Beer And Frothing In Middletown
The scene, McDonald's at a quarter of eleven Sunday morning.
Why don't they have juke boxes in these places? A good Johnny
Cash tune would go well about now - just imagining those thum
ping bass strings and the Carter Family back-up makes the day
seem a little better.
Last night was the first X-GI Keggar of the year. Two hundred
drunken crazies got together in the Middletown Hunter's &
Angler's Club to eat peanuts, drink beer and act like savages.
Music was by Mad Hatter. Everyone had a good time. So much for
straight news.
Saturday was a very cold day, a day for sleeping late and curling
up with a textbook in the afternoon. Sane people spent the evening
watching Mary Tyler. Moore and Bob Newhart. Prouser and I
spent the first part of the evening circling around the Penn
sylvania Turnpike, searching for the Hunter's & Angler's Club
"It's gotta be right up here, Fred."
"Uh, I dunno. Maybe we should turn around."
"Maybe. There's a white fence "
"Huh?"
"There's a white fence."
"Where: "
"You passed it."
"Oh."
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ITTI. -
It pays to be a member for XGI Cold-Duck winner chugs away his
Keggars. prize.
"Maybe we should turn around."
"Maybe. There! Is that a white fence?"
"Yeah. Is it the white fence we want?"
"Why do we want a white fence?"
"Do we want a white fence?"
"Huh?"
"There's the turnpike."
"Where?"
"What?"
"The turnpike..."
"Oh. Where's the white fence?"
"The white fence?"
"I think we turn here."
"Where?"
"We passed it."
"Is there enough light to take a picture?"
"Of what?"
"The turnpike."
"Oh. There's enough light with the flash."
"Where is it?"
"You have it."
"How come we can't find this place when we've both been here a
couple of times?"
"I dunno. The keggars were the highlights of last year's Capitol
Campus social season..."
"I guess."
"...unless you want to count some of the things in the Heights."
"Like the party where they showed the porno flick backward
and forward 23 times."
"The plot didn't change a lot when it was shown in reverse."
"Then there was that girl from Philadelphia who came up for
the music festival and decided to have brotherly love with 18
guys."
"That's exaggerated."
"No, it's not, Fred. 18 guys. I researched that very carefully and
got it straight from the horse's mouth. 18 guys and then she started
to hemo&hage."
"I still don't believe it"
Keggar crowd. Mad Hatter's lead singer (center) joins festivities
by Doug Gibboney
"Hey! There's the keggar!"
Experts on the world population problem claim that if the birth
rate doesn't take a drastic drop we're all going to be sitting on one
another's shoulders by the year 2010. Much of the data for that
information came from the Keggars where these conditions start
to exist when things get heavy at about midnight. A beer run to the
kegs across the hall can take 45 minutes with most of the beer
being dumped down the dresses of one of the young lovelies from
the Cen-Penn Business School. Many a story-book romance has
started that way.
Prouser and• I got there fairly early and got a table up front.
Fred began checking the light for pictures. I made the first run to
the kegs.
' Already the beer table was crowded. Arms, legs, heads flailing
about for the precious liquid. Someone was screaming to be let to
the front of the mob for they were dying of thirst. No mercy was
shown.
Back at the table, Prouser was musing on the. problems of
writing an article about this. "I mean, really, how are we sup
posed to, cover this?"
"Oh, I don't know. It was a slow news week at Capitol and this is
the only thing that could possibly be a lead story."
"Yeah, but how?"
"Let me drink some more beer and think about it. You say your
typewriter is locked up in the Main Building?"
"Yeah, Francine's office."
"Shit. How are we going to write it and get it to the printer?"
"We could do it long hand...or we could tape the whole thing and
have them transpose it."
"Right. That would be some tape. Let me go get some more
beer."
At the entrance, the girls from Cen-Penn arrived to the cheers of
half dozen footloose lovers,
By the beer table, I filled my glass several times and discussed
the drug question with a half-dozen weirdo rockers. The bathroom
line was beginning to back up. Someone emerged with a horror
tale of men driven to their limits while awaiting a chance to an
swer the call of nature.
"It's getting desperate in there. Some guy locked himself in the
stall and refuses to come out. The crowd is getting ugly."
I took a sip of beer and said, "You gotta be kidding. No one
would do something like that."
"Go see for yourself."
"No thanks." I grabbed a full glass and headed back to the front.
Mad Hatter had begun it's second set. People were dancing on
the table tops. Other people were selling raffle tickets for bottles of
Cold Duck. At the end of one number, 2 people seized one of the
band's microphones.
"'Let's hear it for the band! Come on! Let's hear it!"
Weak groans were the reply, followed by more urging. "Come
on you can do better than that let's hear it."
Weaker groans from the audience. The band members looked at
one another, trying to think of a graceful way to get the mike back
so they could start playing again. Eventually they left the stage.
Fred had his camera set on a tripod with the flash attached. The
light brought ugly stares each time it went on. We prudently chose
to not use it anymore.
The Cold Duck was raffled off with each winner being urged to
chug it. At the entrance, a pane of glass was broken but no one
seemed to know how it happened.
The bathroom lines got longer and longer.
The band went into their final set. The kegs showed no outward
sign of being empty. The beer seemed to appear from some
inexhaustable source in the parking lot.
Shortly after 1, the lights went on and people started filing out.
Somebody threw me in a Corvette and we sped off to a Middletown
tavern. More beer. My memory started to fade. We went to the
Heights where a party was roaring. About 3:30, I fell asleep on the
lawn.
Somehow, I managed to find a bed with some help from a friend.
Now it's the morning after the night before. And I still want to
know how do you write a story about this?
Some guests at XG I Keggar weren't
camera-shy.
Photo by Gibboney
Reader
Gets
Assis -
tance
Patrick McClure
Yesterday at 1:00 P.M. in the
college lounge, Jim Ferrier,
who works for the Patriot
News, met with Editor-in-Chief
Jim Bollinger, Associate
Editor, Doug Gibboney, and
staff members Phyllis
Shaeffer and Patrick McClure
of the C.C. Reader to discuss
possible improvements in the
quality of the college paper.
Mr. Ferrier's comments
were geared mostly to the
layout of the paper in such
areas as, wasted space, im
proper type, by lines, and
placement of priority articles
over secondary articles.
"This has no place on the
front page", said Mr. Ferrier
as he blue penciled an add in
the bottom corner; "and where
is the by line for this article?",
he continued as he circled
another area.
Throughout the course of the
discussion Mr. Ferrier's pencil
kept moving, and by the end of
the discussion there were a
variety of blue circles and
crosses on every page of the
paper. "I'm hard", he
chuckled, "but these are all
areas that need im
provement".
The meeting was discon
tinued at 3:00 P.M. with the
Editors and staff members
picking up their now black and
blue paper and thanking Mr.
Ferrier for his time and effort.
"I only wish I could help
more", said Mr. Ferrier.
Mr. Ferrier is enrolled as a
student at Capitol Campus
while working for the Patriot
News.
M.H.8.0.G
News
The first meeting for the
Meade Heights Board of
Governors was held on
Tuesday, October 9.
Nominations were taken,
followed by elections, for the
offices of the Board. The
positions filled for the Meade
Heights Board of Governors
are: President- Mike
Mastracchio of 938 A Mars
Drive, phone 944-1984; Vice-
President- Stan Kenosky of
933 A Mars Drive, 944-0550;
Secretary- Maryann Smith of
846 A Kirtland Avenue, 944-
1952; and Treasurer- Rick
Hood of 953 A Kirtland Avenue,
944-1948. Meade Heights
residents with any problems,
suggestions, complaints, etc.,
should feel free to contact any
of the officers.
Other discussion areas were
centered around the topics of
revising the present pet policy,
and lifting the waterbed
restriction.
The large attendance of this
initial meeting was greatly
appreciated, and all Meade
Heights residents are en
couraged to attend future
meetings. The next Board of
Governors meeting will be
Wednesday, October 23, at 7:00
p.m.