*Sniff* Gate House takes it in the shorts

As someone who was in residence in Gate House for two years (I had the great two level corner room all to myself for that second year) I read this with both some alarm and some amusement. This article was forwarded to me by another Gate House Alum whom I won’t name in case he doesn’t want to be associated with the Gate House legacy…

I have to admit to feeling somewhat proud to find out that Gate House may have inspired aspects of “Animal House“. Things didn’t seem quite so wild when I was there although I clearly remember one of the guys running down the hallway during one of the year’s false fire alarms and expertly leaping and ripping the offending bell clean off the wall. That cost us all our security deposits.

I have very little to recount on the misogyny front, most of the antics were of the more wholesome Animal House toga party kind.

I *do* recall being a barkeep for a brief stint at one such event where I stumbled in on my room mate obviously on the make with someone who was NOT his girlfriend. Ever glib in such situations I blurted out “YOU’RE not RUTH?!” after which my roomie helped usher me out of the room. I found myself waking up the following morning in the shower which was known for going from a pleasant temperature to scaldingly hot to freezing cold over the course of any toilet flush.

I hope the move to coed is a positive one. I know from talking to other coed and non-coed residents that the co-ed houses were dramatically more civilized than the others (both male and female), but the rawer nature of the non co-ed residences surely is an experience that one is unlikely ever to find again in “real life”.