaded me to go with her to the North Carolina game.  Therese, the optimist, perfectly happy and confident of victory. North Carolina men regular giants, and our team looked like children. No score in the first two quarters, but Shanklin made two touchdowns and kicked goal once, making the score 11 to 0 in our favor in the last two quarters.  Everybody played a grand game, especially Dick Webb and Bryan Shanklin, who is the most remarkable player I ever saw.  Somebody said N.C. would have to kill “Deaf” if they wanted to win. “Head em’ off.”

 

After supper all girls gathered in the parlor and yelled everything from, “Well, well, well” to “Rickety-rackety-russ.”!  Then had  a parade from first to second, to third floor, then down, and out in the yard, singing, “Well it looks like to me  ‘tis a shirt-tail parade.” Got on the steps and gave all the yells, and a few boys down in the yard answered us.  In a little while the “Night Shirt Parade” came – 500 boys, more or less, in night-shirts and caps, yelling, singing, beating the drum. Everybody wild with joy.

“Louisville Club” gave a reception at Patt. Hall for the two teams, but the visitors had gone. Boys came on with their night-shirts on, and all had a flash-light picture in the dining-room.  Prof. White says he can’t go to the match games, because he gets so excited he doesn’t get over it for a week or two.

*Inserted here is a small card with a comic and the title ‘Louisville Club’.  It reads “Don’t foul, don’t shirk, But hit the line hard” – C.R.

That is what our fellows do, and the other team finds it out sooner or later, to their infinite discomfort and regret.  “We run this place, we do,” and other places, too.

*A similar card with the same title but a different comic is inserted here.  It reads, “ Their course in Latin grammar, They consider “hard as sin,”, But one subject quite delights them, ‘Tis the gender feminine.”