The Case of the Missing Beer Cans

Rafael yesterday asked what happened to Pumpkin. She did not go to court, as she was innocent of this incident. All she did was be herself, when she was with these sailors. It wasn't her fault they couldn't get her out of their minds and had to come looking for her. Actually, I think she slept through the whole adventure, as did most of the girls in Kimball Hall that night.

When our freshman year was drawing to a close, and final exams started, most students who'd finished their exams packed up and left for summer vacation and home. As I recall, there was a two week exam period, and then a few days preparation for graduation, the actual graduation, and then the school closed for the year, and all had to leave. Some of us who had boyfriends were reluctant to leave, so we stayed through graduation. Joy and I were among those who stayed, as was Pumpkin, her roommate, and many others. The day after our finals were over, Pumpkin and her roommate were seen carrying a large, heavy box into the dormitory.

"What cha' got in the box?" we asked.

"A case of Budweiser," Pumpkin answered. That elicited a roar of laughter from our group. Everyone knew that being caught drinking was grounds for expulsion, and bringing booze into the dorm would be a death wish!

" That Pumpkin is such a joker!" was our reaction. By four o'clock that afternoon, we were having second thoughts. Pumpkin and her roommate were sitting in the smoker (the only room in Kimball Hall where a student was allowed to smoke) laughing and giggling and acting pretty "happy."" It wasn't until dinner time that night that we became convinced that it wasn't Pepsi they had been carrying. Kimball hall housed the campus dining room, and as those who'd chosen to postpone our summer vacation were lining up at the entrance waiting for the doors to open, we heard the strains of "Put on your old gray panties that used to be your auntie's, and we'll go for a frolic in the hay" drifting down from the third floor of of the residence area. We were all gaping at each other with our eyes bugging out in disbelief!

Mrs. Dunn, upon investigation, found Pumpkin and her roommate sitting naked together in opposite ends of a bubble-filled bathtub, singing away at the top of their lungs, obviously snookered! I suppose today, a sobriety test would be required before any action could be taken, but our house mother didn't need one to know that these girls hadn't exactly made a run on the Coke machine. That was the last day on campus for the two party girls--they were just ahead of their time, as Mardel said in her comment yesterday. One mystery remained, though: no empty beer cans were found any where in their room, the smoker, nor the bathroom. No one could figure out what they had done with them!

A year later, as we were approaching the end of our sophomore year, Joy was running down the stairs in Kimball Hall and grabbed the corner post of the railing as she jumped down the last step. The cover piece came off in her hand. As she went to replace it, she noticed that the post was hollow, and was filled to the top with empty Budweiser cans. We quickly checked the other corner posts on the three flights of stairs, and sure enough, all had tops that came off, and all were filled with Bud cans. Mystery solved!