Skimmer day skids in rain

But organizers try to make the best of bad circumstances Maybe Skimmer Day just wasn't meant to be – at least this year. The Junior Class Board planned to turn the Annenberg Quadrangle into a huge party Friday, in an attempt to resurrect the tradition of Skimmer Day, sort of an autumn version of Spring Fling. It rained. The Board even bought an old beat-up Ford Maverick, painted it Princeton orange-and-black and left it outside Steinberg-Dietrich Hall for University students to take turns smashing with a sledgehammer. It was impounded. Still, despite the bad luck, Junior Class Board officers said yesterday that Skimmer Day went as well as could be expected under the circumstances. "We didn't have the best possible conditions," admitted Mike Graves, the Board's vice president for corporate sponsorship. Still, considering the circumstances, "things went really well," College junior Graves said. Board officers estimated between 1,500 and 2,000 students attended the day-long event which had to be held in Houston Hall's Bodek Lounge. Junior Class Board Vice President Leigh Molinari said the best thing about Skimmer Day was probably that it set a precedent. The rain, she said, was "kind of disappointing," considering the Junior Class Board had been planning Skimmer Day since last year. Next year, she said, it will be held earlier in the year, when the chance of rain is lower. Other Skimmer Day-related events, such as Tiger Death Fest, a rally held on College Green before the showdown with the Princeton Tigers, and the De La Soul/A Tribe Called Quest concert were successes, she said. Other students who went to Skimmer Day seemed to echo the opinions of class board members. "I thought it was all right," College sophomore Roy Vongtama said. "[The Junior Class Board] planned it really well," he added. "I think more people would have gone if it was outside." College sophomore Eric Tienou said he thought Skimmer Day was "interesting," and it might have been more successful if only Mother Nature had been a little kinder. "It would have been much better if it was a nicer day outside," he said. "People seemed to be interested in it."

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