Rumor has it that the College seeks to acquire the old National Guard Armory located near the College boathouse on the Chester River. I'm sure there must be a good reason for this but surely it cannot include use of the building itself as I can tell you that it was a very worn facility when I was last in it - nearly 40 years ago.
Why, you ask, was a Washington College student so often a visitor to the Armory in the middle of the Vietnam war when few self-respecting students would normally be caught dead in a military institution? I thought you'd never ask.
I and a great many other students went very regularly to the Armory for what were euphemistically called "dances." You see, Student Affairs- current Student Affairs Office take note - the College prohibited alcohol on campus so "dances" could not be held there. So the Student Government sponsored off campus affairs at the Armory. And what affairs they were!
Whavt were considered to be big name groups were brought in. The popular genre of the era was an urban Afro-American style known as "Motown" and there are no more popular examples than the all-girl Shirelles ( "Mama Said" , "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?," and "Dedicated to the One I Love" ) and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles ("I Second that Emotion" and "You've Really Got a Hold on Me"). I think Smokey himself is STILL touring! They were really big acts and a lot of money was spent to bring them to the College - uh - the Armory. But they were not in concert; they were playing for a "dance."
Students went to the dance accompanied with every form of alcoholic beverage: beer, of course, but also scotch, vodka, bourbon, even cheap grain alcohol to mix with orange juice, cranberry juice, or whatever else was available.
Folks, it was not pretty. But I will NOT try to explain a scene of a large number of people who have had too much to drink. To explain such a thing to a college student of today-or any day - is superfluous. Suffice it to say that people (many people) got loaded (very loaded) and then little attention (very little attention) was paid to the music. There is no record of what the performers thought of all of this.
And then we all piled into cars for the drive through town back to campus. I wonder at the forbearance of the Chestertown Police and wonder if they would be so reticent today. I recall no serious accidents - I can't imagine why. But I can only think we were very lucky. So I hope it is not the College's intention to recreate the legendary "Armory dance" - unless the Maryland National Guard will throw in a bus for Safe Ride to get everyone home.
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