Roles reversed: 50-year tradition continues

Here are the rules for TWIRP week:

1. Provide transportation for your dates, if possible.

2. Help your date with his coat, open doors for him, follow him through the doors, walk on the outside of the sidewalk, and all other courtesies of this type.

3. Call for your date at the dorm and walk him back to the dorm. Please girls, observe all curfews of the week nights and Saturday night.

4. It is required of all girls to have at least one TWIRP date each day. Don't be alarmed, girls! The dates may include asking a boy to any meal with you (remember he must go ahead of you in line), asking a boy to allow you to escort him to class (carrying his books), asking a boy for a SUB date, asking a boy for a date off campus.

5. All girls are required to pay for any cost incurred on the dates, including transportation, movies, refreshments, etc.

6. All girls are required to make all the advances, with the boys limited to counter maneuvers.

7. All violators of the rules of TWIRP week will be subject to trial at the daily court.

Daily Court: Any girl accused of a violation of any rule of TWIRP week will be called before the daily court to stand trial. Court convenes immediately following supper each evening in Sutton Dining Hall.

I hope everyone followed these rules because after dinner tonight we will hold court to try those who did not abide by these guidelines.

OK just kidding, but these rules really did exist for Milligan students of during the early 1960s.

As I thought about how far back this tradition goes, I wonder how people dealt with the issue of girls asking guys out. "It was during a time when girls never asked a guy on a date," Oakes commented. "It was quite a different thing to be the one to ask, very intimidating at times."

While reading through the Oct. 1, 1971 issue of The Stampede, I ran across an article that talked specifically about how students, both male and female, felt about TWIRP week. Feeling were mixed between girls who liked the idea of being able to ask out the guy she is interested in, to others who thought it was too much pressure for girls to ask guys out.

Opinions also varied among the guys interviewed. One guy thought it was great having girls carry his meal tray, while another said he felt it put people in embarrassing situations.

Fifty years later we are still participating, obviously not concerned about breaking tradition.

"I think it is awesome," said junior Rachel Wright. "It reverses roles and lets girls see what guys go through every time they want to ask someone out."

Wright asked her fiancé, junior Matt Fogle, on a TWIRP date during their freshman year. She said she did it to prove that girls can take a guy out for a nice dinner.

Fogle is just as excited about TWIRP week.

"I like it," he said. "Girls can see how guys feel about the whole rejection issue."

Oakes remembers TWIRP week as a fun time. She was a student at Milligan in the 1950s who asked a boy out on a date during TWIRP week. They continued dating and ended up getting married.

In an informal survey of the Milligan faculty and staff, I found that TWIRP week led to true love for many of our professors.

Dr. Bill Greer, professor of business, said that his wife Edwina asked him out on a TWIRP date when they were students in 1983. Greer said they dated and married in 1986. Dr. Jack Knowles, professor of English and humane learning, said that he and his wife participated in TWIRP week. Although they had dated on and off for about three years prior to TWIRP week 1967, she asked him on a date during TWIRP week and by Christmas 1967 they were engaged and then married in August 1968.

"True love has continued to blossom ever since," Knowles said.

For 50 years, TWIRP week as been a tradition at Milligan, and I suspect that it will continue for many years to come. For some people the week is nothing more than a normal week full of classes and work, but for others it is a chance to meet new people and form new friendships.