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Traditional Events
- What is Alley Ordering?
This is an event that happens every term and is put on by the
Veep or Veeps. The purpose of the event is to be some kind of
challenge. Each Alley in the Hovse fields a team. Off campus
Moles and sometimes alums also form teams to compete. Typically,
there are 1 to 3 events. The tally of the scores ranks all of the
competing Alleys for Alley challenges.
- What are Alley Challenges?
This is an event in which one Alley challenges another to some
kind of competition. Based on the Alley Ordering, an Alley
can challenge up to 2 Alleys above or 2 below the Challenger's
ranking. However, the bottom may challenge the top and vise versa.
Traditionally, the challenge is made during
dinner announcements and once made, the Challengers must respond
within N days (with N typically set by the Veeps at 3). The
Challenging Alley provides 3 (or more) choices. The Challengees get
to pick one and make a rule change. The Veeps are the arbitrators
and referees. The point of the rule change is to even the chances
of winning. If the Challenger wins, their team switches ranks with
the defeated. Thus a team can purposely move up (or down) the
rankings. If the Challengee wins, no switching takes place.
Any or all of these conventions can change with the
whim of the Veep(s).
Some Alley Challenges (and rule changes) have been: (winner in caps)
- Water Polo (in Milliken Pond): 1989-90, Munth vs. HELL
- Crew (substitute Jello for beer): 1989-90, MUNTH vs. Hell
- Pumpkin Carving (with Power Tools): Fall 1990, Munth vs. Hell
- Kill the Keg, Video Game, & ?? (Play all 3): 3rd term 1990:
Bitter Ex-Veeps vs. Tunnel
- Crew (substitute Zoo Juice for beer): 1994-5, ALLEYHOLIO vs.
Heaven
- Beavis & Butthead the video game (???): 1994-5, ALLEYHOLIO vs.
Upper P.
What are Blacker Ski Trips?
After 1st term 1988 Ricketts had a ski trip
to Colorado after finals for first term ended. They stayed for
a week and drove back to Pasadena. The next year,
1989, the organizer was Pam Katz Rosten (fr: 1987, grad: 1992)
who was both a Mole and a Scurve. So both Moles and Scurves went along.
The Moles greatly outnumbered the Scurves. We had two condos that
year and stayed in Keystone, Colorado. Close to 20 Moles and 4
Scurves participated. Since then Moles have organized their own
ski trip.
1989: Keystone, CO
1990: Keystone, CO. The trip was organized by Danny Chu (fr: 1989,
grad 1993) and Pam and was also at Keystone, Colorado
1991: Park City, UT. The trip was organized by Katy Quinn (fr: 1989, grad 1993)Around 15 Moles participated.
1992: Breckenridge, Colorado. Organized by Danny Chu. About 10
Moles and a number of Danny's friends participated
1993: Salt Lake City, UT. Due to a lack of organization, we did not
get a condo. Instead the 4 Moles that drove up (Benjamin
Smith (fr: 1989, grad 1994), Andrew "Skew" Lines (fr: 1990,
grad: 1994), Andrew "Spaz" Grangaard (fr: 1991, left: 1996)
and Courtney Hilliard (fr: 1991, grad: 1995) stayed with
Matt Kidd (fr: 1986, grad: 1990)
1994: Salt Lake City, UT. Organized by Eric Hill (fr: 1993, grad 1996).
Again we stayed at an alum's apartment, Chandler McDowell (fr:
1990, grad 1994). A little under 10 Moles participated
1995: Salt Lake City, UT. Organized by Jason Heiss (fr: 1994, grad: 1997).
8 people went. The drivers were Dave Bacon (Ruddock),
Topher Hunter (fr: 1993, grad: 1996) and Leah Foechterle (fr:
1995, grad: 1998). Stayed in a 2 bedroom condo.
1996: Salt Lake City, UT. organized again be Jason Heiss. Drivers
incuded David Bacon (fr: 1994), Noah Malmstadt (fr: 1993,
grad 1996) and Vandana Desai (fr: 1993, grad: 1997) (in a
rental car), Matt Hage (fr: 1995) and Leah Foechterle.
22 (or so) people went on the trip and stayed in a 3 bedroom
house.
1997: Details unknown
1998: Plans were to go to Taos, NM, but I don't know if it happened.
2001: Lake Tahoe, CA. Possibly organized by Celeste Yang. Stayed in
a motel.
What is the Associates Tea?
The Associates Tea is an annual Blacker event. The first reference
to such the Tea is in Volume I of the Secretary Logs on p. 97:
"Sunday 11/12/39
- Blacker Associates Tea"
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The next entry mentioning the Tea is in the 1949 Big T which mentions the Ass
Tea as an annual event. The event was definitely held all through
the 1950s. In the 1955 Big T, it is mentiones "tradition
unique to Blacker...spring term." Alumni recollections are that there was no Ass Tea in 1956 to 1959 so the tradition seems to have died out.
There is no information for the 1960s and 1970s, but the tradition
was going strong in 1990. In 1990 Blacker was inviting the alums that it
could remember (mostly recent graduates) and some professors. Starting in
1991 Blacker invited all Blacker alums that the Alumni Association had in
their database. They also moved the Ass Tea to the Sunday of Alumni Seminar
Day since many Alums return to Tech that weekend. In the mid 1990s Blacker
started inviting the entire
faculty.
Hell Ride
Hell Ride is a long standing tradition, from at least 1985. Originally
the Frosh would annouce Hellride at dinner and then started construction.
They had from then until Midnight to build defenses. Whatever they had
completed by midnight was what they had. At this time most of the
defenses were based on wood barriers. A typical defence would
barricade the room in question as well as the three entrances to Hell.
Upperclassmen would enter via hyperspace. The Hyperspace Bypass was
created to bypass a barrier.
Over time the defenses became more elaborate and took more time.
The Frosh class of '96 choses to have their Hell ride during
1997 movie weekend. Room 58 (aka 5'8" due to its loft at the time)
was made the sacrificial room; huge
metal poles were bolted into the floor through stacks of concrete-filled
tires. In front of these were several layers of metal and plywood.
It became the only infinite-time Hell Ride. After 80 minutes, with Kim West
(DRL) reportedly in route to Blacker, the upperclassmen slipped a note to
the Frosh in room 56 notifying them of this as well as conceding defeat.
The conceding of defeat ended the Ride before Kim showed up. Cleaning the
concrete out of Nathan Schara's room (fr: 1996) took several weeks.
After this concrete played a regular re-occuring role in the Hell Ride
defenses. Tons of concrete was left in hyperspace year after year. Knowing
that the Hovse would be empty starting in fall 2005 for yearlong renovations,
the frosh class of 2004 used a lot of concrete for their spring 2005 Hell
Ride. When the construction crews entered hyperspace to install
air conditioning ducts, the concrete rubble and barriers was an unexpected
additional cost.
Page last modified 16 January 2007
FAQ author: Benjamin Smith (fr: 1989, grad 1994).
version: 2.1
Last modified: 14 November 2022, Copyright 2022
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