First year dormitory college students seem to go with extended summer camp. If I’m wrong, I lived in a completely abnormal world. It didn’t did have to be a weekend it could be any day and any time. It was important to watch your back. My only experience with this was the one retreat where we decided to put the directors VW bug between two trees. Stupid!
It was not unusual to hear a loud splat in the dorm as some guy coming back to his room from being who knows where opened his door. It seemed guys loved to pull the pins out the doors of others, set it back in place and wait. It was impossible to tell the pins had been pulled from the outside. I learned to open my door hanging on to the handle with both hands while lifting in hopes of the door staying in place.
I remember a water fight on second floor where the floors were sopping wet and the water was trickling down the stairs. Since the building was made of recycled materials from WWII one never knew how rotten the wood already was. I’m sure this didn’t help.
Doug and I seemed to be targets. We had the door thing done, but we were hit twice with strange odors. One was worse than the other. We could not place the odor as it hung in the middle of the room. We were days trying to find the stupid thing. It did occur to us that it wasn’t really in the center of the room, but was pulled there by the heating system.
An old steam radiator that could not be properly controlled heated our room. It was always hot. Room temperature was modulated by how wide the window was open. The space under the door was high enough for a train and the air sucked though until you found a tolerable temperature.
It took awhile to figure out that there was no odor when we first would entered the room. It took time to build and only appeared when the light was on. Doug found the problem. A small piece of dining room cheese had been placed on the light bulb that was sticking out of the wall. I was always convinced they were serving Limburger cheese and as far as I was concerned, this proved it.
We found the other odor much quicker. The distinctive smell of rotting fish cannot be missed. Some blessed soul threw a dead fish quit far under the opening at the end of Doug’s bed. I think he had his suspicions as to the guilty party. The way things happened around that dorm it could have been anyone.
I would love to say we were the saints of the dorm, but why lie now. We had a neighbor living under us who came to visit quite often. We liked him well enough and just wanted to have fun.
Since a pipe from our radiator went through the floor and we could see light through the opening and an idea popped. What would happen if we put a funnel around the pipe and poured water into the funnel? We reasoned that it would likely come out in the room below like a misty shower. Our buddy sat at the desk directly below that pipe. It worked like a charm – from our point of view.
We only did it twice, but (can you say this word about a Bible college prank) all hell broke loose. The dean paid us a visit. “Did you pour water on your downstairs neighbor?” “More or less.” “It looks like more to me. Do you know what happened?” Tell me now, does anyone who decides to pull a prank really know what the consequences will be. We think we do, but are often wrong.
Well, it seems he was not at his desk the second time, but his completed homework was and it got soaked. Since this was pre computer days he could not push a button and punch out another copy. He had to do it again. Guess, what – we had the privilege of cleaning the dirty garbage cans. They weren’t too dirty. I can only assume this was a regular discipline and others had done it not that long before us.
One student had a telephone line strung between his room and the room of his girlfriend across campus just so he could say goodnight. Wasn’t that sweet. Of course it was against the rules.
One of the funniest incidents involved two upper classmen who got into a tussle after coming out of the shower and I first saw them coming down the hall struggling with one another with only towels wrapped around them. The struggled continued down the hall and to the top landing of the stairs closest to Fourth Ave. and then down to the middle landing by the huge exterior windows where the towels finally fell off. That did not stop the fight at least not for a while. The gathered crowd and the boys got laughing so hard the fight could not continue. I have no idea what anyone across the street saw, but if they were looking it could not have been missed.
I think Al always wanted a pet. He spent several days outside trying to catch a pet gopher. They were everywhere. He would patiently sit with a string looped over a gopher hole and when it would stick its head out he was determined loop it. Well, patience paid off. He finally succeeded and got his pet. Now, what to do with a pet gopher? I know, take it for a walk. He did, right through the library to the delight of the students and the horror of the librarian. Since there was no place to keep a pet, he released Fredrick back to the parking lot.
Al, white T-shit and Roy (I think) setting the trap for Fredrick the gopher (I just made that name up).
Al, preparing for a life of domestication. "You don't need to use bar soap, there is laundry detergent." "Oh, I see. Ran out."
I must say more about Youth Conference. I was impressed with the concept. I wished I had been there earlier in the year just to be part of the planning. I wasn’t but there was a request for someone who could paint a banner and a logo. I volunteered. Over my years there I did several banners. I always painted banners backwards because I didn’t want to lay my left hand in the paint by going forwards. I do remember someone catching me painting on the dining room floor (my normal place) and telling me I skipped a letter. It wasn’t the first nor the last time that happened. I don’t know the result of that notification, but sometimes I could figure out a way to fix it and sometimes I had to start over. I also painted the logo that hung in the stairway to the dining room. Loved the painting. I was less enthusiastic about the hordes on the floor. But even that was fun.
Oh ya, we also did other things. Now what were they?
2 comments:
I recall that Cliff and I were involved in playing one.
When everyone was asleep, my roommate and I would sneak into the next room, pull the pillow from under the guy's head, and hit him with his pillow.
Then we would run out to the next room and do it to the next couple guys. We hit everyone on the floor that night. In the morning some recalled being hit, but others didn't notice at all. They must have been very sound sleepers.
John Barach
I remember the incident when you told me. Either you guys were active several nights or others were following in your footsteps. I only did that to a roommate who snored. You reminded me that my roommate and I would go into our neighbors room after they were asleep and reset the alarms for an earlier time. One night we changed the clock three times. I should feel horrible. I don't know that those neighbors ever did anything to us.
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