‘Ring by spring’ traditions
By Mia Gallagher · Celebrate 150 Correspondent
“Look to your left, look to your right, your future mate might be in sight.”
At first, this silly little rhyme — first shared by Nancy Paxton ’54, former vice president of Student Life and Learning, and repeated every year at freshman convocation since — may seem like stereotypical Christian college propaganda.
Similarly, the “ring by spring” quest — with its annual fall “freshman frenzy” and springtime “senior scramble” — can at times seem overhyped and cliché.
At Grove City College, however, this rhyme and its quest often do lead to lasting, Christ-centered relationships and strong, God-fearing marriages. In fact, of the 32,597 total living alumni, 7,424 of them are married to another alum, per the Alumni Relations Office. That’s 3,712 Grover couples.
But has this courtship culture always been the case at the college? And where did the traditions created by this culture — late-night Grover walks, creeking, chapel weddings, etc. — truly begin?
As it turns out, courtship has always been a major part of life at Grove City College. While this information shouldn’t surprise anyone – two of our core values are community and faithfulness after all – the different forms courtship has taken throughout that history vary significantly from what we experience today.
“In the very early years of the college, the rules for girls were very Victorian, whereas boys had very few rules. But there were dating rules,” Director of College Archives and Galleries Hilary Walczak ‘09 said.
“Girls had strict curfews and would sometimes drop money in a coffee can down a wire out of their windows to boys below for them to go get them food from the local diner. Additionally, girls would need permission from parents to ride in a car with a boy,” Walczak said.
To students today, these rules — coupled with the lack of open hours and cellphones — can make early Grover courtship sound impossible. But the college supplied ample opportunities for coed mingling through the various school-wide dances that would take place.
“There were actually a ton of dances on campus. Dances up until the 1960s had dance cards. Every student was given a dance card to have the person they danced with sign it. That was one of the ways for men and women to interact since they couldn’t visit each other’s rooms,” Walczak said.
In addition to these dances, male and female students could also talk to each other on their residence hall’s phone. And anyone who has seen a cheesy rom-com set in a time before the 1980s knows the challenges a single dormitory phone can bring.
“There was only one phone on the hall – like up until the ’80s – and if a boy wanted to call a girl they had to call the hall phone. Any girl could answer and they would have to go get that girl to come answer. It was the same story if you were there to pick them up for a date,” Walczak said.
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, an early form of open hours, then called intervisitation or “intervis,” had been implemented, bringing with it the all-important, shoe-in-the-door rule.
After surviving all the woes of early courtship – or “talking” and “dating” as it’s better known today – the next step in the ring-by-spring quest is the actual proposal. And where there’s a proposal, there’s bound to be a creeking.
A ritual unique to the Grove, creekings take place after a Grover couple formally announces their engagement. Typically, the guy is carried down to Wolf Creek and tossed in its waters by his friends. Frats, housing groups and friend groups each add their own creative twists to this tradition, and some sororities have even made creeking part of their annual sweethearting tradition.
“Creeking actually didn’t begin until sometime in the 1970s. Before creeking, pinning was the major tradition for couples. Usually you were ‘pinned’ by your sweetheart before getting engaged. Men also would serenade their sweethearts outside their dorms,” Walczak said.
“We don’t really know much about the origin of creeking, but it definitely took off and has continued for engagements as well as sweethearting by sororities. However, if you talk to our older alumni, they are always confused by the tradition,” Walczak said.
For Grover couples, like engaged seniors Nora Russell and Daniel Garner, creeking creates life-long memories and forges a lasting connection to the college and its community.
“(Our creeking) was exciting to plan, and we had a lot of fun in the moment as well. It was sweet to have so many of our friends there to celebrate us, and we definitely felt loved by our community,” Russell said.
Russell, a sister of the Theta Alpha Pi sorority, and Garner, a member of the Alpha Sigma housing group, have also been able to take part in another time-honored, Grover-couple tradition: sweethearting.
“It’s been neat to be incorporated into the cultures of both groups. We love all the Thetas and Alpha Sigs, so being in those positions at the same time is such a fun blessing,” Garner said.
“The traditions have allowed us to share the joy of our relationship with a wide group of people, which has made us feel very supported by more than just our close friends. We are so grateful for this season of our lives,” Russell said.
Once a couple is creeked, it’s time to plan the wedding. And what better place is there for a Grover wedding to take place than in Harbison Chapel?
Since it opened its doors in 1931, Harbison has hosted thousands of weddings. This picturesque chapel offers an idyllic wedding atmosphere and promises gorgeous pictures for the couple both inside and outside. But be warned, if you’re daydreaming about having your ceremony there, it does book up far in advance.
“Prior to Harbison Chapel, Grover weddings were held in the Ivy Chapel. This was a chapel originally built by the local Presbyterian Church and then purchased by the school to serve as our chapel and classroom building. It wasn’t as beautiful as Harbison, so definitely not the wedding destination spot that Harbison has become,” Walczak said.
For alumni Michael Kanarskiy ’24 and Sarah (Schultheis) Kanarskiy ’24, getting married in Harbison was the culmination of their Grove City love story. “It was such a special opportunity to get married in the chapel because Grove City College is the reason we met! It was incredible to celebrate our love where it all started,” Sarah Kanarskiy said.
