Memories of Mines By Norman E. Maxwell, Jr. ‘41 Do you remember Mines just before WW II? How about the pledging practices by the fraternities? Man—they really treated the prospects royally—wined and dined and begged them to pledge. Then, in the middle of the night, when everything was going so good, they came and got you out of bed, strong armed you out into the cold with nothing on except your underwear and drawers. They found an old freight car and locked you up in it. The purpose was to have all the freshmen locked up before the tug of war. The time came for the tug of war and the freshmen came out of the bushes. It looked like the freshmen might win, but the sophomores hooked up a tractor on their side and the freshmen were headed for Clear Creek. About that time one of the freshmen cut the rope on the tractor and the freshmen pulled the sophomores through the creek. Then there was the "Barbecue." A team of ten was selected from the freshmen and sophomore classes. A ring was set up in front of Stratton Hall. The object was to tie up the other team. The Blue key was umpiring. After a person was tied up, they were taken off the field. It so happened that the Blue Key was turning the sophomores loose to get back into the fray. Freshmen Hoyt Farthingham and Noby Tashiro tied up about 20 sophomores before they were ganged up on. Do you remember the freshmen hats—stay off the grass—button frosh. How about the barrel staves from the brewery—a bundle usually lasted about a week. Also the 1" paddles that had to be signed by the whole fraternity. If you broke it getting signatures, you had to start over. The CC (Colorado College) boys were caught molesting the "M"—their heads were shaved and an "M" was painted with nitric acid which lasted quite a while. Then there was senior day. Most everybody had plenty of beer and you smelled the frat houses from two blocks away. Then there was an episode where the freshmen were sent on a scavenger hunt. Everybody was to bring back a cat. They were all turned loose in the house manager’s room along with some dogs. It wasn’t appreciated. Also had to get some signatures from places on Larimer Street. That was an education for some of us. Three hours were spent one night trying to cold cock a duck in City Park. When the corn money was gone, we gave up. There was the incident when a street car was commandeered and taken to the high school. High school was disrupted and the girl let out. We spent several hours trying to get a signature from Governor Ammons. We finally sang the Mines song and he let us in and signed our paddles. Senior day was abolished after this year. And it has never been the same. Mines Magazine Volume 85, No. 5