Rochester Institute of Technology - Techmila / Ramikin Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

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DORMANT REVELATIONS ] moved out of the dorms two years ago. I had to do it for the sake of my psychological stability. Living in the dorms can do strange things to you. I should know because I lived in the dormitories for seven years. After the dilapidated, sunken cement halls of military school, 1 moved to the slightly less spacious, ivy-ridden halls of prep school And then came RIT. At first it was like staying at the Waldorf com- pared to the century old firetraps 1 was used to. But gradually, very gradually, I began to feel more and more like one of Skinner's rats. The proper name for RIT's style of architecture is Brutalism,” Indeed, the name ac- curately describes its effects on inhabi- tants. What follows are a few indica- tions of the strange and adverse effects that living in the RIT dormitories has had on some of my acquaintances and people that I have mistakenly come in contact with. As a freshman, the first and most outstanding example of adverse affec- tation I was introduced to was Richie Vial, Richie was a 24 year-old Criminal Justice major who peddled a lot of dope and had fun blowing the money he inherited on such things as new cars and color T V sets. But with all his money, he still lived in the dorms. I think he needed a following. Richie was famous for knocking on doors in the early hours of the morning with a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps in his back pocket and plenty of dope to share. Richie was also an accomplished tennis player, but he rarely played when he wasn't speeding. One of the best stories that Richie ever told me was about Fat Patty.'' It seems that Fat Patty'' was a girl from MCC who just happened to be the willing recipient of an obscene phone call one night. That same night she visited RIT and took on 17 guys from one floor. 1 didn't believe the story until Richie showed me his photo album. Richie went on to explain Patty's most memorable feat at one on the frat houses where she experienced 34 guys in one night , . non-stop. The next morning WITR devoted an entire day of broadcasting to her. It's rumored that 'Fat Patty” was a virgin before she set foot on the RIT campus, but 1 have no way of verifying that. I'm not really sure whatever became of Fat Patty” but the last time I saw Richie was when he visited ‘ The Cellar one night. At that time he had transferred to some community college where he was living by himself in an apartment. Miraculously, he seemed to be recovering from a too long stay in the RIT dormitories, Down the hall from Richie was Roger. Roger is graduating from RIT this year, so I'll go easy on him. If you're reading this Roger, make sure your parents never see it, Roger is a somewhat homely kid who must have led a sheltered life before coming to college. Every floor has someone who always gets picked on and on the 9th floor of Sol Heumann, that someone was Roger. 1 can remember one night early in the year when Roger drank a quart of vodka. I was in a friend's 25

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24 HOUTEMEfl

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room when I heard a lot of commotion in the hall. When 1 looked out the door, there was Roger running up and down the hall screaming and crying and acting pretty generally beserk Somehow he got hold of a knife and it took three of us to get it away from him, 1 think Roger needed a following also. Later on that year, Roger's room- mate happened to mention that it had been quite a while since Roger had taken a shower, and the stench was getting unbearable. The five of us who were sitting in the lounge at the time were uncommonly bored, so maybe it’s more than coincidence that we all came up with the same idea, I supplied the Fab ' someone else got a broom and the RA let us into Roger's room. He put up quite a fight. In fact, we almost ended up dragging his bed into the shower with him, but a half an hour later, Roger didn't smell so bad anymore. Roger, 1 apologize for bring- ing back bad memories, During my freshman year 1 spent a lot of time at Colby D, which at that time was an all female floor. Colby D was the site of numerous strange and memorable experiences one of which was Manny Straus. Manny's sense of humor dominated his every activity, even when he was trying to be serious. Instead of smoking cigarettes, chewing gum or partaking in normal tension easing vices, Manny blew bubbles. He carried one of those little plastic bub- ble blowers with him constantly. He was quite good at it and it was not un- common to see a parade of bubbles emanating from his room, six floors up in one of the towers. My clearest recollection of Manny is on a night he wouldn't remember at all because of his total and complete intoxication, I was standing in the hall over at Colby D around 2:00 in the morning with a friend when this normally shy girl came running out of her room scream- ing that there was a man in her bed. 1 went back to her room to check out the situation, and there was Manny lying unconscious between her sheets The worst part about it was that Manny didn't even know the girl. He just hap- pened to wander in and pass out next to her. It was no use trying to wake him up so I carried Manny out into the lounge and attempted to get him onto one of the couches. Just as I was about to lower him onto a couch he struggled to get loose and I dropped him. When his head smacked against the arm of the couch I figured we wouldn't be hearing much more from Manny that nite, so I went to bed. The next morn- ing, I woke up to find that Manny had entered still another girl's room and again found a comfortable resting place between someone else's sheets. This time he found a much less hospitable hostess. He was literally picked up and thrown into the hall by the girl and her roommate, both of whom were of fairly large stature. Manny left RIT after his freshman year. His name still pops up in conver- sations from time to time. ?S