Campus News

October 1, 2010

Report From: Emory Alumni Association

Homecoming takes center stage with alums


Eric Rangus is director of communications for the Emory Alumni Association.

More than 48 hours after the Indigo Girls Homecoming concert on Saturday, Sept. 25, my thumb hadn’t returned to normal. It was stiff and sore, and hitchhiking was out of the question. I guess that’s what happens when you’re the production guy in Homecoming beer tent.

Actually, you’d think it would be my back that would bother me—hunched over for three hours like Dooley’s much, much, much younger brother. That’s really the only way you can pour from a keg—hunched over—unless you kneel, but then there is all the beer overflow on the ground.  

But by nightfall, my spine had straightened. The thumb, though. I never thought that working that little nozzle would be such a physical drain. Anyway, after whining for a while, my thumb slowly worked itself back to normal. If anything, that was the only downside to what was a spectacular Homecoming Weekend. Keep reading for more upside.

  • For the second year, I got to drive the  float in the Homecoming Parade. For 2010, it was a bright red Chevy truck. The kind of red that, if I was actually driving it on the road, I'd have to pay extra insurance.  

  • Speaking of the Homecoming Parade—it gets better every year. Several young alumni I spoke with were amazed at the event's growth. For them, during their student days, Homecoming was an afterthought. The 2010 parade, though, was a capital-E Event. High-concept floats. Complicated accompanying dance routines (most impressively by the Orientation Leaders immediately behind me, who won the float competition). Streamers and balloons and face paint and lots of skeletons. And tons and tons of onlookers. Asbury Circle was a street party. Those young alumni may not have thought much of previous Homecomings, but to a person, they told me they'd come back for the next one and the one after that.

  • It was a Homecoming in every sense of the word for the Indigo Girls—Emily Saliers ’85C (who had already participated in several Homecoming events earlier in the weekend, including a Creativity Conversation with her dad, emeritus professor Don Saliers) and Amy Ray ’86C—were in great moods. Their stage banter included Emory memories mixed in with favorite songs both new and old.

  • We don't have a solid concert attendance figure yet (the estimate is between 2,500–2,800), but we ran out of Emory buttons, which doubled as tickets, very early (we had 1,500 to start). Many of the latecomers got "Future Alumni" buttons. I must admit, I chuckled inside whenever I saw a 30-, 40-, or 50-something wearing the button we had originally designed for the kids.

  • Following the concert, the night was all about class reunions. Alumni from Emory College, Goizueta Business School, the School of Medicine and more reconnected across campus, in people’s houses, and social establishments across Atlanta from Eagle Row to Buckhead.

  • Dooley was all over the place. He visited several reunions, stood in the front row for Emory College’s 25-year reunion's class picture (and ended up in dozens more personal photos across campus). His favorite, though, was probably the Class of 1995's 15-year party in the Psychology Building. He arrived, hung out for awhile, left, then came back for an encore.

See hundreds of Homecoming photos on the EAA’s Facebook fan page and SmugMug photo page.

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