200 Dews
Or, "How Stupid We Were!"
as told by Jeremy Tollefson ('02), instigator of the stupidity


It began as an innocent retaliation against the seniors during the winter of late 1998.  Two hundred days before the senior class would graduate, they continued Caltech's traditional drinking contest: they downed 200 alcoholic BEvERages, as a class, within 24 hours to celebrate their impending passing 200 days hence.  They succeeded, at the expense of clear heads and clean bathrooms.

I, being the froshly frosh I was at the time, decided that becoming a sophomore at Caltech, and thereby shedding the dreaded stigmata all my class were forced to bear, was a far more important and worthwhile occasion.  Beer may have been the drink of choice for our older housemates, but OUR nectar of the gods was Mountain Dew.

And so I planned.  200 days before the Fleming cannon would fire, signifying the end to our year-long torment of froshliness, fell on March 17, 1999 for the class of 2002.  St. Patrick's Day.  It seemed that fate (and the color green) were on our side.  But I decided that drinking 200 cans of Mountain Dew in a single day was no challenge at all, while forcing our class to drink 200 bottles seemed a bit excessive.  After many deliberations, suggestions, and damnations Nate Austin and I stopped by the nearby Ralph's and picked up 200 pints, factoring out to be about 50 bottles, of Dew.  At 12:00am on March 17, the freshman class gathered in the Blacker Library and promptly consumed more caffeine than was good for us.
Nate Austin was the first to finish his bottle at 12:15.  Chris Elion finished soon thereafter and hasn't touched the stuff since.  The following twenty hours were a yellowish-green haze of Dew, stomach cramps, several trips to the bathroom, and, by some reports, a hallucination or two.  Some found it impossible to sleep, others dreamed of floating 2-liter green bottles that refused to be drained.  Or was that just me?  Ahem.  Nevermind.
 

The following afternoon we had yet to reach 100 pints, yet everyone had already taken their personal bottles.  We were running out of Dew, and were still far from our goal.  To compensate for this unexpected loss, Nate Austin, Teo Beloreshka, and I decided to pick up some more Dew.  Teo had a liter or two, Nate and I shared at least thirteen between us.  With our vision literally tinged yellow, a distinct lack of sleep, and jitters that scared our friends, we drove to Ralph's.  The ride was far from safe and relaxing, and more than once we almost got into an accident.  It was as if Nate were driving on drugs.  But we made it back to the library safely, and promptly opened up a new bottle for each of us.
Notice here how blurry Nate is (and also
how he's glowing green).  This is not a 
problem with the camera.  Nate was, in 
fact, so jittery from the caffeine that he
could not be photographed with an
ordinary camera.

The scene in the library during 200 Dews.  Oh,
the carnage!		 That evening, we neared our mark.  Our class, after resting up during the day, found renewed strength as the deadline approached.  I chugged my last bottle during the last half-hour, tying with Nate for "Most Dew Consumed," at 5 bottles (10 liters, 20 pints).  The freshman 200 Days, known as "200 Dews" by Blacker, was finally over as the library clock struck twelve.  We had completed our goal with ease; we had consumed 265 pints of Mountain Dew.

People still groan and turn a sickly green when this momentous event is mentioned.  But an unknowing frosh by the name of Michael Davenport was intrigued by my brush with death.  And so, this past year of 2001, I bequethed the responsibility of 200 Dews to him.  He ran with the idea, and put a new twist on it.  But that, my friend, is another story.