Hillsdale Homecoming Part 3

Fri Oct 6, 6:00 pm: Allie, Nic, Kim and myself arrive at the Hunt Club to find out that the entire upper level of the tavern is reserved for us. Apparently there had been numerous fights over billiards games in the upper area, so they only use it for large groups. Amazingly we arrived before Dr. Reist, which may have been a first not only for us, but for anyone.

6:01 pm: Dr. Reist arrives.

6:01:30 pm: Dr. Reist tells his first joke and orders his first gin and tonic.

6:20 pm: As we start to wonder if anyone else is going to show up, Marty Muntz (he took over my position as youth pastor at Somerset Congo) arrives followed soonafter by Muffin Moorman, who finally finishes her day of travel that I think began at 5 am from Dallas.

7:15 pm: The party is jumping now as Crazy Carl and Robey show up, followed by the boys who have returned from Fort Wayne with a Mr. William Gray in tow.

7:25 pm: I order a boring salad, since nothing else on the menu agrees with my stomach as the effects of the funky cappuccino continue.

7:30 pm: Kim's slow friends finally show up. That would be just about all of them.

8:30 pm: With the party still raging, we all line up for a group shot in case anyone would later need photographic evidence to support an alibi.

10:00 pm: The group makes it way down to College's Homecoming Bon Fire and Fireworks. Since we were having so much fun at the Hunt Club, we missed the steel drum band the college brought in from Iowa. We were able to see the fireworks as we ventured down from Whitely to the soccer fields.

10:15 pm: Seeing the college students running around the bon fire, giggling like idiots and looking like junior highers, I realize that those days appear to be over for our group of friends.

10:16 pm: I turn around and observe off in the distance a sumo contest between Gray and Mohler. They enact the entire pageantry of the contest. The old man wins convincingly. Perhaps our glory days are still at hand. But then again I am pretty loopy at this point having had no sleep in over 40 hours.

10:20 pm: A Hillsdale Collegian reporter begins to interview Tony, Joel and myself asking for memories of days gone by and our thoughts on homecoming. After giving my two cents, she asks me for Joel's name since he left before she could ask. I think of three possible answers: 1) Joel (that is quickly dismissed), 2) Nate Davis (classic, but sometimes overplayed) and 3) Andrew Burns. Since Burns decided that the birth of his first child was more important than us, I told the reporter "Andrew Burns is his name."

10:45 pm: Tony, still retelling his collegiate tales to the reporter, is now through his sophomore year. The reporter eyes an escape route but none are available. (Here is the website of the article: http://www.hillsdale.edu/collegian101206/default.asp?sect=arts&item=they_did; Tony's comment at the bottom of the article is about yours truly.)

change before heading over to the Phi Mu Alpha house (where Carl, Robey and Mohler are staying) to hang out. But after not having slept in a long, long time, I hear the muses of the bed beckon me to sweet, slumber. I heed its call.

Sometime after 11:15 pm: Apparently Carl "accidentally" spills some Coke on Tony, who is able to control his five (maybe more this time) seconds of fury. I continue to sleep.