Reunion is a time to reunite on campus with classmates and friends — but also for a �ֲ���ý community spanning 65 years to gather and celebrate.

On Friday evening, alumni and their families and friends, from the Class of 1948 through the Class of 2013, ooh’ed and ahh’ed at spectacular fireworks over Lake Andrews.

The following morning, after a 5k race and mimosas, everyone lined up on the Historic Quad for a Reunion centerpiece: the Alumni Parade. Classes cheered each other on as they marched or rode.

Old or young, �ֲ���ý alumni turn back the clocks when they return to campus for Reunion and the Alumni Parade.

“This is surreal,” said Ben Hughes ’12. “We’re all jumping right back into �ֲ���ý, like five years didn’t happen. And I imagine that’s what it’s like for the Class of 1957.”

“I had this moment when I was walking from Rand to the Den,” said Carine Warsawski ’07. “The Quad was completely empty and it smelled like springtime at �ֲ���ý. You just knew your people were waiting for you, and you had the feeling of being home.”

“There are some people that I didn’t really know that well in my class, but when you see them here, you’re right back at �ֲ���ý,” said Alan Ansello ’67.

The Alumni Parade gathers different �ֲ���ý eras under a common umbrella: love for our college.

“The parade is great because you get to see the 50-year class, the 25-year class, still being so excited and just happy to be here,” said Sonija Parson ’06 of Washington, D.C.

“For us, the 10-year class, we’ll get to that point someday and still continue to love �ֲ���ý as we have since the very first day.”

Scenes and voices from this year’s Reunion Alumni Parade on June 11:

Watch scenes from the Alumni Parade at Reunion on June 13 and hear from Reunion alumni across the generations: Lois Keniston Penney ’50, Peter Stewart ’60, Laike Stewart ’95 (no relation to Peter), and two 2010 alumnae, Kat Moraros and Grainne Hebeler.

(Lincoln Benedict ’09 for �ֲ���ý College)

By 1914, �ֲ���ý was hitting its stride as a college. And having sent college graduates into the world for nearly 50 years, it was time for some grown-up alumni programming.

Which meant getting a little silly.

In 1948, this “display of livestock” won best costume for the Class of 1903. The sign holder, Class President Alexander Maerz, is next to classmates George Ramsdell, a longtime �ֲ���ý math professor, and Carl Sawyer. Ralph Johnson, right, wrangled the sheep for the class. Photograph courtesy of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library

1914 was a big year, marking the 50th anniversary of the college’s transition from Maine State Seminary to �ֲ���ý College in 1864. The college chose to celebrate the semicentennial during Commencement, in June.

• Reunion 2014 schedule including the Alumni Parade at 11 a.m. Saturday

The �ֲ���ý Student, doing double duty in those days as both a campus and alumni publication, noted in May that “this Commencement of all Commencements should belong to the alumni.”

The late Rev. Peter Gomes ’65 sports a t-shirt that reads, “Isn’t it funny… We still look the same,” in honor of his class’s 40th Reunion in 2005. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College.

The big new feature of this alumni-focused Commencement was an Alumni Day, “a program of merrymaking by the different classes…such as is carried on at many of our larger colleges.”

And the centerpiece of Alumni Day was an Alumni Parade, a “historico-humorous parade of classes about the field.”

In its buildup to the event, The Student exhorted the classes to portray “historical incidents associated with the development of �ֲ���ý, illustrated soberly or unsoberly; ‘things you did,’ wise or other-wise…. Class statistics, mention of members who have won honored places…may well be carried on large cards or any other way. Class banners of olden days…should be there.”

In 1934, it was time for the 20th Reunion Class of 1914 to cowboy up for the Alumni Parade. Photograph courtesy of the Muskie Archives and Special Collections LIbrary.

One hundred years later, the Alumni Parade hasn’t deviated from the 1914 playbook. Stop by the Alumni Walk on June 7 and you’ll see.

Back in 1914, lest a parade seem like a frivolous way to celebrate the college’s 50th, there were sober events, too.

A pageant on the steps of Coram Library commemorated great college events: founder Oren Cheney reading about the burning of Parsonsfield Seminary, the incident that inspired Cheney to found his own school for poor and disadvantaged Maine youth; and the seminary students marching off to the Civil War, 175 of them, including two from Georgia who fought for the Confederacy.

Maine Sen. Edmund S. Muskie ’36, left, architect of the landmark Clean Water Act of 1977, carries a banner featuring the �ֲ���ý seal at his 50th reunion in 1986. Photograph courtesy of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library

Stepping up to the parade challenge was the Class of 1912. The Student of May 21 noted that class members would dress in all white and assemble “a band composed of the men of 1912 who played in the college band.”

The June 11 edition noted that the Class of 1904 “will be on hand with something good,” yet the class refused to divulge exactly what that might be. Using a trendy phrase from the early 1900s, the class wanted to conceal their plans until the “psychological moment.”

Benjamin Elijah Mays ’20, civil rights leader and mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., links arms with with a classmate at their 60th Reunion in 1980. Photograph courtesy of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library

While coverage of the first Alumni Day is scant, the �ֲ���ý Bulletin reports a successful event, as “the costumes, movements and performances awakened universal enthusiasm and great merriment.”

In contemporary parlance, the first parade fostered greater alumni engagement, and the good feelings carried over to Commencement the next day. In full spring bloom, the campus was, at least to �ֲ���ý eyes, “the most charming place in all the world.”

This being from 1974, we’re pretty sure only the caps are part of the costume, and not the plaid trousers and pantsuits. Photograph courtesy of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library