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Frat House

In September, 1956, I went to the University of Nebraska. As a Freshman, I had "pledged" to a fraternity called "Sigma Alpha Epsilon" , or "SAE" (not to be confused with fuel-oil ratings). The competitive fraternities called us "Sigma Alpha Everyone", because we had the largest national membership.
The old house was on 16th street in Lincoln and on campus. I was gothic. On the first floor was a living room, a card room and a TV room. The second and third floors were member rooms, plus two unheated dormitory sleeping rooms...some of the members slept there all year round, even below zero temperatures. I did as a freshman, but not thereafter. In the basement was the kitchen, dining area and meeting room, which doubled as a party room.
It was in that kitchen that I first lost my taste for something I had previously loved: chicken. On every Sunday, the cooks baked chicken. The problem was that it was always raw around the bones. Needless to say, I got really, really sick. And to this day I may try chicken once every two years!
Another memorable about the dining room is that everyone was expected to attend sober. One night I didn't. I'd had too many beers with some upper classmen and was ordered to be thrown into the showers. Four (or more) "brothers" forced me upstairs to the showers as I fought them. Unfortunately, the showers had wired, glass doors, which they slammed as I stupidly kicked out. This landed me in the dispensery for stiches and sent me back to supper on crutches.
The "brothers" weren't that kind and teased me. I was called "He with the leg what is gimpy; aka the Gimpy Leg". The nickname was later shortened to just : "Leg".
Not much else happened at the old frat house. We had parties in the meeting room. We covered the floor with sawdust for one and had a toga party at another (when I got into trouble for not wearing anything under my toga.)
There was more, but nothing really worth talking about.