Long Ago and Far away
A lifetime ago I was a geeky, fearful, awkward, introverted young man. Although I have many happy memories from my childhood and teenage years I also remember those years as being unhappy, disappointing and frustrating.
No need to go into the specifics but any reader that was there between 1961 and 1970 may have some idea - failure, sickness, insecurity, loneliness.
When I got to University one of the interesting things I did was to join a fraternity. My cousin Harvey and his brother-in-law Doug were both member of ZBT - Zebes - and I was rushed and pledged to them - The frat house was quite the place. It was a big old house on Wolseley backing onto the Assiniboine River.
As part of the pledging process we were hazed - for the most part the hazing was gentle but embarrassing. Some of it was downright frightening - being blindfolded and required to grab what we prayed were peeled bananas out of a toilet bowl was just one of the more interesting activities.
I have stayed in touch with a few of my fraternity brothers but have lost touch with most of them over the years. Facebook has helped fix that problem. In the last little while I have connected with some of the guys from the fraternity on facebook.
One fellow - I think he was the president during one of the years when I was active - Phil Rosen - has recently sent me a picture. You can see I was dressed in appropriate pledge gear.
No need to go into the specifics but any reader that was there between 1961 and 1970 may have some idea - failure, sickness, insecurity, loneliness.
When I got to University one of the interesting things I did was to join a fraternity. My cousin Harvey and his brother-in-law Doug were both member of ZBT - Zebes - and I was rushed and pledged to them - The frat house was quite the place. It was a big old house on Wolseley backing onto the Assiniboine River.
As part of the pledging process we were hazed - for the most part the hazing was gentle but embarrassing. Some of it was downright frightening - being blindfolded and required to grab what we prayed were peeled bananas out of a toilet bowl was just one of the more interesting activities.
I have stayed in touch with a few of my fraternity brothers but have lost touch with most of them over the years. Facebook has helped fix that problem. In the last little while I have connected with some of the guys from the fraternity on facebook.
One fellow - I think he was the president during one of the years when I was active - Phil Rosen - has recently sent me a picture. You can see I was dressed in appropriate pledge gear.
posted by Cyril Kesten at 3:53 PM
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