Friday, October 18, 1991

After class I went up to Shields and got my paycheck. Then I came back to the house to get ready for the Homecoming Parade. I was going as the Colonel again.

I caught the Campus Loop, because I didn't want to be late. As it turned out, I needn't have worried, but I didn't know that.

Since I was already dressed, a number of people gave me odd looks. I was wearing my British army jacket, my colonel's hat, black pants and brown shoes. I had a few pins and I carried a pointer to use as a riding crop. As I was waiting to cross the highway, a woman dressed in fatigues joined me. She asked who I was marching with.

"The Monty Python Society," I told her. I could tell she'd assumed it was some branch of the service.

"Oh."

"Are you from ROTC?" I asked her.

"Yes."

She told me that she was just in it for the scholarship, but some people she knows are "really into it." "Those people scare me," she said.

She also admitted that she's not very good at marching in step. I observed that she must never have been in a marching band. She affirmed that she hadn't.

We walked together until we came to the place where she was to meet her group. Then we said good-bye. "Have a fun parade," I said.

"Same to you," she answered.

When I got back to the lineup spot, Cathy wasn't there yet. Holli was the only one there, along with a friend of hers. She said she was expecting another group at any moment. That group didn't show up until about an hour later!

While we were waiting, we kept the conversation fresh by postulating various reasons the others might be late.

Once, these guys wearing togas and olive wreaths came up and hit on us. They asked us how to tie a toga. They read our signs and played with my pointer. I think they were a little drunk. They told us that we looked good in our costumes (Holli [Weisman] was wearing her Spanish Inquisition standard order red cape). Then they tripped off to join their group.

Eventually, Cathy arrived with Meg and a few others. We ended up with Rob Lindsay, Steve Gradess, Mark Sachs, Meg Jeffery, Cathy Nelson, Holli Weisman, me, Holli's friend and two guys who were flashers (they wore trench coats and flashed people — inside were signs that said "BOO!"). So we had a pretty decent group after all (but no Damon [Buckwalter]! And Andy [Wilson, my brother] was marching with Student First Step). We weren't as psyched because we hadn't had as much time before hand to get silly.

As always, we were behind an annoying float filled with sorority girls. There were so many people on there that the float sagged every time they bounced up and down. I asked Mark (who was dressed as Dr. Science), "Dr. Science, what would happen if one more person got on that float?"

If one more person got on that float, it would reach critical mass and collapse into a black hole!"

We had fun on the parade route, doing silly walks, singing songs, chasing each other around. Deane Runyon [Note: my video professor] was by the side of the road with a camera near East Halls. He got me before I even realized it was him!

   

I chased the flashers around, telling them to stop because they were "too silly." A lot of people shouted "SPAM!" when they saw us, or told us to silly walk. We had problems because some of our members were carrying the huge SPAM boxes, which kept falling apart. I had to help Meg put hers back up several times. Rob Lindsay went up to little kids and magically produced Rollos from behind their ears.

We were behind that sorority, who were actually "little sisters" of Fiji. The fraternity's float broke above Center Halls and had to be pulled off the parade route. Then those "Dee Gees" (Delta Gamma), started chanting "Our float broke" and clapping three times. So we shouted, "Too bad, bad!"

The parade route was really crowded this year, and a lot of people were already drunk. It was very disturbing. [Note: I was a real teetotaler until grad school, strangely enough. With my silly behavior, however, I often confused people who thought I must be drunk.]

Today was pretty warm. I actually worked up a sweat during the parade. When it was all over, we had a group hug.