Traditions

Billy Astro

Billy Astro is the name of the Mascot of the Astrotekton Society. Billy is a two-foot high goat made of papier-mache. He was made around 1980 and is passed down to the new leaders of the Society each year.

Flossie Mae

In addition to the Meredith Angel, another mascot was Flossie Mae Wooten. Flossie Mae was a child-sized mannequin adopted as the class mascot by the class of 1977. The class found her in a dumpster outside of a department store while looking for props, and used her in the 1975 Cornhuskin'.

Junior Class Jackets

In 1954, a campus newspaper headline happily announced, “Meredith Blazers Are Back.” The purchase of a  Meredith blazer (or jacket or sweater) was an occasional tradition of the Junior Class. The tradition began in about 1930 and continued throughout the decade, reappeared after World War II – and then re-reappeared in 1954, but only for a few years. The class members chose the style and color of the garment, but tradition dictated the inclusion of the Meredith "Lux" seal and the class year numbers. In yearbook photographs, students occasionally appear in their jackets, but in 1945, 1946, and 1947, the senior class collectively wore their jackets for their senior photos. In the Archives at Campbell Carlyle Library, we have jackets from the Classes of 1935, 1954 and 1957.

May Day

In the first part of 20th century, festivals celebrating May Day were popular spring celebrations, especially at women’s colleges, including  the North Carolina schools: Bennet College, Salem College, Flora McDonald College and Women’s College at Greensboro (now UNCG.) Meredith College was no exception.

During the earliest years of Meredith College, May Day celebrations were apparently simple events - if anything happened at all. It was at least a day to note: in the 1905 yearbook, a calendar of events for the past academic year simply lists “May Day” on May 1st, but there is no description of what that entailed.  

More attention, perhaps, was given to annual Field Day celebrations sponsored by the Physical Education Department. Held in early May, individuals and classes demonstrated their athletic accomplishments and competed for blue or red ribbons and monogram letters in gymnastic exercises, races and games. As part of the celebrations, the day might also include a “May Pole Drill” and a “May Day Gallop.” The accompanying photo from the 1918 Oak Leaves shows a May Pole on the downtown campus near the Main Building.

Things changed after the campus moved from downtown to the “Tucker Farm” location on the outskirts of Raleigh. The May 6, 1927 Twig declared that this was the year of a true celebration, one not confined to the cramped grounds of the downtown campus. While still under the auspices of the physical education department, the field day exercises transitioned to a celebration of spring and beauty. Meredith College now had room for the procession of the May Court (made up of representatives from each class), “aesthetic” dance performances in appropriate costumes, flower girls and a crown bearer, the winding of the May Pole by the freshmen class, and finally the coronation of the Queen on her throne.

This festival would be the template for decades of May Days to come. In the 1930s, the daily festivities also came to include a breakfast presentation to the college president of a basket of flowers and a song performance by the seniors. The “little sisters” of even classes would place May Day baskets on the doors of their “big sisters.” Year after year, the Oak Leaves and the Twig contain photographs and accounts of the annual May Day court and celebrations, taking place on the central quadrangle, in the Grove among the oak trees, or in the amphitheater.

Over the years, updates to the festivities included the addition of a theme, a tie-in with a Hospitality Weekend for dozens of visiting high school students, a Maid of Honor, short plays, folk and modern dances, a horse show, choral performances, tours of the Home Management House and a fashion show by the Home Economics Department, and even the re-introduction of a May Pole.  However, in the changing cultural atmosphere of the late 1960s and 70s, students began to question the appeal of such a seemingly frivolous beauty contest. For a couple years in the early 1970s, the name was changed variously to the Celebration of Spring Festival or Spring Court or SPRINGS and the dancing and themes became decidedly more modern.

In a 1975 editorial in the Twig newspaper, editor Allyn Vogel argues for the abolition of the “pseudo-festival.”  She noted that while alumnae were reported to love the event, they were rarely in attendance. That even if the criteria for inclusion on the court was expanded to include “personality, participation and scholarship,” it still required “ten girls in pristine gowns posed on a rostrum” before friends and family. Furthermore, Vogel argued, all tradition, beginning with this one needed to be re-evaluated. But despite, or perhaps because of the changes, after 1975, May Day celebrations had ended on the Meredith College campus. 

Palio

In 1935 a new tradition, called Palio, was added to Stunt day at Meredith College. Palio is a traditional Sienese festival. However, Meredith College adopted this tradition and made it their own. After classes on Saturday ended at noon, the students paraded down the main campus drive and then participated in a “horse race.” The women pretended to be horses instead of using real horses for the race. There were papier-mache horse heads on broomsticks "ridden" by students, and faculty impersonations with papier-mache heads made to look like different members of the administration. The event was run by Helen Price, Professor of Latin and Greek, and by Meredith Athletic Association (now called Meredith Entertainment Association). According to Ms. Caroline Robinson, each class would pick a theme for the parade and dress appropriately. She also enjoyed the songs that the students wrote and sang in the parade. According to Dr. Dorothy Preston, class of 1954, many students did not like Palio. During the parade, many young men from N.C. State University came to watch the events. The young women of Meredith did not like being seen by the men while they were riding broomsticks and parading in horses' heads of papier-mache. The Meredith students continued the tradition out of their respect and affection for Dr. Price in spite of such awkward situations.

Play Day

According to Dr. Knight, Play Day was a day when faculty and students took half the day off from classes to gather in the courtyard and play games. She believes President Campbell introduced it in 1940-1941. The students would compete against the faculty in games such as softball and checkers. They would also jump rope and end the afternoon with a picnic for all. A Duke of Play Day was selected from among the faculty and a Duchess from the students. Ms. Robinson remembers playing tennis, croquet, badminton, volleyball, and running three-legged races. Dr. Jackson remembers when activities were more extreme. One year, a wrecked car was towed onto the courtyard and students could pay for the opportunity to paint a person's name on the car and whack it with a stick. Not only was this a fund-raiser for on-campus groups, but also a great way to relieve stress. Although Play Day is no longer celebrated, its memory lives on in some of the activities in present celebrations of Stunt.