Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2013 | Page 40
NORTHWOODS
ADVENTURE
September 16-21, 2013
Come to HoneyRock to enjoy the beautiful
colors and weather of a Northwoods fall.
While you are here, you can participate in rich
fellowship, guided nature walks, pontoon rides,
fishing, canoeing and much, much more!
good-natured rivalry between the classes of 1953 and 1954. For months
juniors had scoured resorts to locate the retreat site. But fate intervened: a
junior followed an advance-party senior car to Jack & Jill Ranch in Michigan,
30 hours before the scheduled campus escape. That night, a dozen junior
men descended on the ranch and were chased into nearby cornfields by
camp security. Returning at dawn, they greeted the senior buses, only to be
pelted by raw eggs! When seniors returned after a delightful sneak, class
presidents Jim Anderson ’53 and Rex Roth ’54 met on campus to declare
a truce. But it would be 59 years before the truce became permanent, with
the signing of the Treaty of Embden Lane.
Only a book could do justice to the stories of the Senior Bench. One incident
occurred when the ’49ers brought it from being buried in a forest preserve
and cemented it with rebars in front of Blanchard. Juniors tow-chained it
away with a WWII jeep before the seniors recaptured it. With the bench
anchored solidly in concrete in front of the Memorial Student Center, future
scientists Wally Broecker ’53 and John Nuckolls ’53 tipped it into a trench
overnight. Mysteriously disappeared! Unamused administrators threatened
dire consequences until it reappeared. Nobody, however, has topped the
1959 helicopter flight with the bench dangling over the Homecoming football
game. However, when the bench showed up in Chapel in 1965, the ensuing
melee led to a hospital stay. Tighter oversight toned down the roughhousing
without inhibiting “that we as a campus celebrate life and build our community through a longstanding Jr.-Sr. rivalry.”
And the tradition continues with ingenious annual bench showings. Jeff Peltz
’81 was “scared to death” the four days it hid in his van for a class reunion
photo op. John Castlen ’06 recalls his class drove it in a truck past helpless
seniors at attention in ROTC formation.
So where is that iconic piece of concrete now?
Registration is now open.
Wheaton College arChives and speCial ColleCtions
Open to alumni and friends, ages 55+
10% discount for 1st time attendees
Scholarships available
For more information contact Terri Jozwiak
[email protected] or
715. 479.7474 ext. 212
wheaton.edu/HoneyRock/Groups/NWA
The Senior Cake rivalry between juniors and seniors (1925-43) has long been
abandoned, but today a plaque on the far southwest corner of Blanchard
Hall marks the spot where the cake from the class of 1938 was buried.