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Thursday, November 5, 2015

HOOK!


HOOK!
Fraternity house view from the "Hook"
“Hook!”

That was the yell in our college fraternity house back in the middle sixties.  There was one phone, a pay phone, in a booth in the house.  Thirty people in a house with one phone.  If you wanted to call your girl, or home, you had to make it quick; someone was always waiting for an incoming call.

If a call did come in for you, who ever answered gave that simple yell, “Hagy…HOOK! 

It doesn’t seem like that long ago to me, but what a difference from today.  There was no privacy, everyone in the house knew you had a call, and at least one person knew if it was family or a girl.  If it was a girl everyone needed to know what it was all about.  Hey, it was an all male school, anything girl, especially before a weekend was a big deal.

“Who was that?”  “What did she want?”  “You got a date?”  “She breaking up?” “Does she have a friend?”

Even letters offered no privacy in a house full of not yet adult men.  If you got a letter it was stuck in a cubical of a large mail box, and everyone could see you had mail.  It was pretty easy to see from the address handwriting if it was from a girl.

“Who was that?”  “What did she want?”  “You got a date?”  “She breaking up?” “Does she have a friend?”

Maybe that is why most of us are still friends.  There were few secrets in a fraternity house.  No emails, no text messages, no cell phones.  Your life was an open book.  If you had a date, she had to walk the gauntlet through the house.  Sixty eyes judging her looks, her mannerisms, her attitude, her walk…dumb comments, leering, whistles and more were not uncommon.  It was a bad idea to bring a date to the house early on a party night.

“Who was that?”  “What did she want?”  “Is she a date?”  “Does she have a friend?”

Alright, I don’t really know where I’m going with this; just a memory hit me out of the blue.   A memory of getting a phone call that was not a vibration in your pocket, but a yell from the ground floor of a college frat house to a third floor two bedroom suite where the rooms were separated by strings of beads.

“Hagy…HOOK!”   

18 comments:

  1. brings a new nuance to 'hook up.' :)

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  2. Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end. Sorry, your post got me singing. Great memories.

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  3. I think SD still lives in the 60's with his refusal to have a mobile (cell) phone, although he frequently uses mine! He talks fondly of the days where you made an arrangement one year to meet up the next and people just turned up without endless checking and rearranging.

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  4. At least it wasn't a party line!

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  5. “Who was that?” “What did she want?” “Is she a date?” “Does she have a friend?” Bwahahahahahahahaha. That would work for the girls too, just change the she to he.

    Have a fabulous day Joe. ☺

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  6. Dang, how barbaric! So who got stuck with the 1-900-TALK-DIRTY-TO-ME bill? Did you split it 60 ways? ;)

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    1. I think Porn was illegal then...so it was more fun. Anyway, it was a pay phone.

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  7. So much has changed technology wise over the years; sometimes the changes are good ones; sometimes not. I think in the case of phones, not all of them were good ones indeed.

    betty

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  8. Ah, what fun! With a phone in every pocket, we are less connected.

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  9. So... how is that different from living with 60 guys in a military barracks with only one phone... and don't even talk to me about a ship with 300 guys and only one phone.
    Ah, memories.

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  10. I remember being on the dorm phone in the hallway and fighting with the future Mrs. Chatterbox. We were on that phone for hours without saying anything. I had to send her money to pay the bill, but I guess it was a sound investment since we're still together.

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  11. Thank goodness you fellows could take time out from cramming yourselves into that phone booth for somebody to take a call! I guess you could still busy yourselves with goldfish-swallowing and flagpole-sitting.

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  12. Sometimes those old memories just come flooding upon us.

    I saw a program on TV where they showed some young kids several of the old land phones. They had no idea what it was and even after they told them it was a phone, they couldn't figure out how it could work. Hahaha

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  13. Wow---this brings back memories. I stayed in a college dorm at an all women's school. One phone on each floor. I dated a few of frat boys, and I remember well how awkward it was to go to the frat house to see my boyfriend when all the other guys were sitting around the front parlor.

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  14. Oh Crank, tears welled up and I could barely get to the end of this. Oh yeah, you got a butt for Balla?

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    1. Ok anyone who reads comments, Craig was one of the thirty, Balla was another member, and a butt is a cigarette.

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