Panty Raids and Water Fights in the '50s

Date
March 28, 1988

Jane Myers Sellers (Class of 1955) describes in an interview the relationship male and female students had at Dickinson during the 1950s. She reports that there were panty raids, water fights, and serenading. During these so-called "panty raids," men would invade the women's dormitories and steal panties. Sellers claims that they never stole her panties, saying that she doesn't "know whether they ever got anything, but there would be shrieks and everyone would realize there were men in the dorms." At this point, women in the dorms would cry out "Boys!" Sellers says in the interview that men and women also participated in water fights and that men would serenade female students. She describes how women who got pinned were serenaded by fraternities standing under their windows and singing "these beautiful songs."

Location of Document in Archives
World War II Oral History, Sellers, Jane M.