Froshly Pranks
By Jane Greenham ('03), Permafrosh; Lounge frosh and Trippofrosh '98-'99.
 

As we all know, frosh are capable of amazing, ingenious and stupid things.  And as frosh density increases, so does froshliness, so it's not surprising that some of the more interesting pranks and stunts that occurred my frosh year occurred in or around the triple (better known as the "trippo"). To my mind, the adventure that makes the best telling is that of the Lloyd gong and its wanderings near the end of first term 1998.
Lloyd has a large, round, shiny gong that they (in the past, in my opinion) use to signal something about dinner. They also (in the past, in my opinion) cause a specially designated "gong frosh" to become wet if said gong is not present for dinner. The "gong frosh" my frosh year was someone we all decided needed much more moisture in her life, so stealing the gong became a frequent flicking activity for us.

But the Lloyd gong, and Lloydies in general, were far from my mind on the
last Friday before finals first term. Instead, to celebrate having made it
almost through the term, I decided that it was necessary to climb The
Shaft. Millikan Library is a tall building, and there is a ventilation
shaft that serves all nine floors, and lets out onto the roof. The
entrance to The Shaft is somewhat inconspicuous, which is why I hadn't
climbed it earlier - I hadn't known where it was. But once I had found it,
I decided to scale it as soon as I could. About 75 cm wide by 125 cm long,
The Shaft was perfect for "chimneying", except for all the random pipes
and wires that you have to dodge while ascending. Since it opens out onto
each floor, you can stop and rest while climbing, a good thing if you're a
typical nerd and not in prime physical condition. I was resting on about
the seventh floor when I heard voices. I froze and quit breathing, certain
it was Security and they were going to stop me from accomplishing my goal.
But a few more moments of listening led me to realize that, for some
unfathomable reason, the voices belonged to Lloyd frosh who were dragging
planks and Christmas lights up the Millikan staircase. This was obviously
a prank, I concluded, and reasoned that as a good Mole-frosh I ought to
wait until they were finished and then find some way to rework their prank
to Blacker's advantage. So I climbed up to the part of the shaft adjacent
to the door to the roof, where I could sit on a pipe and watch their
progress without them having a clue I was there. After a couple hours of
this, it seemed they were going to be a while longer, so I decided to get
some sleep. I went back down to the ninth floor, curled up in the inlet
region and dozed for another hour or two. I think that counts as "the
weirdest place I've ever slept". I then returned to my watch point, and
saw that they weren't going to be done before sunrise. As I had no desire
to be up on Millikan roof in broad daylight and be seen by a bunch of
Lloydies, I decided to get out onto the roof as soon as possible. That
achieved, I walked right past a bunch of Lloydies, who were working really
hard on something and didn't even notice me. I went down the stairs and
left the building.


As I was on my way back to Blacker, it occurred to me: "All the Lloyd frosh are in Millikan -> none of the Lloyd frosh are in Lloyd -> none of the Lloyd frosh are there to stop me taking the gong". With this in mind, I exultantly went into the Lounge and announced that the Lloydies were doing some kind of prank. Rafi, an upperclassman, looked at me and said something like, "Silly frosh, that's just their annual Christmas decorations! Not a prank at all!". That took some of the wind out of my sails, but I convinced him to help me take their gong, which is large enough that it takes more than one person to move it silently. We went
into Lloyd, which was, as I expected, deserted. Having taken the gong back to the Triple, I put it on my bed, covered it with my blanket, tucked it in, gave it a goodnight kiss, and went to sleep in my usual place, the Lounge. 

While I was sleeping off the night's activity, the Lloyies lost their
ladder. They assumed we'd taken it, and started wandering around Blacker
looking for it. My fellow trippofrosh Tory and Ayeh, whom I'd woken up at
6am when I brought the gong into the trippo, were again awakened by a
couple of Lloydies entering the room. Although the gong was wider than my
bed and not entirely overed by my blanket, they didn't see it. They also
didn't see their ladder, since none of us Mole-frosh had taken it. Apparently
they weren't aware that instead of their gong, a flimsy "gamma delta beta
gamma" note hung from the stand in their dining hall. Tory and Ayeh
breathed a sigh of relief when the Lloydies left, the gong still safely
resting on my bed.


 
However, this brush with danger convinced us that the Lloyd gong could no longer continue to make itself comfortable on my bed. Shortly thereafter, Ayeh and I moved it into the tunnels and hid it behind some of the pipes.  Later on, Travis, a senior, took it on a journey to San Francisco, the fruit of his journey being one of the coolest pictures in that year's yearbook: Travis, the Lloyd gong, and the Golden Gate Bridge. After that, we decided that Kevin, who liked to collect round shiny things (coins, mostly, but the gong was round and shiny) needed an extra special birthday gift to lift him from his physics-junior-induced bitterness. So Kevin came back from vacation first term and found his room adorned by the well-travelled Lloyd gong. I forget how, but eventually the gong returned to Lloyd. Because, after all, it's much more fun to steal the Lloyd gong than to keep it!

Editor's Note: Sadly, about a year after our fun with the Lloyd gong, someone decided to be "clever"; they stole the gong and didn't return it.  The Lloydies had to buy a new gong, and, because they didn't want the same thing to happen again, the new one was made non-prankable by an agreement between the houses.  We still don't know what happened to the old one.