Thinking about a thing that happened to me during college that I still find surreal and hilarious...
I lived in the dorms during my sophomore year. It was pretty fun, the community was very tight-knit. But 9/11 happened shortly into that term and shook a lot of folks up.
I lived in the dorms during my sophomore year. It was pretty fun, the community was very tight-knit. But 9/11 happened shortly into that term and shook a lot of folks up.
A few weeks after everything happened, I came back to the dorms after spending a weekend with my parents, as I usually did since they were only a half-hour drive away. Everything seemed pretty normal...
Until we were woken up at 6 AM the next morning and told to evacuate immediately, along with the dorm next to and across from us. Why? There was reason to believe that there was a bomb in the building. On our floor, even.
We sat outside, sleepy, miserable and cold, trying to figure out what had happened, why someone would want to bomb our dorm. Eventually we got the all clear. So what had happened?
Well, one of the folks on our floor had a roommate with an old-style alarm clock. They HATED this thing and the constant ticking when they were trying to sleep.
So they got a brilliant idea: they’d put the clock in a bathroom locker overnight and retrieve it in the morning.
So they got a brilliant idea: they’d put the clock in a bathroom locker overnight and retrieve it in the morning.
Unfortunately, someone else on our floor had to be up early that day for some reason or other. They woke up, went to shower, approached the locker and heard
*tick, tick, tick...”
*tick, tick, tick...”
Remember, 9/11 was fresh, so the immediate conclusion of IT’S A BOMB wasn’t completely ridiculous! But boy was everybody fuming when they learned what had actually happened.
In retrospect it was a bit of a warmup for numerous drunken 3 am fire alarm switch pulls that year
In retrospect it was a bit of a warmup for numerous drunken 3 am fire alarm switch pulls that year
