“Dude, but there’s, like, cheerleaders on the tables. It’s cool.”
Whether it was hallucination or not, the scene at Gordon Commons last night was absolutely surreal. In the ferocious spirit of Homecoming, the eatery filled with the sights and sounds of Wisconsin’s brightest cheers. Even with the jubilant display, the students eating their dinners couldn’t seem to fathom the reality of what was happening.
Tromping in first were the cheerleaders. They flapped their leave-no-imagination-behind skirts as they leaped onto tables and chairs. Then came the rallying cry as disproportionate badger Bucky zoomed through the aisles. Students emptying their trays soon found themselves locked in. General Bucky commanded a cheer from the crowd of band members that came streaming through the door.
Dumbfounded students sat in silence as the terribly loud sounds of trombones and tubas crashed into the commons. Often positioned inches from students trying to finish their meals, the annoyingly exuberant musicians played full volume. Despite a shoddy performance of the music, the enthusiastic cheerers blew away the mundane tranquility of the evening. Students, who would have otherwise not been able to look up and see cheerleaders on their table, now had curvaceous centerpieces.
The students’ responses, however, did not reflect the energy being shot in every direction. The remarkable and frighteningly quick maneuver of school spirit invoked a definite hesitance from the majority of the students. Those who knew the experience of the beer-soaked cheers gleefully participated in the flapping of arms and other swinging of limbs.
Those resistant to the near forceful invitation to participate in cheering were oddly pestered. Tuba players blew incessantly into students’ ears. Bucky tried strange sign language signaling. Cheerleaders beckoned slack-jawed freshman to dance with them.
The surreal picture seemed too unbelievable to be nothing more than a hallucination. It may have been caused by the sheer will of the homecoming spirit. It may have been something in the Gordon’s Commons pasta that night. Whatever it was, it was surprising and unnatural.
A long line of disbelieving students formed shortly after the cheering mass’s departure. Dinner in the Land of the Mundane is not quite always itself.