Making Crew Even Preppier

If there’s one thing rarely seen at Harvard, it’s a group of prep school graduates drinking together.

To witness this unusual event, FM pushed through a crowd of Brooks Brothers clad rowing enthusiasts and stepped into Reunion Village, a cluster of tents on the south bank of the Charles River that proudly displayed the names of posh prep schools and universities (think Grottlesex and Ivys). Rowers and crew aficionados lounged on plastic folding chairs, sipping Hefeweizen Unfiltered Wheat Beer out of plastic cups as shells smoothly zipped by.

The North Yarmouth Academy tent proudly displayed an assortment of M&M’s and Tootsie Roll Pops amid a seasonal arrangement of pumpkins. Its neighbor, Berwick Academy, had a less impressive spread: a basket of apples and unopened jugs of apple cider kept lonely company with a welcome book yet to be signed by a single alum.

But the top-tier tent village was about much more than candy and pretentious beer. Alec P. Smith, who called the strokes at the University of Richmond tent, explained that Reunion Village is “a really good place for alumnae of schools that are competing to gather and watch.” Stanford alumna Erica G. Bromley agreed: “It’s just nice to congregate with old alum and things.”

What things, exactly? FM found its answer in a large tent in the middle of the Village, which was pimped out with a make-shift bar, an artificial fireplace, and a plasma screen announcing the day’s races. As Judah H. Rome said, “this is probably the only place on the course [where] you can drink without feeling bothered by the police.”

Indeed, not everyone grasped the “Reunion” in Reunion Village. “I haven’t seen any of my old classmates,” admitted Daniel J. Rhodes ’01. “I’m only here for the beer.”