The night my roommate Fred
drank his first beer
and more at our urging
we were at a dorm party
in the back room
of a bar near campus,
a few bucks for all
you could drink.
A woman's dorm was there too
but we were freshmen
focused on the beer and Fred,
who after the third
began to ramble about life,
the dorm, and playing tuba
in the marching band.
After the fourth beer
he called the RA a pussy
to his face, something
Fred would never do in real life.
After the fifth beer
he put his head on the table
and closed his eyes.
He didn't throw up
until the night air hit him
as we led him to the car
to help him home
and tuck him in.
It was a rite of passage,
one more way to say welcome
to the fellowship of males.
I won't say men
because we were still boys
but we were working on it.
Charlie Rossiter, The Night We Danced With the Raelettes: Occurrences In and Around College Park Maryland in the 1960s For the Most Part To the Best of My Recollection, Kanona, NY: Foothills Publications, copyright 2007. Used with permission
