Thanksgiving in Grinnell

A belated post is better than no post, right?

by Merrick Meyers
This coming Wednesday, most Grinnell students will scatter to their homes or other destinations for Thanksgiving break, the briefest of all Grinnell vacations, returning in time for classes to resume the following Monday. Some Grinnellians, however, will be staying put, enjoying the holiday right here on campus.

Vice President of Student Services Tom Crady estimates the number of students who stay at around thirty percent of the student body. Most of these students simply live too far away from Grinnell for it to make sense to spend time and money returning home for a mere half a week before coming back to campus. Others live nearer by but do not desire to leave, or at least not enough to go through the trouble, preferring to hang out on campus with their fellow students.

Thanksgiving break generally passes without incident, though legends are still told of the break several years in ago during which some students stored a full turkey in the ceiling of a dorm hallway, and then completely forgot about it, not remembering it was there even after the smell of rotting turkey flesh became overpowering. The turkey was not discovered by Facilities Managements until two weeks later.

Many of those remaining on campus are international students, for whom returning home for such a short break is obviously impractical. While some vacation with fellow Grinellians or other American friends, or stay with a host family, a good portion simply stay where they are.

In a few cases, however, there were more somber reasons for staying at Grinnell. Last year, friends of Thomas Alexander '05, who had died in a car accident during Thanksgiving break the previous year, stayed on campus in order to be with one another.

The Thanksgiving and Fall breaks are the only vacations during which all students are allowed to stay in the dorms. Lingering during other breaks requires special permission, which is given to international students and others who require it. Of the two, the campus is significantly more populous during Thanksgiving break, as Fall break is much longer, making it more worthwhile to make travel plans.

At this critical point in the semester, some stay focused on their studies, working on papers and other projects. Others take the time to relax. "It's toward the end of the semester, so there are a lot of projects that people have been working on, so Thanksgiving, people say, 'I'm not gonna worry about it,'" said Jon Ohliger '07. "There's definitely a large amount of time dedicated to just hanging out." Many students select one day to devote to schoolwork, and treat most of the rest of the break like a vacation.

Some partake of dining hall food for their Thanksgiving feast, but the service is limited so that the dining staff can be with their families. Similarly, most alternatives in the town are closed for the holiday, leaving students largely to their own devices. Several Thanksgiving dinners are thrown on campus each year, with at least one open to all comers.

For the most part, these culinary efforts are well-planned and tend to go smoothly, although the residents of DAG House recall with amusement last year's attempt at mashed potatoes gone horribly wrong, which they say went through several color changes before being declared inedible. "None of us knew how to make mashed potatoes," admitted otherwise successful cook Christina Gargiullo '08, "so I made it up."

Of course, many of the international students on campus have no particular attachment to the Thanksgiving holiday or its traditions. "For me it was just a long weekend," pointed out Yue Hou '09, a Chinese student.

Reducing the population of the college to a fraction of what it usually is during the school year can do a lot to change the atmosphere of the place. "It was really quiet, and I kind of liked the feeling that there's not so many people around," said Hou, "but also when you saw people coming back it was really really nice cause it's a really small place and when it's really quiet there's nothing going on."

Others are more impressed with the change. Janaki Sullivan '07 describes life on campus during the break as "a lot more relaxed, a lot less frenetic, more peaceful, so you can actually feel like you can take time to stroll around campus, if there are any fall colors still left look at fall colors, or the snow, go to a movie in town, just hang out in the lounge somewhere, spend time with friends without feeling like you have to go rush off and go to class or an activity or homework or what have you." It's the kind time, she said, "which honestly I wish there were more of at Grinnell."