Clue Calamity
“ Beanie N igh t. The words certainly didn’t give much clue to what we w ould be put through . . . ” Deborah Ross
One Freshman’s Story Beanie night. The words certain ly didn’t give much clue to what we would be put through. We were aware that it was tradition for freshm en every year and were kind of excited that it was going to happen to us. W hat we didn’t know is what we were go ing to have to do and say to get our beanies. The sophomores did a good job of corralling us down to the lob by with the help of their spray bottles and boppers. T his is where the real resistance began. We ail were screaming “ Fresh men, Freshmen” over and over. Even the water bottles, boppers and spray string didn’t stop us. T h en we s ta rte d sc rea m in g “ Ninety-Three, Ninety-Three.” It took awhile but the sopho mores finally took control. We
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were each given an irritating Groucho Marx mask and herded out to the parking lot where we formed a circle. W hat happened next is hard to describe. The sophom ores would single out freshm en to do crazy things. One had to moo like a cow, oth ers, including myself, had to “sizzle like bacon.” All of us had to do the crab walk. Some of us were told to make a pyramid, others were singing the S ta r Spangled Banner. The sopho m ores trie d to m ake us say “ sophom ores are b e a u tifu l.” Some said it but a lot refused to. Instead they would yell “ Fresh men, Freshmen” no m atter how much they were squirted or hit. Some of the sophomores got car ried away with the hitting — no doubt remembering their own beanie night! I was proud of the class of 1993!
The fun began. First we “wheel harrowed” our partners under a rope. Next — barefoot we had to walk through these tires filled with alpo mixture, liver and only the sophomores know what else! Then we had to stick our faces in a tub of kool aid and get out a noodle from the bottom with our mouths. O f course, it never oc curred to us that every freshman before us had most likely spit into th is pool. T h ro u g h the whole evening we had been sprayed with water. They con tinued it. We then had to get down on our hands and knees
and crawl through a tunnel roll ing out onto a m at covered with flour. So now everyone had red faces, brown feet and a flour paste all over their bodies. But we were smiling as the sopho mores handed us our green and white beanies. Deborah Ross