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November 22, 1946
Dear Mother and Daddy,
This is the weekend of the "Big Game" with Cal. It is by far the biggest game of the year and there have been lots of things going on. On Wednesday, and Friday they have the "Big Game" Gaieties, which is a variety show the students put on. They asked me to stand in the queen scene. The position I had wasn't very important nevertheless I suppose I should have been flattered, but I really wasn't too mad for the idea. You should have seen all the horrible make-up they put on me, it looked absolutely ghastly, although they said it looked fine on the stage. We had to stand on a platform which was about twenty feet high
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and which you had to climb up come very high, [steep?], wobbly stairs to get on. After it was over they rolled us out on this huge thing. It was sort of fun being in but certainly not worth the trouble.
On Thursday they had a parade of floats, a rally, and a bonfire. The parade was loads of fun. Every [living?] group made a float on the back of a truck, there were about forty in all, and they drove past the front of the school. They were all about Indians and bears and the "Big Red Machine" which is what the Stanford team is called. The bon-fire was a huge fire the Freshmen boys had spent thre days building out in one of the fields, and on it was burned an effigy of the [Bruin?] Bear. It made the biggest, most wonderful fire you ever saw, and all the
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Stanford people stood around it and sang Stanford songs.
On Wednesday night, they caught some Cal. men on our campus and took them over to Encina (the boys Freshman hall) and chained them up and shaved their heads. On some of the boys they even painted red 'S's on their heads. They marched them around campus the next day and made them bow to all the girls. I had never seen boys with their heads shaved before, and they certainly looked awful. They have been keeping all the roads entering Stanford blockaded, and every time you want to go in you have to show your student body card.
I am going with Bob and Kay and Bill. We are leaving about nine o'clock tomorrow morning and Kay and
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I are going to fix a lunch to take along. It has been raining an awful lot lately and will undoubtedly rain again tomorrow, but I don't think that is going to stop anyone.
I was unable to get reservations home. When I talked to the man at the station he said there were one hundred and five people ahead of me. But I have arranged to drive down with Kay and Bill on Wednesday; I felt sure that arrangement would be all right with you.
If you are able, I would like very much to have you rush me a check book. I have no cash with me, and no check with which to get money, and I will sort of need some coming home.
Love to all, Mary
