Friday, February 29, 2008

Memory Lane

Well, since Katie and Mary have reminded me of the walk by, and then Maris did her blog about favorite childhood memories, I have decided that it is time to reminisce.
Freshman year we had a lot of good times. We were 6 strangers put together by chance, but stayed together by choice. (Ok, we didn't actually stay together as roommates- but we did stay friends.) One of the best things that we did freshman year, aside from pull down our pants in front of missionaries, was the walk by. I don't remember how it started or why we thought of doing it, so you who will remember will have to help me out on the details that I am foggy on. But it was a Sunday afternoon, and there was nothing else to do, so we thought we would start calling random numbers in the BYU directory and see who we found. We only called numbers that we knew were in boys dorms. I guess we wanted to see these guys without actually having to meet them, so we asked them to walk by our window. Our big kitchen window looked out onto one of the main roads, and there was a grassy spot by it, so it was pretty perfect. So we called probably half a dozen guys and scheduled them to walk by. And that's it, we just wanted them to walk by our window.
Some of them came prepared with songs and what not. I guess when we were done with them we called out the window and dismissed them. We sat with the lights out in our kitchen peeking through the blinds at those people who had showed up. One group was singing to us while the rest of our ward started walking by headed to ward prayer. So of course, the whole ward, even the bishopric knew that we were the home of the walk by.
Anyway, this does no justice. It's hard to tell a good story when your kids are distracting you.
So one more story for this time. This came junior year. We hung out all of the time with this one apartment of boys, and they were kind of our standing weekend plans. One day however, they decided that they wanted to take dates out. So they were all gone one night, leaving us high and dry. So we decided it was prank time. We got someone who worked in the office to let us into their apartment. We went to the laundry room and got some lost and found clothes and we stuffed them with newspaper and made people. They had blown up rubber gloves for hands, balloons with glued on yarn for hair. We then positioned them so that they were making out on the couches in the boys apartment. We had I think 2 couples. We put on some great disco make out music, and put up a bunch of decorations. I think we even had a disco ball up and streamers. We put up a sign that said welcome to the love shack. We were really hoping that the guys would bring their dates back to the apartment. I don't know if they ever did though.
We did get caught though. One of the guys did not go on the dates with them, and he came home while we were in his apartment decorating. He thought it was funny though, so he kept quiet for us. The guys of course knew that it was us that had done it and it was all fun and games. But that is certainly one Friday night out of my life that was not wasted.
So there are some memories. I figure that these blogs are an imprint in the world, and a pretty easy way to record what my life has been like. I always liked hearing the crazy things that my mom did while she was in college, because it reminds me that she did silly things that you would never do if you were not in college, just like I did. So maybe in the years to come (especially if I ever have a girl) I can share some of my favorite memories that will remind her that she has a legacy of doing stupid silly things while in college. So it's just a little diversion from the norm, but you get what you pay for.

10 comments:

Becky said...

I remember where the numbers came from: they were boys who lived in DT and Heritage who had their phone numbers posted in their dormroom windows with alluring messages inviting girls to call. As I recall the invitation to come walk by our window included something like "well we know that WE're hot, but how are we supposed to know that YOU're hot?" then once they understood the importance of our unconventional research, we scheduled them in 10 minute increments. Sure paid off to have a ground-floor apartment, didn't it?

Another part of the memory was the two foreign exchange students who couldn't understand this strange American tradition. They just couldn't figure out what was going on so they ended up knocking at our window so we could explain. Which we didn't.

And best of all was when the boys in the ward came walking up to see what was going on and Mary was so humiliated that she literally flew across the kitchen and commando crawled her way down the hallway to get out of sight and disassociate herself from the escapade.

Good times. Thanks for the memory. :)

losing my needles said...

I forgot about Mary. She was just a little cooler than us. I don't think Marisa had anything to do with the whole thing, since she was a lot cooler than the rest of us.

Erin said...

Mom did silly things in college?

Kate said...

Didn't a couple of the successful walkby boys make us dinner one night?? I think they might have been part of the group who prepared a song...and they might have been kind of hot. Am I imagining this?

Becky said...

Nope, Katiebug you're right on your recollection.

Now, does anyone want to stir up another long-lost 102 memory: INTERNET DATE NIGHT AT LOS HERMANOS. Ah, the glory of spending a couple of nights on the town with Jimbobarino. Good times.

losing my needles said...

I do remember internet date night, and the insane amount of time we spent on Katie's computer doing stupid things that did not involve any school work once she got it.

losing my needles said...

Erin,
you need to ask mom to show you her pictures from her own 102 A Richards Days. Plus there is always the Lord George song, another college gem for her.

Kate said...

So many wonderful memories made in only one year! A couple other general remembrances: the pet mouse (who made Marisa sleep on the kitchen table), the Quote Wall, late night shopping trips at Food 4 Less (and later Macey's - thank goodness), Arby's night, that one time we went to the Bay in Salt Lake and had to make an anti-freak circle to avoid getting accosted...there are definitely many more, wish I had kept a journal :)

Mary said...

Oh my goodness! I am sitting here trying to convey how awesome the walkby was to Evan - he can't quite grasp the coolness of it all. Actually, I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure the walkby was my idea...but I was hoping to do it without letting the guys in our ward know about it.

Then a couple of guys came walking toward our window, and I catcalled really loudly toward them. Yeeee-owww! When all of a sudden, i think it was Lauren, said "Wait, isn't that ROB?!?" Whereupon I hit the deck and started army crawling toward my cinder block room.

Rob and Bret were knocking on our door and wouldn't go away...so we let them in and let them review the next group of boys who came by. Immediately after, Marisa came home and met Bret for the first time (or one of the first times)...and the rest is history!

So not only is the walkby one of the best memories EVER, it all came to good, too!

Dantzel said...

I seriously love you guys. I know I was the nerd of the group and not nearly as "fun" as everyone else, but all of these memories crack me up. Good times.