Pranks & Antics
The Pit
By Adell Buche Mayer
During our first year at Macalester Carol Kisby and I spent most of our off-hours in the Union because we both lived at home and had no dormitory to go to. By our sophomore year we had moved to the basement of Old Main in what was called “The Pit” where we joined our classmate Mathew Murray and a group of students from other classes. Carol and I began playing tricks on the group, decorating lockers for their birthdays and leaving little surprises in the lockers. We would go in very early in the mornings, fix the surprise and then run to the library or Union or go to class as if we were both innocent. Later in the day we would return to “The Pit” and be just as surprised as everyone else. We never confessed. How I wish Carol and Matt could still be here.
Campus shenanigans
By Milton Bauer
I remember the icing of the student union door, the police searching for the elusive geology major in Wallace Hall, and the tear-gas chemical-caused evacuation of Carnegie Science Hall. Such fun!
A scandalous sight
By Elizabeth (Liz) Larson Spangenberg
I lived in Bigelow Hall my sophomore and junior years and we hung our bras out the window for a short time one afternoon!
Who dun it?
By Brian L. Anderson
Our sophomore year, Allan Vagstad and I were roommates on the second floor of the new Dayton Hall. We serviced the vending machines in our dorm. They dispensed milk or juice cartons when you slid them out along a horizontal rail after depositing your coins. One morning we discovered some mischievous student(s) had punctured several of the cartons and sipped their contents out with a straw! The vending company quickly replaced the machine with one that dropped the cartons down a chute. No more freebies!
The history of The Rock
By John F. Roschen
I remember how in the dark of night on May 1, 1958, someone surreptitiously painted the Class of ’08 rock that had never before been disturbed. Maintenance people quickly removed the rock to the shop for sandblasting. It was reset to its campus location late on the day before the Class of ’08 had its 50th Reunion. That night someone surreptitiously painted it again, and I understand it has been given a new coat every year since!
A close shave
By Brian Nichols
Football practice started two weeks before school started with two-a-day practices. The first week of practice as a freshman, I was lying in bed resting up for the second practice when about a half dozen seniors barged into the room and jumped on top of me. They held me down while George Thomas ran a barber sheers down the middle of my head. Boy, was I ticked off. However, looking back after 50 some years, it's actually kind of funny.
Party pooper
By Brian Nichols
I lived in the basement of Wallace Hall, one of the girls dorms. I did cleaning and odd jobs for my room and board. One night at about 11 p.m. there was a commotion outside the dorm. The boys from Kirk Hall came over to serenade the girls. Soon, with encouragement from the girls, the boys were trying to get into the dorm. The housemother came down and told me some boys had gotten into the dorm and told me to go up and get them out. As I went from floor to floor asking the girls if they had seen any boys, the only reply I got was "Party pooper, party pooper."
I never found the boys but later learned they had spent the night in the dorm because they had locked the doors and they couldn't get out. You'll have to ask the girls what happened during the night because I don't know. And I don't want to know.