Bethany College - Bethanian Yearbook (Bethany, WV)

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Rush Week Boots On By Gem Miller trifling problems as What is the greatest num- ber of whacks they can take at you? Are you allowed to give your pledge pin away? Which has the nicest pin, the most cars, and the best file of exam papers? But fraternities were forgotten among the hustle and bustle of Freshmen days. The stu- dents were staggering under such a load of in- telligence tests that they had little time to dis- cuss the merits of one fraternity or another. The Fraternity smoker was the night before Rush Week, and arriving at Cochran Hall a little late, I thought somebody was giving a demon- stration on smoke screens. The room was so hazy I got a little sick in the stomach so I quickly- ducked outside for a bit of fresh air. I perceived at this time, certain freshmen, who before this had nothing more than a toothbrush or rattle in their mouths, smoking in an unperturbed, and most sophisticated manner, long, three-for-a- nickel cheroots. But the day of the 18th dawned clear and sun- ny and Rush Week began. Armed with then- sheets of instruction and their schedule for visit- ing the respective houses, the freshmen set forth. I went to the K. A ' s first. There I was greeted as a distinguished person, and I was made to feel that they were showing me such a good time, just because they liked me so much, and wanted badly for me to become a member. Later, I found Continued on Page Nineteen Top right — An informal Sigma Nil smoker. Upper right — Conversation at the Sig hearth. Right — Frosh ami Johnny Medick inspect the KA athletic trophies. Lower right — Rushers sign the guest roster at the KA house. Below — Frosh and Phi Taus discuss fraternities and college life. Pige tleven

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Fraternity Or, I Pledged JVith My The freshmen were sprawled all over the ounge talking about mundane and highly intel- lectual subjects, when I made my entrance by tripping on the carpet. I deemed myself not bright enough to grasp the finer points of this conversation, but I soon heard somebody say, she ' s a pip, and knowing that he was not speaking of Einstein ' s theory, and by using ad- vanced algebra and a smattering of trig I calcu- lated he was talking about the freshmen girls. This interesting and highly enjoyable talk was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a fresh- man—exuberant. He blurted our something about being over at the Sig house, and what a swell place it was. I inquired who was Sig and in what business did he make all his dough. The fresh- man all of a sudden took an aloft and distant air, and replied that Sig was not a person, but a fra- ternity. I told him to come off his higher plane before I divcd-bombed him. And then and there we started discussing fraternities, and I never heard so many Greek words in all my life. And what questions do you think were asked? What is the background of the A K Pi ' s? How many chapters have the Beta ' s? and What is their fraternity flower? No. They asked such Top left — Don Hilhtrom and Roy Heckel demonstrate the best method of rushing attack. Upper left — The Betas entertain with a jam session in their east wing extension. Left — Bud Deer and Ed Gudgel talk to Dare Perry, Frank McEvoy and Frank Buecbley in a room at the AKPi house. Loner left — Herman Steinberg, Karl W ass- man and Dick Wallace discuss athletics at the AKPi fireplace. Below — Geenan entertains with another fam- ous anecdote. Page Ten

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NOSE-TROUBLE This column might be called an innovation. There are probably better things it could be called, but they aren ' t printable. You see this is supposed to be a gossip column, of a sort, which is to have no gossip in it. The Bethanian can ' t print a dirt column such as you have been accustomed to find in many magazines and papers for these simple reasons: 1. News travels fast — especially the kind of news you find in such columns. 2. People change just as fast. We shouldn ' t sleep nights (if this were a scandal corner) for fear that Joe Blow, who we linked with Mary Goon, might turn around and put his pin on Hermoine Burp. 3. Tell would scoop us every time. Further- more the Bethanian is usually late. We think, however, that there ' s enough in- teresting foolishness going on around school and the nearby wooded vicinity to make a page or so of decent reading per month. A good deal of the fun in college conies from little dopey things that go on all the time, things that made you laugh when they happened, and that might make you laugh again. Moreover, there are happenings, people and places in Bethany which are interest- ing and amusing, but which few people seem to know about. Maybe we can drag some of them in here. We aren ' t going to make any claims or pro- phecies about this minor mess. We ' ll try to make it worth reading, if you ' ll bear with us on the first try. We ' re somewhat rushed by the dead- line this month, and furthermore, there seems to be a great shortage of material. We ' ll do our best though, and will surely welcome any suggestions, ideas, interesting anecdotes or other miscellan- eous matter you might throw at us, c o Bethan- ian. Frankly, we ' re somewhat discouraged by Bethany ' s first wartime College session in 25 years. So far, at least, it would be difficult to discern that anything unusual was cooking. Of course we see headlines while en route to the funny pages; news broadcasts sneak in be- tween programs of dance music; chewing gum is hard to get, and isn ' t wrapped in tinfoil anymore; matches are scarce and CPT boys are plentiful, and we hear of things like scrap drives and black- outs; but on the whole Bethany doesn ' t seem much concerned over democracy ' s life or death struggle. Everything seems just as usual. Freshman Week was the same as it always has been; Rush Week as lead pipe-ish as ever; the football team carries on the tradition; there are upperclass men students in school and what ' s more they ' re taking history, economics and literature; the freshmen girls are impolite on serenades and lovely in evening gowns and all in all things aren ' t much different from what they ' ve been the last few years. We can ' t quite figure it out. After all the bustle and confusion of back home, the peace and quiet of Bethany bewildered us. Not that we ' re criticising anybody or anything. We aren ' t too sure but what it ' s a good thing that there ' s some- where to come and have a little quiet before we boys go and the girls get jobs. We just noticed it, felt a little let down, and thought we ' d men- tion it to you. Perhaps the one place on the campus where tradition is quickly giving ground is the library. Probably the freshmen don ' t know and the soph- omores aren ' t sure, but we can remember the time when Mr. Carnegie ' s yellow temple was a date bureau for freshmen females, and a hotbed of such sundry sins as holding hands, talking, note-passing and winking. It is even rumored that pins have been put out in the stacks. We wandered up the other night with purely journalistic intent, and what we saw made us fear for the old order. From top to bottom the library was filled with students . . studying. On the bottom and main floors the tables were filled with industrious workers. We couldn ' t find a single couple talking together back in the stacks. On the third floor it was so quiet we could hear the rats running through Prof. Green ' s collection of Indian Relics. On our way back down we spotted only one thing that verged on the ex-commonplace sin of week night dating there: a freshman girl started to smile at a football player, however on seeing a member of the staff nearby, checked her biologi- cal urge and went back to her drudgery. We asked Mr. Behymer what he thought of it all and he just smiled and said, Marvelous. We tried the same question on Miss Bellinger and she replied, Sssshhhhhhh. We started to ask a freshman girl what she thought of the whole affair, but unfortunately Mr. B. threw us out before we could even find out her name. We hate to start out this column in a squawky mood, but we ' ve been wondering lately if some- thing couldn ' t be done about the Chapel. We don ' t mind going too much, outside of the hard seats and most of the programs. What we hate is the fact that we never quite know what ' s go- ing on. We wouldn ' t be sure but what the speak- ers, etc. could be good. All we hear is a buzzed up jumble of vowels and consonants, with a few overtones and reverberations thrown in for good measure. We like musical programs, but not when they all sound like the Wellsburg Philharmonic tun- ing up. And those of us who don ' t have girls and are consequently interested in the movie ContiniwJ on Page Twenty Page Twelve