The Bear Crawl
Senior hall was the long (relatively speaking) hall that ran
right in front of the school offices.
This is where seniors hung out before school and during lunch. God help the underclassman whose locker was
located there. Most mornings, the
seniors in senior hall were entertained by watching freshman bear crawl
races. This was humiliating, but little
pain was involved, and it was over in about 60 seconds. The summer before my freshman year, my best
friend’s older (step)brother promised to look out for me in HS. Of course, it was him who handpicked me to
run my first bear crawl race within 2 weeks of school starting. If you decided to protest your induction into
a race, you faced a stiffer penalty……
The Pink Belly
This was both violent and painful. It was normally conducted only during P.E.
when the teacher was away, but could be inflicted anytime. Basically, 4 or 5 guys hold someone down,
pull their shirt up, and slap their belly until it is flaming red. It seems like it was always the same 3 or 4
guys who were selected for this punishment.
Sit on the Fountain
Before I started high school, I would hear people talk about
someone getting set on the fountain. I
had this vision in my head of some sort of decorative fountain located in an
elaborate courtyard. As it turns out, it
just meant any of the ordinary drinking fountains located throughout the
school. Some kid could be walking down
the hall and, suddenly, get plucked up by 2 or 3 seniors and set right on the
drinking fountain. A quick twist of the
wrist, and your pants were drenched.
Little pain associated with this one, but it was humiliating and, unlike
a pink belly, hard to hide.
Thrown in the Girls Bathroom
I think there were only 2 girls’ bathrooms in my high
school. An observant freshman was always
aware when senior boys were stationed near one of the doors. One guy would knock your books out of your
hand to disorient you, and the others would force you into the girls’ bathroom
and hold the door shut while you tried to get out. There were no fringe benefits either, because
these guys were gentlemen, and usually waited until no girls were in the bathroom. My brother once endured a rare combo when he
was forced into the girls’ bathroom, sat on the sink until soaked, and then
held in there. By the way, good luck
finding your books when you were finally released from captivity.
Dying Cockroach
The most infamous form of hazing was the Dying
Cockroach. It could happen anytime and
anyplace. There was no force involved –
just the threat of future punishment if you didn’t voluntarily comply. If you were unlucky enough to be selected,
and scared enough to not resist, you would lie on your back, arms and legs
extended and waving, while shouting “I’M A DYING COCKROACH!!!!” Some people actually volunteered to perform
this, disrupting classes and assemblies, and thereby gaining favor with the
seniors.
Most of these were harmless and overlooked by the teachers. The fact that most of the administrators were
either current or past football coaches raised the tolerance level. I did witness one incident, though, where the
teacher flipped out because the hazing had gone too far. The seniors stuffed a boy into a football
equipment bag, and hung it from the chin-up bar in the gym. Then, they proceeded to pelt the hanging bag
with bombardment balls until the P.E. teacher walked in. Brutal.
