Uncle Bill Moransky, my favorite uncle, brought me back to Kent for the fall session of my Junior year. I enjoyed introducing him to those DU brothers who had also returned early. He and I were surprised when he finally realized that this was the Kappa Mu Kappa fraternity he had pledged when he went to Kent Normal for a year of college, some twenty years ago.
I shoved my stuff in one of the metal lockers in the common room; the storage space was much smaller than the one I had this summer when I had shared a quad. This school year I would sleep in the attic dormitory with at least a dozen other brothers. I managed to acquire the bed Dick Owen, my Big Brother, had used last year; it was in a corner, near the landing and would be relatively quiet, I hoped. Later I learned it was possible to sleep with a dozen snoring college guys surrounding you.
Once again, I led a group of Freshmen during their orientation week. It was fun showing them around the campus and getting them registered into classes. I did meet a new freshman, Joy Smith, whose behavior and attitude puzzled me. I wasn’t sure if she was insane or a nymphomaniac. We did date for a short time, and I learned she was merely insane. There was, however, a significant change in Frosh-week events: “dinks” (those silly yellow and blue caps) were no longer allowed and any semblance of “hazing,” no matter how mild, was a thing of the past.
Another major change was the appearance of the Captain Brady which had been redone during the short weeks between the end of summer session and the beginning of fall classes. It once had a warm, collegiate atmosphere with its worn, brown, wood booths with their scarred red tabletops. The dark environment was as traditional as Prentice Gage on the corner across the street from the Brady. The balcony walls were now a light brown and gray; the booths were chartreuse and tangerine. The tabletops were light blue. Some of my fraternity brothers said it looked like a setting for a Theta Chi Pork Barrel skit. Bob Oana, the President of ΘΧ, responded with the comment: “Wait ‘till the DU’s turn on their black light.” However, in a few months the new Brady was accepted as readily as had been the old one; it was, once more, the coffee shop for all of the Greeks at Kent. A year later, the Brady became the site where Karen and I met and the home for our major memories of college life together.
Having been a Freshman orientation leader, I had the chance to register early for an almost perfect schedule to begin my junior year. At 8:00 a.m. I had Quantitative (Chemical) Analysis followed by Hub time on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:00 a.m. Then I had an advanced Education class at ten o’clock. Organic Chemistry completed the morning. Lunch at the House occurred at noon; more Hub-time followed at 1:00 p.m.; Scientific German at 2:00 p.m. Hub-sitting time resumed at three o’clock or I could use the hour for afternoon meetings or for study time in one of the campus libraries before returning to the House for dinner and nighttime textbook reading.
A major social event that fall was the DU “Prison Party.” The cellar walls had been hung with bed sheets outfitted with crape-paper bars. Mattresses from the attic dorm adorned the floors. Our dates were picked up in a patrol wagon, after being encased in sweatshirt straight-jackets.
Another social event, albeit on a different level, was the tea party for our new House Mother, Mrs. Brewer, that was held formally in the Student Union on campus – with real tea and fancy munchies. She replaced Mrs. Young who had been the DU House Mother for seven years. The role of a fraternity House Mother was to ensure that young men had a female model in their midst, one who encouraged appropriate manners, etiquette, behavior and speech. She resided in a private room with bath adjoining our Chapter Room. This location was an attempt to keep card playing in the Chapter Room under a somewhat controlled environment. The only problems occurred on those evenings when Mrs. Brewer was thought to have gone out for the evening but remained in her room, perhaps with a headache which became worse because we did not realize she was actually there when we reverted to being college guys. We’d hear about it the next evening when she joined the brotherhood for dinner and renewed control of table manners.