Beer was only allowed inside at scheduled parties or in the beer garden out behind the house at other times, but never during the week. Hard spirits were only allowed in the house twice a year, at the spring and fall formals. This rule was strictly enforced by the housemother and not even our most incorrigible brothers broke it for fear of losing our lease. While other fraternities could lure the sororities with weekend liquor parties at the drop of a hat, DU at Texas was forced into an unnatural sobriety.
On the other hand, this made our Christmas and spring
formal parties some wild, WILD events.
The only spirit that was ever served during these semi-annual affairs
was a punch made with a one-to-one mixture of Everclear and pink lemonade. Everclear, for those of you who have never
imbibed, is a virtually odorless, tasteless, 200 proof (100 % alcohol)
time-bomb. Mixed with the lemonade, it
diluted to 100 proof, or 50 % alcohol.
It went down like the smoothest, coldest lemonade on a hot Texas day
and, after about two cups, it snuck up and kicked you in the butt like a Texas
mule. In between, much dancing, fun and
frivolity ensued and many a virtue of both genders was known to be compromised
in the aftermath. Such was the scene at
our Spring Formal in 1966.
Having just been dumped by Debbie Bickerstaff, the girl I
had been dating for the past semester, I was on my third cup of punch and
cruising the party by myself. Lonely as
I was I had to laugh at some of my brothers, dressed in their tuxedos, performing
the “alligator”, a dance of sorts where the participants squirmed and flailed,
face down on the floor, in front of their dates with the band playing a fine
rendition of the Rolling Stone’s new hit, “Get Off of My Cloud”. I wandered off wondering what the collective
dry cleaning bill might amount to.
Then I bumped lightly into a chair and casually looked
down at the woman who was sitting at one of the tables in the dining room. She was talking to her date, my fraternity
brother, Ronnie Vaughn, who was seated in front of her and didn’t initially see
my wandering gaze. That gaze was focused
on the ample cleavage that was exposed atop her dark green, brocade formal
suit.
I was mesmerized as I stared down this woman’s
dress. I could not take my eyes off of
her until finally she sensed my closeness and looked up at me. As her gorgeous hazel eyes met mine, she
smiled, this glowing, radiant smile and said, “Hello”. I nearly melted into my shoes.
“Hi”, I said, with enthusiasm.
Then Ronnie said, “Uh, Vicki, this is Jud”.
“Hi”, I said, again, all brilliant words and snappy
repartee escaping me.
“Nice to meet you”, she said, in the friendliest of
voices. Unknowingly, my eyes drifted
once again to her beautiful and wonderfully exposed bosom. This did not escape Ronnie’s notice and he
cleared his throat loud enough for the housemother to hear back in her small
apartment off the foyer.
I broke away from my fixation and stammered, “Nice to
meet you too”, retreating to the other room for my fourth Everclear punch, just
to cool down.
Despite the self-imposed haze of Everclear, my mind was
as clear as an Austin morning. I had
never seen a woman as beautiful and gracious as the woman in the green brocade
dress. Her hair was brown with a hint of
auburn highlights. Her smile was radiant
with full lips and straight, brilliant white teeth. And those eyes; big, wide spread, like all
the classic beauties, and a deep hazel, with an inviting, playful sparkle. And, as I have said, she had other assets to
compete for the title of “most redeeming feature”. I was thunderstruck. Never had I been so moved by another
person.
I spent the next two hours, between trips to the punch
bowl, trying to position myself so I could look at this girl from any vantage
point that was available. I could not
keep my eyes off of her. On several
occasions, Ronnie would catch my glance and I could tell he was not pleased by
the attention I was paying to his date.
Because of this I was surprised when, at the end of the evening, he
approached me asking for a favor.
Ronnie’s car had been broken down for weeks and he had
been bumming rides from every brother in the house. I had trucked him to class a half dozen times
in the last week alone. He approached and asked if I wouldn’t mind driving him
and his date out to her house in south Austin.
Normally this would have annoyed me, but the prospect of being close to
Vicki for a while longer was more intoxicating than the Everclear punch. “Sure”, I said, “No problem”.
The drive to south Austin took twenty minutes but it
seemed like two, it went by so quickly.
Vicki sat between Ronnie and me in the front seat of my slightly dirty
1954 Chevy, which I had just re-built the past summer. I wished I had cleaned it up a bit as I
cleared the seat of empty Coke cans and some school papers. I wanted to impress
this girl even though I knew she was my frat brother’s girlfriend. The three of us chatted about nothing and I
was trying my best to be witty and interesting but was failing miserably. I
consoled myself by taking every opportunity to, as nonchalantly as possible,
look down the front of her dress. I love
low-cut formal dresses.
She directed me to turn down a compacted gravel road off
of south 1st Street and we pulled up to a small white house at the
end of the lane. “It was a real pleasure
to meet you”, I said, as Ronnie assisted her from the car. She said it was nice to meet me too and
smiled broadly as she turned to take Ronnie’s arm as he walked her to the
door. Getting back in the car I watched
as Vicki and Ronnie talked briefly then, through envious eyes, saw them kiss
goodnight. Ronnie was a handsome guy,
tall with blond hair and blue eyes, but I always thought he was rather dull and
acted like he had a stick up his butt most of the time. On the other hand, I never wanted to be
someone else more in my life than at that moment.
Ronnie didn’t talk much on the way home despite my
efforts to engage him. He seemed
irritated about something. It wasn’t
until the next day when my big brother, Deke Johnson, came to my room and told
me why. It seems Ronnie had gone to the
president of our fraternity and filed a formal complaint against me for conduct
unbecoming. Apparently the attention I
was paying to his girlfriend wasn’t as cloaked in stealth as I had
imagined. I was a “pledge” who had not
yet become a full member. Deke told me I was being put on probation. Bottom line…if I so much as took a peak at
Vicki’s chest again, Ronnie was going to blackball me and I would be out of
Delta Upsilon for good. I apologized to
Ronnie and figured I would probably not even see Vicki again until the fall,
the current semester being almost over. But
I never could put her out of my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment