A new story

My friends from college like to joke that they would love to reminisce about the old days at W&J if only they could remember them. It is true that I have lots of blank spaces in my memory of 1967-1971, but a few recollections remain. Some of them have to do with fraternity life.

In the late 1960s, Washington & Jefferson College was all male and the majority of students belonged to fraternities. The situation is entirely different now, and maybe that's not such a bad thing. Despite the associations with partying and hijinks, fraternity life had a dark side.

When the college moved all fraternities into new and identical buildings on campus, mine found a way around the new restrictions by renting a retreat in the country - an old farm near Marianna. It was necessarily a secret place. It's time to tell some of those secrets.

As with all of the stories, this one is true, although my memory is hardly perfect, some of the names have been changed, and although I know how this one begins, I do not know how or when it will end.
We'll call this one "The Farmhouse." It begins tomorrow.