If the term "traditional prep school" means coat-and-tie dress code, sit-down meals, master-student relationships and seniority systems, Proctor is definitely not traditional. This is not to say that we lack traditions. We have lots of them. Teams ring the big bell above Maxwell Savage Hall after each victory; students elect to dress in strange fashions on Fridays, and Polar Swim happens Friday mornings at six o'clock. Some kids spend the previous night at the yurt, but most catch a mini-bus that takes them to the sauna at the Mountain Classroom facility, on the edge of Elbow Pond. The sauna has been fired-up by Maintenance heroes Kenny and Gary.

It is hot and steamy inside. Coffee and doughnuts are served. It is 22 degrees outside, and windy, with snow squalls. The idea of plunging into 32-degree water is unthinkable. Or is it?

Apparently, when you get hot and sweaty enough, anything is possible, no matter how shocking and traumatizing.

Polar Swimmers approach the plunge differently. Some dive; others wade in torturously. Either way, the immersion is always brief, and followed by gasping, and plenty of unprintable oaths.

After a plunge, "swimmers" retreat to the sauna for another cycle of overheating followed by another plunge. After three or four, as the sunrise soaks Ragged Mountain in color, it's time to get back to the bus.

Next Friday, we'll do it again, right?

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