{"id":139103,"date":"2021-04-08T14:31:05","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T18:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=139103"},"modified":"2023-10-09T11:11:29","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T15:11:29","slug":"recalling-when-a-ford-sedan-drove-through-flames-on-bardwell-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2021\/04\/08\/recalling-when-a-ford-sedan-drove-through-flames-on-bardwell-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Recalling when a Ford sedan drove through flames on Andrews Road"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bates in the 1950s was a \u201cwell-ordered community,\u201d said the preface of the Blue Book<\/em>, the student-conduct booklet of the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With rules like \u201cno coeducational canoe trips,\u201d the seeming intent was to keep the student pulse shallow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s not surprising that a pent-up Bates student might find it delightfully sublimating to drive a fast car through hot flames. Luckily, the College provided a few sanctioned events \u00ad\u00ad\u2014 like Mayoralty \u2014 permitting just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mayoralty, the campus split into two camps. For 48 hours over three days in late May, each side staged skits, stunts, and shenanigans in support of their candidate for mayor of Bates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1953, the sides lined behind \u201cCap\u2019n\u201d Walt Reuling \u201954 and \u201cJolly Roger\u201d Lev Campbell \u201955, the former camp adopting a riverboat theme and the latter, a pirate theme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
With A Mayoralty \u201cspectacular\u201d takes place in 1953 along Andrews Road , where Alumni Walk now is. In the background is the rooftop of the original Central Heating Plant and smokestack, built in 1909. Roadside at right appears to be a can of accelerant. (Photograph courtesy of Bill Laird \u201954)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The photo above, taken by Bill Laird \u201954, shows Reuling supporter Tom Halliday \u201954 driving his 1936 Ford sedan through a wall of flames along Andrews Road , where Alumni Walk now is. The sign on the side apparently says, \u201cHell Riders.\u201d “The name was a take-off on the daredevil driver groups that played the county fair circuits in the pre NASCAR era,” recalled the late Bill Thurston ’53 in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though he’s not completely visible, Mayoralty lore says that the late John Dalco ’54 was on the hood of the Ford as it crashed through the flames. (You can see his leg splayed out on the hood, above the sign.) Dalco went on to become a physician and president of the Maine Medical Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stunt was known as a Mayoralty \u201cspectacular,\u201d complementing skits and floats all over campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning and executing Mayoralty was frenzied and could take students far afield. \u201cOne night at our pirates meeting we found out that Tufts had just finished their Mayoralty campaign, and one of the sides had a pirate theme,\u201d recalls Laird. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Another view of the 1953 Mayoralty “spectacular,” taken by Bill Laird ’54. It was common for townsfolk, like this boy, to visit campus to watch mayoralty doings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo of us drove to Boston that night, talked to the guys that ran their campaign, got a bunch of leftover gold-wrapped chocolate coins, and used them the next day at Bates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “electorate” comprised women students, wives of Bates students, faculty, and staff. They chose Campbell as mayor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, the popular pirate float Jolly Roger<\/em> \u2014 a \u201cwork of art [that] drew many admirers from 5-year-olds upward to campus,” according to the Student<\/em> \u00ad\u00ad\u2014 won the vote, scuttling the showboaters\u2019 hopes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 1950s, the raucous event known as Mayoralty made it possible for a student to drive his Ford through a wall of flames.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":139113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139103"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157774,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139103\/revisions\/157774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}