The happy vibe of the annual Alumni Parade at Reunion has changed little since this description by the local newspaper back in 1921:
“Old and young alike recalled their college days and joined in the grand jubilee of fun and frolic beneath the canopy of green foliage with which nature has bedecked the campus these days.”
Want some evidence of that “fun and frolic”? Of that “canopy of green foliage”? View these photographs of this year’s Alumni Parade on June 10, and read accounts of past Alumni Parades, a Bates tradition that has been going strong since 1914.
“The Class of 1926 won the College Club plaque for the best costumes in the Alumni Parade. Class members wore firemen’s red shirts and helmets and formed a fire brigade, complete with a burning house.”
— Lewiston Evening Journal, June 16, 1951
In 35 seconds, this year’s Reunion Alumni Parade, featuring more than 1,200 Reunion-goers representing Bates classes from the last 70 years — 1953 to 2018 — parades by President Clayton Spencer and other Bates folks on Alumni Walk.
“The ’29ers, the Depression Class, were more than making up for their hard-luck years. There were about 40 of them back, dressed in cowboy costumes that were the envy of all the young fry who were watching the Alumni Parade.”
— Lewiston Evening Journal, June 11, 1949
“The Class of 1913 was rigged up in most impressive pirate costumes and out of a huge chest they presented evidence of their conquests in the last 25 years, including wives, husbands, and 136 children.”
— Lewiston Daily Sun, June 13, 1938
“An airplane, which appeared suddenly and performed in front of the grandstand before the applauding spectators, and the presentation of a baby doll to President Gray as symbolic of the efforts of the class to increase the future enrollment at Bates, brought first place in the Alumni Parade to the Class of 1927, members of which wore clown hats with bright feathers.”
— Lewiston Daily Sun, June 14, 1937
“Snoopy highlighted the contingent for Bates’ Class of 1940 in today’s annual Alumni Parade. Wearing red and white striped vests color-keyed on Snoopy’s red dog house, the 1940 alumni enthusiastically advanced the idea that ‘Happiness Is Back to Bates.’”
— Lewiston Sun-Journal, June 15, 1974
“Wonder what the handful of the faithful Class of 1897 thought when they heard the Alumni Parade being organized over the walkie-talkie system? Commands seemed to spring up out of the ground although nobody was in sight. Back in the days when the ’97ers were undergrads, a walkie-talkie would have been in the Salem witchcraft classification.”
— Lewiston Evening Journal, June 8, 1957
“The Class of ’99 carried a map of the world, supported by Mrs. Eloise Smith of Cambridge, Mass., and Mrs. Agnes Lucas of Worcester, Mass., on which garnet flags indicated where members of the class lived and were making Bates’ reputation well and favorably known"
— Lewiston Evening Journal, June 14, 1930
© 2026 Bates College
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)
/1x.jpeg?auto=webp)