Hell Week Memories - TDC 314

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Harry Baya '61

       We all went through Hell week.  It was an interesting experience.  I would like to document some of my experiences. Here are a few of the things I would cover:

• Getting our names, reciting them
• Paddles - we made them but they were not "used".  I think paddling had stopped not too many years before I got there in 1957.
• Supper with a drunk brother who threw his water into the house president's face: The last supper -  shaving cream
• Our first lineup at Dink Attention
• The omnipotent Dink Master.
• The bean dinner, with blueberry pie and subsequent results
• Differentiating and integrating -  the "Trapper John" story?  Who told it when you were dinks?
• 26   (that's the number I remember.. there were others.   And then there were wheelbarrows for the inhibited)
• Mail Call ( we had to say our names. I got a particularly interesting piece of mail which I had to show everyone)
• Initiation  (the hidden closet,   the ritual  "I bless this friendship...." - which I suppose should remain secret. The handshake

What can you add to the list?   Would you like to document your recall of Hell week or any other aspect of pledging?

I wrote an angry letter about the pettiness of the hazing and gave it to Tom McClimans, president that year.  He correctly predicted I would see thing differently once I was a brother.   There was a little room for pettiness and bullying, but not much. I like to think I was a "softy" at all aspects of hazing.

Then there was Freshman-sophomore rivalry.  The peanut butter raid. When my class got back across the river from the raid in our sophomore year we discovered we had hit one person more than there were pledges. Woops!   I think it was Don Cromley,, an upper classman, by mistake. Can anyone confirm this?

Other memories?  [  Some of the above was discussed in our email blossom in 2016. I may try to capture the best of those if I ever get around to it.]
                                                

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Differentials and Integration:

	Integration of Differentials - Lindsey Russel
	More Differentials

Memories

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Ralph Cuomo '60

At one of the lunches, we were presented with a platter with a dead eel coiled onto a bed of lettuce. It was just a ruse - no one had to eat it, but we didn't know that. When one of my fellow dinks was asked what 'cut' he would like, he answered, 'Just a small piece from the end' (which nearly broke me up). Then one of the brethren (It was not Dinkmaster Joe Carty, but I think it was Bill Long) took a sharp knife, and as he sliced through, the blood just ran onto the lettuce. As we all grimaced, the platter was taken away with the statement, 'Just kidding'.

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Jim Kee '61

My favorites[ memories ] were...

Beans for breakfast, beans for dinner, good ol’ beans for tea,
If I could only be a bean, how happy I would be!   

And,

Mm good, mm good, that’s what Frankie’s beans are, mm good!

These idiotic verses have been huge hits at several parties I’ve attended over the years.
Of course everyone had to be pretty-much shitfaced first.

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Bill Burns '61

I remember that long before Hell Week we would find the occasional differential from previous Hell Weeks.  We had no idea what they were.

I wonder when the peanut butter raid by sophomores on freshmen started and when it stopped.  I remember waking up very quickly in my third floor bunk room bed when it happened, jumping out of bed, and running downstairs only to be stiff armed by Ambrogi as he was trying to get out of the house and not get caught.

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Jim Kee '61

In my hazy memory, at least 3 feet high!  

My major take-away from all that?  I recall thinking at one point, “No way in hell we’ll get all of those differentials on that table,” and, “I’ll never learn my name!”  But somehow we integrated them all, and I eventually learned three names.

Subsequently, in life, I’ve been hesitant to say that some challenge was impossible.

There was also a downside, though.  For years, I avoided reading newspapers.  And, when I heard the murmur of crowds in restaurants, etc., my first impression was, “They’re practicing their names

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Dink Names

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John Miller '66

With apologies for likely misspellings.  As my memory serves…

Tobydurofacdobenshienskicauhamilperinneuppr

Swabsrastpopofftaspaigagotobdebrabveloff
Brungwynluzmlclorbshaishoskovshizzystonslotkow
Dibermeterrumeratorsciepcarugatoheeo
Yowiflickbottumthalpuacthalshovshizzy
Abasbebudyourefofeseruibithlmlaag
Drosphelamelondegastafififormosatchk
Brisfyxivertafundaturhabeactung

A few others have faded into oblivion, but apparently, some of my brain cells haven’t died yet.
 ‑ John

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Ralph Cuomo '60

The only one I ever learned was my own:

Amongatuicassixiesegaggebebomnimpiple.

I cannot swear that the spelling is accurate.

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Bill Ross '59
Ralph and Harry,   Great fun reminiscing and seeing the old photos.  Bill (not"N") Ross here, or briefly known as irritimbraqsymphonquiamquirtuoiopusfungashau hoffenstoffenvonderblickensteimerheimerkreinerhoiterleuterbecker.  I recall trading swats with Carl Sandin who said he grew up in NH riding on a tractor and had the numbest ass.  He would always go first and he brought tears to my eyes.  It made me so mad I wacked him and split my paddle length wise.  Best to you guys.  Have fun.

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