College Pranks

Maybe it is the fall weather we are having, but for some reason, I have been remembering some college pranks that I might have been involved in, a FEW years ago. When I went to college, it was to live for the next four years at a college dorm, Sayles Hall. There were 150 young men quartered there, and high jinks seemed to occur every once in awhile. You might be studying in the evening, and there would be a noise at the door to your room. Then someone outside of your door would put a small amount of lighter fluid into a dust pan, tilt it appropriately, and the fluid would run under your door. Now, if the fluid was lit in the process, the occupants would be greeted by a sheet of flames that provided excitement to another boring study session. The flames went out as soon as the fuel supply went out, and not too many doors caught on fire.

Another favorite was to remove the pins from the hinges to your room door, and when the door was opened by an unsuspecting person, the door would fall on the floor. This causes much laughter, of course. My roommate returned one evening to discover his bed had been raised, and glass coke bottles had been placed under the four legs to the bed. The problem was how to rectify the situation. If you lifted one end, the other became unstable, and the bottles went flying or broke or both. The one time I had this happen to me, I jumped into the air and onto the bed. The bed sagged a bit, and then there was a upward reaction. The coke bottles broke, and the whole thing came crashing down. We had glass everywhere. Another favorite was to ask an unsuspecting visitor to: "Pick a number from one to ten." No matter what the answer, it would be wrong, and the person was told, "You lose, strip!." Usually after a bit of a pause, some laughter. One night though the person selected, called us on our game and stripped and said, "Now what?" That time the laugh was on us. There are more of these to come, so keep looking for them.