Founder’s Day: Marston Quad Gets a Makeover

A rainbow of tables set up for the celebration

As has been well documented already here on the blog, Sunday was the big 125th anniversary Founder’s Day celebration!  Despite the many emails sent out to the student body about the event, I didn’t know exactly what was going to be there for the big shebang.  It was quite delightful, then, on Thursday when all of the sudden a carousel was constructed in the middle of the quad for our (viewing-only) pleasure.  It wasn’t until Saturday evening and Sunday morning that all of the excitement began to emerge in the form of stages being put up and dozens of colorful umbrellas blooming across the grass.  This was to be a party like Martson Quad had likely never seen before. When I made my way down on Sunday afternoon, it was to the sights of colorful décor, the sounds of interesting music, and the delicious smells of pretzels and churros.

My little brother admiring a frog at the reptile exhibit

I, however, did not get to take part in much that happened on the quad because I was involved in another aspect of the celebration: the orchestra concert.  My whole extended family has been coming out to see my orchestra concerts ever since I got to Pomona. (and that’s a lot: four concerts a year!)  So, they certainly weren’t going to miss this one, especially with all of the other fun stuff going on.  My little brother especially enjoyed the reptile exhibit and the bouncy castle, and I think the whole family appreciated that there was plenty there to entertain the kids (which also works for us college students—I mean, we’re still kids right?).

Me with my viola and my friend Audrey with her cello, post-concert. In a fun turn of events, we got to wear colors instead of solid black!

The concert itself was also tailored to the 125th anniversary and featured several interesting pieces.  We knew that the John Cage 4’33” piece was going to be…well…interesting to perform, seeing as there is no music and it basically dictates four and half minutes of nothingness.  It was certainly amusing to hear both the not-so-silent silence that occurred during the piece with everyone whispering and coughing and trying to read the program and understand what was going on, as well as to hear afterwards people’s commentary on what they thought of the piece—everything from “that was cool” to “I could have written that!”  Ahhhh modern art.  Other pieces we did were a very fun Dvorjak Slovanic dance, and then three pieces incorporating Pomona music faculty: a Wolf piece featuring Cynthia Fogg on viola solo, a Ravel piano concerto with Genevieve Lee, and Peter and the Wolf with five faculty narrators.  I think my brother quite enjoyed Peter and the Wolf, too, though maybe not as much as the bouncy castle, since I had him listen for which instrument represented the different animals in the piece (bird, duck, cat, etc).

We got out of the concert just in time to see the CCBDC flash mob and to note the very long lines for dinner, so we went out instead.  All in all, a fun and colorful day.  Too bad we can’t have free temporary tattoos and carousel rides more often!

My grandparents enjoying the festivities
My mom, Pomona class of 1981, with me, Pomona class of 2013