[4508] in APO News
Re: hope for an old jaded one
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dale R Worley)
Sun Mar 5 23:51:56 2000
Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 23:50:24 -0500 (EST)
From: Dale R Worley <worley@world.std.com>
Message-Id: <200003060450.XAA05427@world.std.com>
To: apo-news@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <E12RHaV-000DZP-00@trillian.mit.edu> (darford@trillian.mit.edu)
From: "Darlene J. Ford" <darford@trillian.mit.edu>
Still, you shouldn't take alumni stories about what the Chapter did
back in the day all too seriously. Back in the day, the alumni
hung around complaining that we didn't build small villages on
chapter weekend like they had back in THEIR ill-remembered use. We
also probably edited some of the hairy parts, like PC's for certain
long-and-rightfully-dead major events routinely taking the
following semester off for academic reasons. History always
written by the winners...
Back when I was a boy...
But seriously, when I pledged, there were some truly hairy stories
told. But, as Darlene says, dropping out of MIT because you spent too
much time on APO (or other student activities) was quite normal. In
those days, MIT cost less (by a factor of 2) and the job market was
very kind. (E.g., the music major who got a programming job at BBN
based solely on the fact that she had an MIT degree.)
That's when we had four-day Chapter Weekends and week-long
Afterfinals. And every two years, an MIT Open House that left the
entire chapter hosed for the better part of a term.
In the intervening years (the 1980s and 1990s), life was harsher for
the MIT nerd, and sacrificing your GPA for Service was a lot riskier.
Needless to say, AX became less obsessive.
If the current employment situation continues for a few more years, I
expect the Glory Years to be reincarnated.
Dale
Dale Worley worley@world.std.com
--
Well, so much for the unicorns. From now on, all carnivores will be
confined to C deck. -- Gary Larsen, "The Far Side"
