The large, red digital clock on the corner of 8th Avenue and Oak Street flashed between “9 C” and “5:59 p.m.” A cluster of 10 University students and community members bounced from foot to foot, all of them holding pillows close to their bodies to keep warm.
They watched the clock for the signal like runners awaiting the pistol firing before a race.
“5:59 … 9 C … 5:59 … 48 F … 6 p.m.”
“Yeah! Pillow fight!” a woman screamed as the clock changed. She ran up the stairs to the covered area of the park, pillow in hand, winding back with momentum before the first whack broke the silence and the frantic movement broke the cold.
The first hits of last night’s pillow fight were the best, when the participants struggled to find a strong grip on their weapons, because there is no control, no skill and absolutely no thought to the sport besides: “I’m going to hit you with my pillow.”
Victoria Charnley called these moments “organized chaos,” which “tends to be really fun.”
“A lot of people feel like they can’t do this sort of thing, but anybody really can,” said Charnley, a University freshman. Charnley, like many people at the event, discovered it on MySpace.
By 6:05 p.m. the cluster began to get closer together, swings became less forceful and the static electricity among the group was clearly visible by the hair standing on end and frizzy strands escaping the grasps of many ponytails.
Just as the group’s pillow “thumps” were getting less and less frequent, a gang of five people charged up the stairs, pillows held tightly behind their heads as if they were swords ready to be swung.
“How many times do you get to pillow fight in public?” asked Bryan Avery, a University student who said he’s heard of huge pillow fights taking place in larger cities. Although he has never attended one, he came with a plan of attack.
“I anticipated I would be able to hold the pillow with both corners, but that doesn’t work so well,” he said.
Paul McBryde, a community member who walked away from the fight with a bloody nose, said he thought it worked best to twist up one end of the pillow for a tight hold and then swing it around.
“I got some pretty good hits on him,” he said of his friend, who gave him the bloody nose.
McBryde, who wore pajamas and a robe to the pillow fight, said it was still worth it even though he suffered an injury.
“It’s something different. I’ve never been in a pillow fight in public,” he said.
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