The Class of 1967’s Choo-Choo Reunions

In 1992, the Class of ’67 adopted “Clear the Track! ’67’s Back!” as the motif for its 25th Reunion. This became one of the most self-referentially-Princetonian reunion themes ever devised.

The slogan came right out of the lyrics to the most famous of all reunion songs, “Going Back to Nassau Hall”. Another Princeton landmark set the scene for ’67’s P-rade concept — returning to the Dinky station dressed up as passengers on the “Princeton Junction & Back Railroad”. (That’s the historical nickname for the Princeton Branch line of the old Pennsylvania Railroad.) The choo-choo motif also reflected the locomotive cheers that every class gives the President at the end of the P-rade — but only ’67 would give with actual hand-held train whistles.

Railroading got fully worked into the corresponding P-rade outfit. Orange blazer fabric sported black vertical “stripes” in the shape of railroad tracks with tiny train cars on ’em. Topping the ensemble off was a white fedora with an orange PJ&B RR “Return Ticket” stuck in the hatband. The class would wear this outfit right on through the 50th Reunion and beyond.

’67’s reunion logos continue to feature tigers riding a PJ&B locomotive and a PJ&B observation car. Each wears a ’67 fedora and waves a Return Ticket. The smoke cloud overhead depicts which reunion they’re headed for. (Every five years, the smoke would get re-shaped into the numerals of the upcoming major reunion.) The two-part reunion slogan also appears on another icon of ’67 choo-choo art — the PJ&B Railroad “keystone”. Modeled directly on the logo of the old Pennsylvania RR, it rounds out ’67’s unique reunion iconography.