Just got done cleaning up after the formal, got all the trash taken out, everyone is home and safe, the place we used is clean, all the tables and cutlery and stuff are back in my house for me to wash, and the night was a smashing success. Here’s a group shot of about half the guys:
Trying to get the entire house for a group photo was impossible, so I was happy to just get half of them and their dates in it. If you click and embiggen, you might see my hot date, a chick named Lily, being romanced by one of the Alpha Sig brothers. Here are some more pics:
Our past President of the house who was the one who really rescued the chapter and led the way for our re-organization three years ago- he and I came on board at the same time- me as GCA, he as the leading force behind the rebuild of the house.
I even made an appearance:
Anyone who says fraternities are all bad can just eat a bag of salted dicks. I would go to bat for every one of these young men, and I am so proud of them and the way they behave, all the good things they do, and for just generally being good kids. Like I said earlier, I honestly think my job as their advisor is to not fuck them up, because on their own they are some of the best young men I know. I love them all, and I really feel lucky to know them all.
I am now having a late night cocktail, which I think I have earned. Oh, and once I get our Alpha Sig (and dates) version of the Harlem Shake uploaded to youtube, I will share it with you.
Oh, and there were NO leftovers except some of the sheet cake dad made. The fruit salad and healthy stuff was all gone- they are so good they even eat healthy!
I must sound like the world’s most annoying dad.
Irish Steel
“NO COMMENT!”
Seriously tho, that does look like a really good group of kids.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Who’s the dude with the foot coming out of his ass? ;p
Looks like you had a good time being the grumpy old man for these kids tonight.
Villago Delenda Est
Fraternities are all bad?
Only if they’re filled with salted dicks. Like W. Mittens Rmoney and George W. “deserting shitstain coward” Bush.
DH
You know Mr.Cole, you really are a good mensch.
jl
Looks like a fun bunch and a fun night.
Everybody looks so friendly…. oops. I forgot about the grouchy old guy
But Cole slipped up this time. Quick, someone read Cole’s palm before he takes the pic down.
Edit: I dunno how to read palms.
And is that dog in the top pic Lily?
I guess Rosie and Tunch were banned. Probably some kind of insurance liability issue if they tore the place up.
gorram
Oy this one’s integrated? That’s how you know the first response shouldn’t be BURN IT WITH FIRE.
NotMax
I’d be fretting about what was the matter with the cake, as it was the only item not gobbled up completely.
College kids en masse can give locusts serious competition.
jl
@gorram:
‘ Oy this one’s integrated? ‘
Amazing it’s a Cole-inclusive group and Cole voluntarily included himself. That’s pretty amazing for anywhere.
David Koch
Oakland A’s are for realz. 12th inning walk off. 9th consecutive win.
Meanwhile the OC Angles (NY Yankees West) fell to 2-8.
Yutsano
I must say Lilypuppeh is getting quite fresh with that young buck in the picture. I think she’s cheating on you JC.
John Cole
@Yutsano: She’s always been a slut on Friday night and easy with other men, but when the lights go out, she’s in bed with me.
I know when it is time to keep my powder dry.
Plus, all I have to do is give Rosie some sugar and Lily’s nose will get out of joint and she’ll get her ass back in line.
Yutsano
@John Cole: Okay I LOLed. I startled the cat too. I might not survive the night.
stibbert
cheers for the young mens & womens shakin’ it at the formal.
query: dance-tunes playlist?
2nd query: did JC recognize any of the tunes? I prob’ly wouldn’t.
subseqent ?: if we sat down these same WM&Ws & had them watch the last dozen music tubes posted by FPs at BJ, would they recognize any of the tunes?
Comrade Mary
They look like really nice kids, John.
And holy crap, I now believe that you have broken your fingers as often as you have claimed. What exactly happened to the poor pinkie on display?
Hill Dweller
Kobe Bryant has a probable Achilles tear. He’ll get an MRI Saturday for confirmation.
kdaug
@Comrade Mary: Oh, trust me. He’s even worse in meatspace.
Fuckers’ a mess, bur he’s solid.
John Cole
@Comrade Mary: That’s my left hand. I’ve only broken that pinkie twice.
And why would I lie about that, anyway? It’s not like I was telling folks I had a 12 inch penis and a 7 series BMW and ten digit bank account.
Yutsano
@John Cole:
YOU MEAN YOU DON’T??
EDIT: FYWP.
? Martin
@Comrade Mary: I think he just has it bent.
Time Travelin
I went to a large east coast state U. Our house was the only non-Greek on the street. Those Greeks were truly awful people. This and your previous post given me hope for the next generation. I love this site!
Narcissus
Maybe if it was a twelve time broken penis we’d buy it
Comrade Mary
@John Cole: I wasn’t suggesting that you were lying, I was just surprised to see a finger actually bend — inwards.
/sympathy shivers
David Koch
@Hill Dweller:
That’s Obama’s fault
The prophet Nostradumbass
@David Koch:
Yup yup. Donaldson with the Home Run!
And, after being swept by them A’s, the Angels lost to the Astros. HA HA HA!
Amir Khalid
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
He’s got pants on. Probably not John Cole. :)
bnut
Good on you JC. Back at Bama I was a charter member of the first integrated frat on campus back in 2004. While we were all good friends and had lofty ideals, we could have used a nice guy like you to shepard us through the process. Unlike the drunk ass middle-age rednecks from other chapters who thought our thing was their excuse to get away for the weekend and “help” set our chapter of Sigma Pi up.
TheMightyTrowel
FYI, even the Ivy League douchebag frats aren’t what they once were. At my own Ivy, most of my gay friends met their boyfriends at frat parties. This anecdote will be less surprising to those of you who know what my particular Ivy is known for, but still….
Valdivia
John you are sweet in Dad mode. :)
p.a.
@TheMightyTrowel: c’mon. ‘Out’ the school.
JPL
How sweet. Memories are made of this!
TheMightyTrowel
@p.a.: Dude. Gay Ivy. Use the google.
eastriver
Sure you meant UN-salted dicks? Soooooo much healthier.
Salted dicks are actually kinda tasty.
Er, from what I hear.
From your MOM.
Oooh-snap.
gogol's wife
@TheMightyTrowel:
Ha, ha, I forgot that one.
The party looks like fun!
RaflW
As I just mentioned in the Bowdoin thread, I went to TCU in Ft Worth in the mid 80s. That really colored my perception of frat boys. As did my later stint at U.T. Austin.
In both places, the frat guys seemed to be a mix of entitled scions and a bunch of guys trying really hard to fit in with entitled scions. A lot of biz school dudes in the TCU frats. At U.T., it felt like fraternities were the dating/boozing outlet for college Republicans.
TCU, as you could imagine, was not very diverse ’83-’87. And though there was some diversity at a large school like U.T, the frats were mostly white looking. So your photos are refreshing, John. As is your enthusiasm for young adults who want to do charity, make decent grades, and be in community.
I’m not too convinced about the larger frat society, though.
Halteclere
I don’t see a single self-entitled asshole in the whole bunch. Are you SURE this is a fraternity?
Gravie
My husband graduated from a fairly prestigious midwestern university in 1974 and was in a fraternity there. He and his fraternity bros still keep in touch, get together from all corners of the country whenever possible and are a truly great bunch of men — funny, smart, generous and very supportive of each other. So I think generalizations about fraternities, just like generalizations about any given group of peopel, are probably ill-advised.
jake the snake
@Comrade Mary:
Is Jody Arias a lurker here?
jake the snake
@Comrade Mary:
Is Jody Arias a lurker here?
jake the snake
It has been 40 years, but that does not look like any fraternity that existed when I was in school.
Not that there can’t be douchenozzles of all ethnicities, but I suspect the diversity does temper that.
Even back in the day, there was a great difference in the culture of one fraternity to another. Part of the difference was the fraternity itself, some the location.
When and where I went to school, SAE was the Omega house equivalent, and Pi Kappa Alpha was the Deltas. I had several friends that were Pikes, so I may be a little
prejudiced towards them.
Thlayli
Oi, Cole! What’s with all the blue? Where’s the cardinal & stone?
Violet
You’re a good man, Cole. Those kids look awesome. I love how much of a love slut Lily is. What a cutie.
MikeInSewickley
John,
I’ve taught for a number of years at a “world-class” university in Pittsburgh and I only wish we had people like you to take these “students” by the hand and make them into the kind of world citizens we need today.
If anyone tells you that you’re patting yourself on the back so much you’re leaving red marks, screw’em.
And keep doing this honorable work – you’re already a father many times over.
dance around in your bones
Why is it when I see pictures (sic) of John Cole I always think of Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy?
That there is a song called Pictures of Lily on that album is just the icing on the cake.
The Red Pen
Salted dicks are okay, but you really haven’t lived until you’ve tried the cool ranch.
tom
I’m a professor at a smaller campus of a mid-western university system and some guys in one of my classes asked me to be their faculty adviser. I had never had anything to do with fraternities, so it was something new to go to some of the meetings. They seem like basically ok kids, but they meet at odd hours and I have children to take care of, so I don’t go to the meetings as much as I would like. But the first time I went, I was struck by how it reminded me of fast and testament meetings (a Mormon thing from my childhood). I had never realized that Greek organizations are quasi religious entities. So I read up a little on the history of fraternities and lo and behold, U.S. fraternities got started at about the same time ol’ Joe Smith was trying to connect ancient Israelite and Egyptian civilization to native American societies. It’s watered down in modern frats, but my impression was that the whole Mormon obsession with secret knowledge, not to mention Egyptology, stems from the same intellectual environment that frats grew up in (hence the Greek letters and initiations etc.). Just a weird connection I made. I don’t know how valid it is.
Xenos
@tom: I think it is very valid. Look at the structural similarities between freemasonry and the Mormon hierarchy (30-odd levels of mastery, secret rituals reenacting biblical events) and it is clear how the latter is modelled on the former. The Greek fraternity system came out of the same time and place (upstate NY during the second great awakening).
Something very new and weird was going on at the time that we just don’t appreciate very well now.