Our blog needs a CONTEST! Here it is:
LEGEND OF LOWENSTEIN ESSAY CONTEST
First Prize: Dinner for two at Flemming's Steak House next to Vanderbilt, during your next VU Reunion. You, and your significant other, will be escorted to dinner by a contingent of ATO Alums and their spouses. The cost of your dinner is underwritten by The Three Stooges. Larry Simons Lasimons4law@aol.com guarantees his own attendance. Venerable Brother from Nashville Boss Stein's john.stein@bankofamerica.com presence will be requested, as well as Frank Biller fbiller1@msn.com and Steven Starr starr@mn.rr.com. All venerable Beta Pi brothers in town for such reunion are invited.
Rules:
1. Essay must be no more than 300 words. Essay should reference Brother Alexander Wilson. Any references to ATO brothers should state the brother's actual name (in addition to nick-name). Essay should include brother's personal experience, and state how tales of Lowenstein enhanced brother's experience as an active ATO, and how such tales benefited the life of Beta Pi Chapter. For example, recount how Brother Alexander Wilson re-told the tale of Lowenstein the night of his Initiation, when he was road-tripped blind-folded to the mystic gazebo.
2. Essay author's name and e-mail address must be in by-line at top of Essay. No anonymous entries will be posted.
3. We are gentlemen, no profanity.
4. Since Beta Pi brothers who actually witnessed Lowenstein are long deceased, hearsay is acceptable. Give credit to brothers from whom you heard tales.
5. Deadline for entries: September 15, 2006. Winner will be announced September 30, 2006. One entry per brother.
6. All entries will be posted on Beta Pi Blog, and all Beta Pi brothers may vote by e-mail. Send e-mail vote to Lasimons4law@aol.com
Gentlemen, start your pens!
This blog address is: http://journals.aol.com/lasimons4law/beta-pi-blog/
VTL,
Larry Simons
Beta Pi, '72
7 comments:
ENTRY RECEIVED FROM JOHN STEIN, September 25, 2006:
"My favorite memory of an Alex quote goes something like this.......after quietly knocking on the back bedroom door...."Mista Reed, that SS just pulled up out back"
John Stein
ENTRY RECEIVED FROM MARK DARLING, September 20, 2006:
"Laddie, a great tale! Should have super glued Buck's miserable waz to the lion in the middle of the night (put the photo in the year book) rang the
miserable Es door bell and let his howling, wake the dead and the marvelous Mr. Potter.
I tried something similar while a glow one evening with Stubby and the Tool, and ended up in the infirmity with a Dr. peering down the Stubs' ear and the Tool passing out straight backwards - not even an attept to break his fall - onto the emergency room floor. The crack of his head hitting the floor
still makes me smile. Nobody, including the doc, flinched or said much of anything, until after he regained consciousness. He didn't remember a
thing.
The Days: Rizzo"
ENTRY RECEIVED FROM CHESTER BREWER, September 19, 2006:
"As the poor bastard that had to report to Dean Potter ; I believe the offening pledge was a "Swimbag" by the nae of Dirk Ewing(spelling?). He was never caught but there was little dought who was resposible. We had to buy about $4,000
worth of E clothes.
ILAMAB
Chester Brewer"
ENTRY RECEIVED FROM MARK McGANN, September 13, 2006:
"This is most curious because I have a similar memory of that same event only I believe that I was, unintentionally I assure you, the provocateur and therefore the intended victim of the interloper's wrath. I would have classified my remarks as "glib". I too believe that I was protected by Alex and his shovel full of coals, but I may be mistaken. I just remember sitting by the fire surrounded by a truly pregnant pause while Alex's barely noticeable yet firm presence controlled the situation. I remember that the moment came and went rather quickly but most assuredly would have ended quite differently had it not been for the quiet strength of that truly special individual. I also remember that Art received really special treatment during his tenure. Must have been something to do with being from NOLA."
ENTRY RECEIVED FROM ART LANDRY:
"Like all our ATO brothers, I have great memories of Alex and Laura. There are two that stick in my mind, one mild, the other more dramatic. During the year I lived in the front bedroom of the Tic house with Doug Martin,what with the blacked out windows and my approach toward class attendance, I had effectively reversed the day. My parents came to VU one weekend, which I wish they hadn't, and my father walked into the house at about 10:30 am. Alex met him in the hallway to the bedrooms and my father asked him which room was mine. Alex told him, politely but firmly, that he would check to see if I was awake yet.My father was not pleased, but I was. The other story involved the pig roast. It was a cold, wet night and Alex was wearing a hooded jacket, sitting in front of the pit. The house was invaded by a bunch of rugby players from somewhere up north, who started drinking our beer and hollering and generally being obnoxious. One thing led to the next, some Tic told one of the ruggers to get f'ed, and it seemed to me that I, living there and being WM (plus Jack Nichols wasn't there at the time), had to be the one to ask them to get the hell out.One of them advanced on me and clearly would have kicked my ass. I was thinking about running out of my own back yard when I heard a scraping sound, and I saw that Alex had turned his chair half way round and was showing the guy a shovelfull of hot coals.Alex not only saved me the indignity of being run out of the Tic house, he saved me from an asskicking. He was a man."
ENTRY RECEIVED FROM CHRIS REGAS:
"Great story of Afcentire and honor! It reminds me of the time that the E's stormed our front door accusing the TIC's of stealing their Lions......which of course, we denied strenuously, not with standing visible scrape marks leading up the concrete steps and into the house and down the broken steps to the basement! Just when the E's were about to become violent.....dear Betty Joe Bullonsky stepped forward, holding back the rage in the E's, and said "there is no need for violence.....if you will just tell is that you so not have them, we will believe you and return home. At that one of us assured Betty Joe that we didn't have them, and like lemmings, they went home!
Did we ever return them?
Thanks for organizing the Blog.....great memories.....send your phone number, my cell is 904.636.6450....Chris"
ENTRY RECEIVED FROM PIERCE HODNETTE:
"I don't know anything about any Lowenstein. The thing I most remember about Alex was how he would come to the edge of the food room and announce, rather shyly, "lunch s'on" or somethimes "eee lunch". Then we would run in like hungry wolverines.
Alex and Laura were very loyal to the swimmers. They held back food for swimmers at night because the swimmers were always late for supper due to their daily practice. It always seemed that the swimmers got more to eat than the rest of us, but I can't prove that.
One night at supper I lofted a tater tot toward Jim Cordner at the back table. Unfortunately, it hit his girlfriend square in the face. Laura refused to serve tater tots after that. Jim Cordner's girlfriend was the kind of nice, smart girl that I wish my sons would be interested in. I would like to formally apologize to Jim Cordner, his girlfriend, everyone present that night, and to Alex and Laura. In retrospect, throwing that tot was the wrong thing to do.
Postscript: I accept the generous offer of the stooges to dine at their expense in 2009. Thanks for this opportunity to get the tater tot incident cleared up."
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