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1 9 7 0 Juniors Hazing the Seniors
The ASL sign 'revenge' is used for the word 'hazing' in this article
Hazing by the Juniors - an annual spring ritual that occurs
sometime
during the last three weeks of school, actually the last two weeks of
school for the Seniors since they go on "vacation" during the
last week of the school year.
A couple of male COS (Class of Seventyers) I asked don't seem to
remember this event...perhaps possibly because they were at a off
campus Track sporting event? Lucky them I will say.
I remember after class, we were the victims of the annual hazing by
the Juniors of 1970. I remember very well...spaghetti day, actually,
it's called
"leftover" spaghetti day...we COS'ers trekked to the track field
in
front of the concrete bleachers, where all or most of the
Upper School students were seated. We were barefooted,
blindfolded, and led down to a path of unknowns that we
had to walk on. Now I don't remember everything that we walked on
but it may have been just the spaghetti on aluminum foil, anyhow,
I do remember this:
Before I was blindfolded, I could see in the distance, the Juniors
including Jim Collins, my electronic cohort, was kneeling down working
on something shiny, which later I found out to be aluminum foil.
Then we were blindfolded...the blindfold I had on was not completely
covered on me tight...I could see down without moving my head.
Then we were guided to the "revenge" path. One by one, I could
hear
the girls in front of me squeal. I could see the legs of a
girl classmate
and after she disappeared out of my vision, I heard
her squeal.
So now it's my turn, walking forward...on aluminum, then on to spaghetti
noodles...oh, yeah, I forgot to add that there's also spaghetti sauce with
the
noodles...yuk, yuk...actually squish, squish, when you have to walk on
them...moving my head a bit, I caught a glimpse of some hands goofing
with some wires on a battery...then my feet started to tingle...a-ha!
Electricity! I felt that before when I played with batteries...on my
hands.
OK, so it's payback time, I acted as if nothing happened, stood still
until someone nudged me forward and removed the blindfold. Then
we walked on a thin sheet of water, probably to clean our feet before
returning to our dorms.
Later that evening, J. Collins asked me if I felt the
tingling of
electricity and I replied "Yep, I knew what it was, it didn't bother me". He
said he thought the battery died when I didn't react and also
said he made sure all the connections was there and flipped the
switch and the battery several times and still couldn't understand
why I didn't react. Ha, ha, ha, now he knows.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
All hazing activities in previous years were different; most times shaving
cream was used, cups of water poured down seniors back, water poured
slowly over their heads, towels soaked in water squeezed over their
heads, lipstick drawn on their faces and/or arms, sometimes blindfolded,
and sometimes not. Nothing dangerous, just funny pranks. Although,
unconfirmed, we believe
this annual tradition ended
with our Class. ...as the song goes
...Those Were the Days, My Friend,
We Thought They Never End...
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