So, on Sunday I'm feeling better so Brad picks me up in "The Tuna Boat" (a '74 Catalina that chugs like a diesel trawler) and I go down to the house for the bbq. There are about 14-15 other rushees still attending, and I finally get to meet my other potential pledge brothers. It turns out that I am the only guy there that hadn't been hanging out at the house prior to rush, which makes me a bit of an oddity, but all of the guys seem very cool, and a couple of them are in the first-year architecture program also (though I didn't know them before this time).
I say to Brad that I was really afraid that missing rush events would have hurt my chances of getting a bid. He just looks at me and says "You don't have anything to worry about." That feels great!
The next rush event was totally unremarkable, so I'm going to skip to the Thursday final dinner, the last night of rush...
Final dinner is the last event before bids are given out, so the active brothers take us to dinner at Tony's Locker Room, one of the few really good places to eat in Muncie (it's gone now). We were instructed to dress nice this night, so I wore slacks, shirt, tie and a sweater vest (how Alex P. Keaton of me). Brad picked a few of us up at 6:30 for the short drive to the restaurant. The brothers had reserved a private room at Tony's with our own servers. I remember I had fettucini alfredo and managed not to end up wearing it. Tony's also used to have this wonderful, "bottomless" house salad that they kept refilling and we kept eating! After dinner, we were taken back to our dorms. The actives were going back to the house to have the final vote and prepare the bids. We were told we would be contacted that night, one way or the other, about our bids.
So I sat in my room, trying to work on a project, anxiously watching the clock because I know after midnight, the front doors will close and a bid won't be delivered to my room.
When I had returned from dinner, I called my parents and broke the news to them.
"Mom, Dad, if I get a bid from Buick tonight, I want to accept it."
"Can you handle pledging with your classes?"
"How much is this going to cost me?"
"Well, if it's what your really, really want; but if your grades drop, so help me,
you are out of there!!!"
Finally, a little after 11PM, Brad, Kent, and Turtle appeared at my door.
"Hi John, we wanted to come by and talk to you in person about your membership vote. Yeah, well we're really sorry, but the brothers had really strong feelings about giving you a bid."
At this point, my heart dropped into my stomach and I began to have that all-too-familiar nauseous feeling again
"They were all in agreement they wanted you to become a brother. Congratulations!"
They handed me my bid card. "Do you accept?"
I gave my affirmation, and they instructed me to be at the house at 6:30PM the following night in coat and tie, before heading on to deliver more bids.
My studious roommate finally broke the silence from his side of the room. "That was pretty cool. Congratulations."
He became a brother the following fall.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Damn Proud to Be a Phi Sigma Kappa!
"When better automobiles are built (or fraternities), Buick will build them."
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