Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.09 - A Tale of The Copper Hood

Beta Pi:

VAN SAYLER VISITS NASHVILLE: So, Van Sayler met me for coffee, and he and I go to the ATO House. Its locked, and I scratch & knock, and an Active opens the door. I give him the secret hand-shake and we walk in. The first thing I notice - the Copper Hood (above the fireplace) is gone! Where it once hung, is now just plain red brick (never meant to see the light of day), which is out-of-place next to the beautiful stone fireplace. The fireplace itself is boarded up.

This Active (who will remain nameless because I forget his name) told me that Vanderbilt outlawed fireplaces - and last year the Chapter "voted to take it (the Copper Hood) down." Now, this Active had on a tie (the job-interview kind of tie), and these guys are known to have recently won academic honors. So, I say "I guess the Copper Hood wasn’t exactly in perfect shape, was it?" He said "I think we’re getting a Crest to put there." I couldn’t just let it go at that. " But that Copper Hood had character, you know it was flawed!" He just looked at me with a blank stare, sort of like the RCA dog who sits next to the phonograph and tilts his head, ears perked. Anyway, that got me thinking . . .

A TALE OF THE COPPER HOOD: The old Copper Hood at the Beta Pi ATO House had many virtues.

It was a pledge training tool - as a pledge, I remember being ordered to polish it with Brasso. And the tarnish was layers-thick - the kind of old tarnish that never comes off. And I was no stranger to cleaning metal with Brasso (I went to Columbia Military Academy, where polishing brass was a daily required ritual).

It was a work-of-art in progress: the Copper Hood had hundreds of great dents, and scratches. It had a hole - about the size of a broom handle - legend had it (if memory serves) that Mike Kirk got really drunk and P.O.’ed (and Kirk was a great big muscular guy) and chucked a broom stick - believing it a javelin - at the Copper Hood. Heme recently told me that a few years ago, Kirk showed up "all pumped" and said he was entering the Tough-Man Fight competition!

It was a dramatic stage back-drop: the Copper Hood served as an excellent backdrop for Star Chamber sessions, because the ceiling-mounted lighting - meant to enhance the Copper Hood - made perfect "third degree" lighting, the kind of lighting used in Cold War counter-espionage interrogations.

It was a Character Enhancer: at Chapter Meetings, any of our guys (no matter how ugly) looked great standing in front of the Copper Hood, simply because the it was so very ugly. It was second to none as the place to lean, because every effort to lean on it was an opportunity to put yet another sweaty hand-print on the brass adding to the righteousness of the tarnish.

My personal favorite, it was a Percussion Musical Instrument. Frank Biller used to pound on it rhythmically when he got excited, or happy, or drunk - usually it took all three in combination to yield a Copper Hood performance. Its gone, I guess it had to happen sooner, or later. Strike that - it did not have to happen. I told that Active: "Mistake."

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VTL,

Larry Simons
Beta Pi, '72