The following narrative is courtesy of '63's Costume Chair Ernie Dreher
Worn for our 25th reunion, the bright orange polyester pants were a bust. For our 26th reunion I had gotten the blazer fabric to make a matching pair of pants. My classmates liked the idea of having a suit so we added the pants for our 30th. Since it had rained during all of our previous majors we decided to have umbrellas made of the material as well. The boater is a carry over from the 25th. We wore black collarless knit shirts that had our 25th tiger logo embroidered on the left sleeve. We did not have a theme for our 30th.
The theme for this reunion was ROCK N' ROIL 63. We stayed with the suit and added a baseball cap and t-shirt that contained the first measure of Old Nassau which was to be sung in 35th time and with spirits and not just spirit. We also wore sunglasses that had a 6 on one lens and a 3 on the other. The signs we carried were round and double-sided, two firsts for the P-rade. We won the most "enterprising" award in the P-rade.
For our 40th we had 2 themes, one overall theme and one for the P-rade. The overall theme was IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR. As the class theme maker, costume creator and sign maker from the past 5 reunions I could not figure out how to make the theme into humorous signs considering all the bad things that had taken place in 1963. So I came up with TESTOSTERGONE with the emphasis on the G as the P-rade theme.
The logo for the GOOD YEAR theme was a tiger toasting with a glass of wine while laying on a chaise lounge. The label on the wine bottle reads VINTAGE '63. [Do you remember VAT 39 for the class of 1939?] The logo was printed on a collared shirt and the head band of a golfing hat. In addition a tote bag was made with the logo on one side.
The P-rade logo was the number 40 with the 0 made from a 6 and a 3 with an arrow to indicate the male symbol. Below the TESTOSTERGONE was PETERED OUT AT MY PRINCETON REUNION. The signs were in the shape and color of a Viagra pill. We got some hats from the Viagra Racing Team. Our class won the award for having the most enterprising entry in the P-rade.
For our 45th, the overall intent was twofold. One was to celebrate all the Annual Giving records our class held at that time and secondly to honor the KING of Rock and Roll, Elvis. In terms of AG we were the KING of all Princeton classes. Many people still claim THE KING STILL LIVES so we modified this to THE KING STILL GIVES.
Our costume consisted of a cape and Elvis glasses with attached sideburns. We wore the cape over our blazers and a white polo under the blazers. Our Elvis/tiger logo appeared on the back of the cape, on the white polo shirt and on the back of a black t-shirt [for Friday night]. Our crew also wore the black shirts. We won the award for the most enterprising entry in the P-rade for our third straight major reunion.
The theme for our 50th was GALAXY 1963 since we were, and still are, a class of all stars. In addition to our suits we wore a black knit shirt that had our logo of a star and 1963 placed vertically on the front. The shirts had a battery that, when it was turned on, would illuminate the logo. This worked well at night but was a flop for the P-rade. We wore a baseball cap with an orange star between 19 and 63 as well as a variety of star shaped glasses and boppers that had hearts, stars, and planets. We also had tote bags with the logo.
Our theme was STILL KICKING (CL) ASS meaning that most of our class was still alive. We had separate items for the various events. I designed a necktie that our classmates wore with a white shirt on Friday night at the class dinner. We had a parasol for the wives to carry during a somber march Saturday morning to the Chapel for our memorial service, complete with a New Orleans jazz band that played Nearer My God To Thee.
For the P-race the gents wore a bowler and a knit shirt with TIGER SIXTY THREE FIFTY FIFTH on the front. (I have designed similar shirts for our next 5 reunions). We also carried black canes with an orange 1963 printed on the shaft. As we had done since our 25th our logo for the PAW, buttons, and beer cups matched our P-rade costumes.
Needless to say the first bolt of lightning hit as our class fell in line to march in the P-race and that stopped everything. [The 2018 P-rade was stopped because of nearby lightning and was not restarted]
