Chapter 7: Doo-dah Day




      "Good run you two!" I console after their second place finish. 

"Fuck that!" Deb Lew scowls as she throws down the heavy wooden crossbar. "Burkhardt said this was the fastest chariot."

"That was before Phi Kap built one from a bicycle frame," I shrug, relieved to notice amusement in the crinkles of her eyes.

"Guess we'll have to go to the Phi Kap dance then," she chides as they're walking away.

"What about our deal?" I cry out before they get out of earshot across the field. 

"Pick us up at nine!" Deb Lew hollers, both her and Frieda-Mae glancing back before disappearing into the campus.



     Big events in the Gibson-Henry extracurricular calendar were usually capped by Saturday night parties in the eight fraternities. Camptown was the largest annual party, and Delta Ep was hosting a Richmond blues band on a small stage we built to one side of the large, wooden-floored living room. I was in charge of the set up as the house manager, and there was always plenty of help getting ready for parties, if not for their ruinous aftermath the next morning.

     We'd worked steadily for four hours after the chariot races to get the stage, dance hall, bar, and speakers set up for Johnny Henry and the Hammers. The band arrived at 8:30 so I'd turned the stereo system over to their sound guy, running upstairs for a quick shave, shower, and blow dry before heading over to Alma Wood for my first date with FM.



     "Anyone home?" I halloo after getting no answer to my increasingly loud knocks on Frieda-Mae's oak door. 

"Sorry, she's gone," a half-dressed Deb Lew exclaims from a crack in the neighboring door. 

"Gone where?" I demand a little louder than I'd intended.

"The girl just disappears," she soothes throwing open the door. "Come in while Josie and I get dressed!"




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