Thunder ruled the sky over Brown University’s College Green Friday evening, when the university punctuated the first round of celebrations on its 250th anniversary with a vigorous fireworks display that brought roars from the crowd that jammed the hallowed area.
At one point flaming white numbers — the size of the four-story building on whose side the apparition appeared — spelled out “250+”. The blazing digits would appear again, at the climax of the display, this time in gold. From the roof, technicolor sparks hosed skyward à la antiaircraft fire. The light show illuminated not only the clouds above, but the heads below.
Connie DiPanfilo, who watched the pyrotechnics from the shelter of Rogers Hall with her son, Nicholas, a student at Attleboro High School, said, “Never,” when asked if she had ever seen such a display. In fact, said DiPanfilo, who works in Brown’s International Advancement Office, she had never seen any fireworks at Brown.
College Green became a mob scene long before the fireworks erupted. As a first-quarter moon loomed through a thin overcast, the throngs approached from every direction, having consumed every parking spot within a many-block area.
Many were clearly not Brown students. Parents brought young children who rode their shoulders.
A brilliantly lit stage formed a backdrop from which speakers spoke and performers performed. The clamor of the crowd was such however that nothing penetrated beyond 50 feet.
It was a night for winter coats and wool hats. People carrying hot drinks from several tents that distributed food and beverages left small trails of steam behind them.
From a backlit, third-story building someone gazed down on the throng and did a respectable imitation of the pope appearing on the balcony at St. Peter’s Square. The papal mimicker soon draped himself with a flag and danced.