Traditions

According to the 1933-1934 student handbook, Juniors and Seniors have been participating in the tradition of "Crooking" since it was introduced in 1906 by Caroline Bury Phelps, a drama professor at Meredith. Ms. Phelps came to Meredith from Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan, where a similar tradition was in place. The Class of 1906 presented the Crook to the Class of 1907 during Class Day. That summer, the Class of 1907 obligingly hid the Crook from the Class of 1908, initiating a year-long game of hide and seek, as each class successively concealed the crook from the other, moving it as deemed necessary.

The hunt was discontinued in 1913 due to an “excess of competition” - which has been interpreted to mean that both the hiding and the finding had becoming dangerous. In the early 1910's, the Crook was hidden so that a student had to hang out of a window to retrieve it. The danger of such hiding places led to a ban on the Crook hunts from 1913 until 1929.

The tradition was re-introduced in 1929, but now with safety rules and a shorter time frame. In the 1930s and 40s - with occasional interruptions when interest in the hunt flagged - the crook was buried within mattresses, tied to roofs and rafters and ledges, tucked behind drawers in laboratories and carried up to the water tower. Hiding and finding the treasure – usually with the help of the little sister class over several weeks at night with flashlights – was still sometimes so risky to the participants that additional rules were introduced over time. Providing clues to the Junior Class was started in 1938. In the mid 1940s, the hunt was limited to just one contest, with one clue released a week for three weeks. In 1982 a one week time limit was set for the juniors' search.

At present, the Crook Hunt is a spring competition. The Senior Class hides the crook once on campus, where at least 1” of it must be visible. With the clues, the Junior Class – with no help from their little sisters - is given one week to find the prize.  In May, the Crook is carried on Class Day into the festivities by the President of the Senior Class. If members of the Junior Class have discovered its hiding place during the hunt, the Crook is decorated with a black ribbon of mourning. If it was not found, it is decorated triumphantly with a ribbon of the Senior Class’s colors. 

Dr. Jean Jackson, class of 1975 and Vice President for College Programs, is proud of the hiding place that her class used their senior year. They took down one of the short outdoor lighting lamps around the lake and had the paint matched at a hardware store. After wrapping the Crook in art paper, they painted it to match the lamp and buried it where the real lamp belonged, showing just enough of the Crook to be legal. The juniors never found it. Dr. Jackson has heard of the Crook being duct taped to the underside of one of the bridges at the lake. The tape broke loose, and the juniors discovered the Crook floating in the water. In 2002, the class of 2003 gridded the campus and divided themselves into groups. Each group was assigned to search thoroughly their section of campus. Unfortunately for them, the Crook was hidden in a section of campus near the President's house that was not gridded or searched.