Rites of Fall
By Catherine Dunn
Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
They took it apart piece by piece, metal limb by metal limb.
Big White Tent - its taut canopy reduced to a rolled up ream of canvas - was no more.
By 3 p.m., the October sun blazed freely upon the bare brick and slate of Newcomb Hall Plaza.
Just across from where Tent once reigned as an oasis for shade-seekers, twins Kris and Rebecca Rice were stationed on the Pavilion XI patio with an array of study materials piled before them.
Squinting and shielding their eyes from the sun, neither was sure why Tent had to leave its spring and summer home.
"If the sun's still shining, I don't think they should be taking down the Big White Tent," Kris, a third-year College student, said. "Who gives them the authority to do that?"
Meanwhile, workers laboring in short sleeves, some in sunglasses, continued to erase all traces of Tent.
The yellow caution tape that had surrounded the construction site was torn down. A motorized sweeper dispelled dirt and dust from the exposed plaza surface.
Three forklifts sprung into action, putting the skeletal remains of Tent into storage and transporting tables back to the plaza's main square.
Watching this scene, a fit of laughter seized the Rice sisters. As workersmaneuvered the forklifts into the furniture-cluttered patio to pick up and move the extra tables, the pair couldn't help their amusement.
"They're heavy," Kris conceded about the tables.
But both Rices, who are members of Student Council, recalled how they moved the green tables by hand for events like the Farmer's Market.
"That's our entertainment for the day," Kris said.
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