When an email arrived announcing Mountain Day at our alma mater, my college roommate and I happened to be visiting together in a small town in Wisconsin. To mark the occasion around the world, we alumnae were asked to meet for ice cream at designated shops in major cities precisely at 18:37, the hour that corresponds to the year our institution was founded.
The likelihood of finding other fellow alumnae in a town of 2,500 was remote, but Sandra’s and my interest in marking the day was strong. At 6:37PM local time we reported to the nearby Dairy Ripple, bought two ice cream cones, and had our photo taken in front of the store sign to prove our participation in this long-standing college tradition. For cultivating school loyalty, sports teams and mascots are an obvious draw. People follow high school records, tailgate at reunion games, and show their affiliation by wearing team hats and flying flags. Meeting for ice cream hardly sounds like a crowd-pleaser, but for my college, it may be the roots of this practice that sustains its repetition.
When Mary Lyon founded Mount Holyoke Seminary, she broke new ground by off ering scholarly education for women. Not only were students provided a rigorous curriculum, however; they were also required to walk at least a mile a day. Considering this holistic approach, perhaps it is not so unusual that in 1838, Mary Lyon established a school holiday dedicated to enjoying the natural beauty of outdoors. To do this, the entire student body was urged to climb to the summit of the mountain after which the Seminary was named.
Each autumn, we students wondered when Mountain Day would cancel classes and release us into the beauty of a New England fall fairyland, capped off by a sweet treat at the mountain’s summit.
Across the years, these memories are resurrected, a simple tradition passed among us one ice cream gathering to the next. (c)
