Gang Of Four - Damaged Goods
Killing Joke - Eighties
The Ruts - Babylons Burning
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
PIL - Public Image
X-Ray Spex - The Day The World Turned Day-Glo
Jim Carroll Band - City Drops Into The Night
The Fall - No Bulbs
Joy Division - Disorder
The Call - I Don't Wanna
Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.
Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com Twitter:@notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com
Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday
Written and Published by Don Leach.
May not be used without permission from the author.
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Showing posts with label eighties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eighties. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Frat Life 101, Night Of The Dunking Pledges, Part 3
The next plan came together quite simply. Somebody had some balloons. A few other people had some shoe polish. The rest of our supplies were inadvertently "donated" by the university as we went through our dorms and gathered every single roll of toilet paper that we could find. The only toilet paper left in the entire dorm was the rolls on the floors where our rooms were. All else were taken and thus properly armed we made our way to the fraternity house for what would be our final showdown. We quietly left our vehicles and stationed a few pledges at the front door armed with the balloons that were now filled with water. The rest of us started applying shoe polish to car windshields and toilet paper to the cars and the trees on the property. The wind was blowing slightly and it was a magnificent sight to behold.
We were unsure of how many, if any, members were inside the house and eventually I guess we made enough noise for one of them to open the front door. As he did so several water balloons flew at him and he quickly slammed the door shut and locked it. We gave up on the rest of our work and decided that now we had to get into the house and get someone else to take a trip to the river. The siege on the house had begun and would not be halted for any man or reason. As we were looking for a way in we found that those inside had quickly procured their own water balloons and a brief firefight broke out. At some point I came up with the idea that the lock on the small bathroom window was broken and that if we were quiet enough we could sneak inside.
Thankfully I had remembered correctly and the lock was indeed broken. Somehow about five or six of us managed to climb through the window without making too much noise. We waited a few moments and then burst through the door. This is where with age my memory has started to get cloudy. I don't recall if Chris was inside and had made it into his room but I know for a fact that Gary and Spazz were. Someone was tasked to unlock the front door and the rest went after whoever they could find. Remarkably Gary made it past everyone and locked himself in his room that was right next to the bathroom but Spazz wasn't that lucky. I found him face down on his bed with Terry on top pinning his arms behind him. He couldn't move and was captured and knew that since no mercy would be given he wouldn't even bother asking for it. The handcuffs were thrown on him quickly and we took him outside and started loading him in a vehicle.
If you can believe it that's when things got really crazy. Gary climbed out of his window onto the porch wearing camouflage pants, no shirt and a Spiderman mask while carrying a boat oar. He screamed something like "I'm coming for you Spazz!" and ran at us swinging the oar. Swiftly he was disarmed and taken to the ground but he was fighting fiercely. A decision was made to send the vehicle ahead with Spazz and then we addressed our predicament. We chose to try and get away from Gary to another vehicle but he was holding onto someone so we ran back to help. Then as everyone let go he got ahold of my arm and I swear he was trying to bite me so everyone else came back and this time we held him up in the air by his limbs and at the count of three dropped him and ran to the waiting truck and dove in as it raced off. Once again another pair of handcuffs would have come in handy although I don't think that anyone involved would have relished the thought of what would happen once those handcuffs came off.
A quick stop was in order so that we could fulfill our part of the bargain and we found that we barely could scrape together any money so we were forced to purchase a single, generic cigarette and a single, warm, generic beer. Seriously, that's all we could afford. This was in the days before there were ATMs on every street corner and in every convenience store. Thus armed with our provisions we continued on to the river where Spazz chose to go in practically undressed but he was very cross with us when he found out what we had for him afterwards. Since he was an avid smoker and drinker he was offended by our offerings and perhaps thought that we didn't like him. Nothing could be further from the truth for we liked him very much but unfortunately, we were just broke college kids trying to get by on an amazing night.
We returned Spazz to the house and after this night of infamy I think we gained a great deal of respect in the eyes of the members and the alumni. They now knew that we had the right spirit and the cojones to go all out in the pursuit of fun and brotherhood. This knowledge however didn't cease to make us hesitant the next few days as we were on the lookout for some good natured retaliation. It didn't turn out to be necessary at that time but in an odd way I myself would suffer a form of payback a few years later when a very different pledge class did the same to me at the very same site where we had dunked those three members. The kick of it is that I wasn't even in school at the time. More on that story soon.
Published by Don Leach
We were unsure of how many, if any, members were inside the house and eventually I guess we made enough noise for one of them to open the front door. As he did so several water balloons flew at him and he quickly slammed the door shut and locked it. We gave up on the rest of our work and decided that now we had to get into the house and get someone else to take a trip to the river. The siege on the house had begun and would not be halted for any man or reason. As we were looking for a way in we found that those inside had quickly procured their own water balloons and a brief firefight broke out. At some point I came up with the idea that the lock on the small bathroom window was broken and that if we were quiet enough we could sneak inside.
Thankfully I had remembered correctly and the lock was indeed broken. Somehow about five or six of us managed to climb through the window without making too much noise. We waited a few moments and then burst through the door. This is where with age my memory has started to get cloudy. I don't recall if Chris was inside and had made it into his room but I know for a fact that Gary and Spazz were. Someone was tasked to unlock the front door and the rest went after whoever they could find. Remarkably Gary made it past everyone and locked himself in his room that was right next to the bathroom but Spazz wasn't that lucky. I found him face down on his bed with Terry on top pinning his arms behind him. He couldn't move and was captured and knew that since no mercy would be given he wouldn't even bother asking for it. The handcuffs were thrown on him quickly and we took him outside and started loading him in a vehicle.
If you can believe it that's when things got really crazy. Gary climbed out of his window onto the porch wearing camouflage pants, no shirt and a Spiderman mask while carrying a boat oar. He screamed something like "I'm coming for you Spazz!" and ran at us swinging the oar. Swiftly he was disarmed and taken to the ground but he was fighting fiercely. A decision was made to send the vehicle ahead with Spazz and then we addressed our predicament. We chose to try and get away from Gary to another vehicle but he was holding onto someone so we ran back to help. Then as everyone let go he got ahold of my arm and I swear he was trying to bite me so everyone else came back and this time we held him up in the air by his limbs and at the count of three dropped him and ran to the waiting truck and dove in as it raced off. Once again another pair of handcuffs would have come in handy although I don't think that anyone involved would have relished the thought of what would happen once those handcuffs came off.
A quick stop was in order so that we could fulfill our part of the bargain and we found that we barely could scrape together any money so we were forced to purchase a single, generic cigarette and a single, warm, generic beer. Seriously, that's all we could afford. This was in the days before there were ATMs on every street corner and in every convenience store. Thus armed with our provisions we continued on to the river where Spazz chose to go in practically undressed but he was very cross with us when he found out what we had for him afterwards. Since he was an avid smoker and drinker he was offended by our offerings and perhaps thought that we didn't like him. Nothing could be further from the truth for we liked him very much but unfortunately, we were just broke college kids trying to get by on an amazing night.
We returned Spazz to the house and after this night of infamy I think we gained a great deal of respect in the eyes of the members and the alumni. They now knew that we had the right spirit and the cojones to go all out in the pursuit of fun and brotherhood. This knowledge however didn't cease to make us hesitant the next few days as we were on the lookout for some good natured retaliation. It didn't turn out to be necessary at that time but in an odd way I myself would suffer a form of payback a few years later when a very different pledge class did the same to me at the very same site where we had dunked those three members. The kick of it is that I wasn't even in school at the time. More on that story soon.
Published by Don Leach
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Frat Life 101: Continued
There we were, a bunch of young guys fresh out of high school, trying to take advantage of what we perceived as our new found freedom, no matter how immature we really were. We were just attempting to have fun now that we didn't have to listen to anyone telling us what time to go to bed or what music we could listen to or anything as banal as that. So we went to that fraternity party at Sigma Tau Gamma and met another group of new people. Some of them turned out to also be future pledges although at that time I thought that they were already members.
It didn't take long for us to decide that we would all pledge but I for one did briefly entertain the idea that I would wait a semester so that I could concentrate on my grades. One look at my transcript and you would be able to see that I should have done that however, it was mentioned to me that I probably wouldn't want to pledge under my new found friends when they were members and basically they were right. That could have been hell. Sig Tau was different from any other fraternity on campus. There was one that was business majors, one that was for preppy rich kids and even one for redneck jocks (at least they were when they were still in high school). Then there was Sig Tau. They didn't care what kind of clothes you wore, what kind of money your family had, what your major was and they certainly didn't care what color your skin was.
The only thing that Sig Tau cared about was brotherhood. If you were out at the river at 3am and your car wouldn't start you knew that someone would come and get you. They might give you an untold amount of grief over it but they would come and get you. They wanted people who wanted to hang out together and be friends because life could suck pretty badly at times and is was better to be surrounded by like minded people who wanted to enjoy life in their own way. I'm not going to pretend that everything was always perfect and there were never any problems because there were, but the bottom line was that we took care of each other.
As pledges we were expected to learn about each others lives, your hometown, your major (if you had one which I did off and on), how many siblings you had and so forth. You also were required to learn about the members. Each pledge was assigned a member to be their big brother. This was the guy you would go to when you had problems, the one who would take care of you and make sure you were doing everything you were supposed to. At least that was the working theory.
One thing that was different about Sig Tau was that we had what no other fraternity or sorority at NSU could offer, we had a house. It was a rundown, beat up shack of a house but it was ours and we reveled in it. Parties were frequent occurrences and we did them well. The house sat on a rounded curve (instead of a regular corner) just off of the main thoroughfare and was a choice spot for us. It wasn't technically on campus but was just off of it and there was a convenience store about a block away which was, well, in a word extremely convenient. Okay that was two words. Plus the football stadium was very close and as pledges we were required to go early when there were home football games so that we could save seats for the members and any alumni who was coming to the game.
We were also required to learn about the history of the fraternity and once we did we were in for a surprise. Zeta chapter was significant in that history because we were the fifth chapter and it takes five chapters to become a national fraternity. This was great except that somewhere along the way Zeta had become the red headed, bastard, step child of the national fraternity. We were known for doing things our way no matter what nationals told us and we didn't care what the consequences were. During my second semester Zeta was chosen as the host chapter for the annual national meeting that most every chapter sent representatives to. Normally the host chapter is very involved in what goes on during the conference. Notice I said normally. A few members went out to the conference on the first day to touch base with the national leadership and to see what was going to be required of us. They came back and informed us basically that they were snubbed and our participation was not something that was being looked favorably on.
We did the only mature, well thought out thing that this slap in the face deserved. We said to hell with them and went on with business as usual ignoring the fact that the conference was even close by. Was it productive or smart to be this way? No, not even close but honestly we didn't care. That's just the way we were. We even pronounced the name of the fraternity different that any other chapter. Go figure. Despite all of this we soldiered on and wore this status (or lack of) like a badge of honor.
Towards the end of the semester a few pledges had quit and then another quit halfway through Hell Week (the final week of pledgeship) and yet another was blackballed. This is a process where the membership votes and if they don't want you in you are considered blackballed or dismissed. It's extremely rare to go into Hell Week with a pledge that gets blackballed as they are normally gotten rid of before then and the only pledges that go into the final week are the ones that you unequivocally want. There was some grumbling when this happened and some talk of demanding that this dishonored pledge be brought back or else all of us would quit but that nonsense was quickly squashed and soon the remaining pledges who had suffered through so much blood, sweat, tears and a lot of sleepless nights got our just reward. We became neophyte members.
Next time I will talk about the time honored tradition of throwing members into the river which we did as pledges and I also had done to me by later pledges.
It didn't take long for us to decide that we would all pledge but I for one did briefly entertain the idea that I would wait a semester so that I could concentrate on my grades. One look at my transcript and you would be able to see that I should have done that however, it was mentioned to me that I probably wouldn't want to pledge under my new found friends when they were members and basically they were right. That could have been hell. Sig Tau was different from any other fraternity on campus. There was one that was business majors, one that was for preppy rich kids and even one for redneck jocks (at least they were when they were still in high school). Then there was Sig Tau. They didn't care what kind of clothes you wore, what kind of money your family had, what your major was and they certainly didn't care what color your skin was.
The only thing that Sig Tau cared about was brotherhood. If you were out at the river at 3am and your car wouldn't start you knew that someone would come and get you. They might give you an untold amount of grief over it but they would come and get you. They wanted people who wanted to hang out together and be friends because life could suck pretty badly at times and is was better to be surrounded by like minded people who wanted to enjoy life in their own way. I'm not going to pretend that everything was always perfect and there were never any problems because there were, but the bottom line was that we took care of each other.
As pledges we were expected to learn about each others lives, your hometown, your major (if you had one which I did off and on), how many siblings you had and so forth. You also were required to learn about the members. Each pledge was assigned a member to be their big brother. This was the guy you would go to when you had problems, the one who would take care of you and make sure you were doing everything you were supposed to. At least that was the working theory.
One thing that was different about Sig Tau was that we had what no other fraternity or sorority at NSU could offer, we had a house. It was a rundown, beat up shack of a house but it was ours and we reveled in it. Parties were frequent occurrences and we did them well. The house sat on a rounded curve (instead of a regular corner) just off of the main thoroughfare and was a choice spot for us. It wasn't technically on campus but was just off of it and there was a convenience store about a block away which was, well, in a word extremely convenient. Okay that was two words. Plus the football stadium was very close and as pledges we were required to go early when there were home football games so that we could save seats for the members and any alumni who was coming to the game.
We were also required to learn about the history of the fraternity and once we did we were in for a surprise. Zeta chapter was significant in that history because we were the fifth chapter and it takes five chapters to become a national fraternity. This was great except that somewhere along the way Zeta had become the red headed, bastard, step child of the national fraternity. We were known for doing things our way no matter what nationals told us and we didn't care what the consequences were. During my second semester Zeta was chosen as the host chapter for the annual national meeting that most every chapter sent representatives to. Normally the host chapter is very involved in what goes on during the conference. Notice I said normally. A few members went out to the conference on the first day to touch base with the national leadership and to see what was going to be required of us. They came back and informed us basically that they were snubbed and our participation was not something that was being looked favorably on.
We did the only mature, well thought out thing that this slap in the face deserved. We said to hell with them and went on with business as usual ignoring the fact that the conference was even close by. Was it productive or smart to be this way? No, not even close but honestly we didn't care. That's just the way we were. We even pronounced the name of the fraternity different that any other chapter. Go figure. Despite all of this we soldiered on and wore this status (or lack of) like a badge of honor.
Towards the end of the semester a few pledges had quit and then another quit halfway through Hell Week (the final week of pledgeship) and yet another was blackballed. This is a process where the membership votes and if they don't want you in you are considered blackballed or dismissed. It's extremely rare to go into Hell Week with a pledge that gets blackballed as they are normally gotten rid of before then and the only pledges that go into the final week are the ones that you unequivocally want. There was some grumbling when this happened and some talk of demanding that this dishonored pledge be brought back or else all of us would quit but that nonsense was quickly squashed and soon the remaining pledges who had suffered through so much blood, sweat, tears and a lot of sleepless nights got our just reward. We became neophyte members.
Next time I will talk about the time honored tradition of throwing members into the river which we did as pledges and I also had done to me by later pledges.
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