Where were you on the night of October 7th at 10:30pm? Were you asleep? In your dorm? Off Campus? If you were anywhere other than the Quad, you missed possibly the “largest on-campus party so far” in Gordon College history, according to Darrell Gray, one of the people responsible for starting the party.
“It was a chill night, nothing was really happening… Then the power went out.” Jesse Comanda, a Wilson RA on duty at the time, reported. “And of course, who would show up but Darrell? That guy’s always got a speaker on him.” Gray had spotted “none other than the Overall Monday girls” dancing outside of Wilson, listening to music on a little speaker. He decided to give him his big speaker instead. With louder music, more people started to hear what was going on. “And then from there, what was going to happen?… A full-blown dance party.” Comanda commented.
It started with a small group of people, but quickly grew to a few dozen people on the lawn outside of Wilson. Gray mentioned that by the end of “Footloose”, there were enough people that had joined and enough noise for someone to make a complaint and call Gordon Police (GoPo). “They’re nice people… so they just asked, “hey, can you move it to the quad?”” Gray reported. So they relocated to the Quad, a location less disruptive to nearby dorms.
“Of course, once we were on the Quad everyone could see us.” Gray continued. He commented on how before, people could hear what was going on and join, but now they were a lot more visible too. “Everyone without power had nothing to do, so everyone joined us.” Eventually, over a hundred people were estimated to have been in attendance.
“We didn’t advertise it at all… No one was invited, it just happened.” Gray explained. This was not an exclusive event. Everyone was invited to come and just be themselves. “We got a good array of diversity. We had people of every year, people from different friend groups, athletes, non-athletes”, Comanda added. “A dance party is a party where everyone can groove and smile and interact with one another and not be too embarrassed to kind of get into it.” And that’s exactly what this was. “There was no outskirts, everyone was dancing at this one.” Gray explained.
According to Gray, there was something for everyone at this party. All kinds of music was played, specifically 2010 dance hits, Comanda added. The Quad was trampled by dance circles and line dances, and everyone was signing and having a great time. Someone “came out in a scream mask and started doing some break dancing in the middle of the circle” Comanda noted. He reflected on how one of his soon to be graduating friends commented that it felt like they had finally attended a real party. This one was Gordon-fashioned: genuine, spontaneously started simply by a few friends getting together when the power went out and having a good time. He commented on how it was people being genuine that made the party so fun.
“For some reason, everyone gets braver and feels more comfortable being themselves once the lights get turned off.” Once people joined together as one in dance and song, the genuineness of everyone enjoying the present moment together brought genuine joy.
Eventually, Gray’s speaker got low on battery. When GoPo showed up a second time around midnight, they asked the group to either “move it to Frost Patio or go home”, according to Gray. “We had to stick with the go home part. We could have gone further, but we were tired.”
Both Gray and Comanda noted that this was the type of thing they’d love to participate in again, noting the community that grew and memories that were made. “I think Gordon should turn off the power once a month and just see what happens. It’s a good way to connect with people.”
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