old man fuller

tonight is apparently the last students will sleep (or, as is the more probable case, not sleep) in Fuller Hall. it is the passing of an era of some sort, and jac and i spent a good amount of time reminiscing about days and nights spent in that lovable crap hole i called home for so many years.

Fuller, for all intentions, was an awful place to live. it always stunk (no, seriously… worse than a typical dorm), the rooms were drafty, the heating and AC were always way outta’ whack, the bathrooms were porcelain & tile monuments to devilish amounts of stupidity, and it was always falling apart in some way. but it was a wonderful place. it didn’t gleam like some fancy new building; it was stuck on the back corner of campus, away from everyone else, and probably with good cause. it was where i had my first beer & first ciggie. it was the sort of place that, were i to ever run for public office, would ultimately be my downfall for various reasons (ghosts from the past and everything).

the picture above is from my second semester at Montevallo. i was essentially brand new to Lambda Chi, and we were the rag taggiest bunch of losers, drinkers, romantics, and liberal arts men you could ever hope to come across. something about Lambda Chi in those days really fit into the niche of what Fuller was, and for all the weirdness and stank and bottom rung of what we were then, we were amazing. i don’t think we would’ve fit or worked anywhere else on campus. that semester was our first doing Greek Week in God knows how long, and it was only after major poking and prodding by our class that we did it. the sign was my work, and yes, we absolutely shocked the world that year by actually participating. i’d like to think it was some small spark to what the Chapter is now: they’re now super involved and all over campus and have (i believe) the largest active Chapter of any male fraternity on campus.

but now there’s a whole swath of physical history that will meet with a wrecking ball in the coming months and while we’ll always have the remainders of what happened lodged somewhere deep in our brains, there’s something oddly sad about losing that tangible piece of what made me and so many other guys what we are today. Fuller wasn’t the first place that i met jac (that would be Brooke Quad), but by her account, it was definitely the place we most often saw each other (although at the time, i was dating someone else).

i’d like to think maybe i can get my hands on a piece of what remains of Fuller to bring home, be it a brick or… well, yeah, probably just a brick, as it would be the most sanitary thing to bring home. so there’s my call to all the kids who remain in Montevallo right now: save me a piece of Fuller.