Knox College Pumphandle 2009

Pumphandle starts at 4:30 p.m. on the afternoon of the day before fall classes begin -- this year, on September 9; the football team got out of practice "early" -- in time to get into line by 5:08:38 p.m., according to this photo's timestamp.

Fist-bumps and high-fives, along with a few other precautions (below) were in evidence at Pumphandle 2009.

Two students head for Pumphandle. At the beginning and end of the line, Knox provided antiseptic hand cleaner.

The Pumphandle line can turn back almost onto itself. A new Knox student told a reporter from the Galesburg Register-Mail: Pumphandle is not "just a long line of people... it could move around when people at the line's end decided where to go... One of my orientation leaders used Pumphandle as a metaphor for your academic career. He said, 'This is a journey and you can choose where to go.' I liked that..."

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