Fraternity.......

My Fraternity Group Picture From 1963.  I Am The Handsome One At Bottom Right.  Ha.

The year was 1963, and I was a freshman at Furman University in Greenville, SC.   I decided to join a fraternity.  I was recruited heavily by one frat in particular---Pi Kappa Phi, or "Star and Lamp", as the school referred to it at the time.

Above is a picture of our group from 1963.  I am at the bottom right.  Handsome, no?  Ha.

To be accepted into this fraternity, the new pledges were required to court favor with the upperclassmen in the club.  This meant there was a lot of running errands for them.  Typically, these errands involved going to get food for them in the evening.  College guys generally eat a helluva lot of food---mostly hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries and sweets---not to mention everybody's favorite, beer.

Also, I was asked on many occasions to see to it that their beds be made up in the mornings, and little things like that.

After a couple of months of this harrassment, there was an evening of torture and belittlement.  If we got through that ordeal all right, we became full-fledged members of the fraternity.

I recall our night of torture very vividly.  Three of us were taken under cover of darkness to a private place atop Paris Mountain, which towers over the campus.  There, around a campfire, we were forced to be paddled. Then, we were stripped down to our underwear and forced to do things like dance and act stupidly for the upperclassmen we were entertaining.  The final (and VERY painful) indignity was when we had to submit to having wintergreen squirted on our private parts.  I never hurt so much in my life.  We howled in pain.

Paris Mountain, Next to the Furman Campus, Was the Site of a Major Harassment

You may be asking yourself, "Why would these guys submit to going through that in order to join a club?"  Believe me, that is an excellent question.

Then, around midnight, in our underwear, we were set loose to find our way back to campus as best we could.  Fortunately, before we were seen in our skivvies by the general public and hauled off to the jailhouse, one of the upperclassmen (Earl Prevost---his name is misspelled in the picture) took pity on us and picked us up in his car and drove us back to our dormitory.  

It was a lot of fun being a member of that group for four years.  I am in semi contact with only one person now from the club---Harold Reed (bottom left).  Sure would like to know what happened to the other guys.  I do know that John Howland died about 10 years ago, but the others I have lost track of.