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Hurricane 2009
Submitted by: Jim Ford - 10/05/09 3:40 pm

Hurricane 2009
Every spring my college fraternity Alpha Tau Omega hosts a Hurricane party for members, alumni, family and friends. I think I've made it 16 out of the last 18 years. I also took this opportunity to introduce Debbie to Louisiana food and culture and many of my friends. I have to admit, the college kids party this hard several times a week and I can only do it once a year! I'm pretty tame now compared to my younger days but we still tear it up playing sand volleyball, dancing, going headfirst down the water slide, eating crawfish, hanging with friends, and drinking a ton of beer!

The college kids start partying on Friday afternoon but we decided to go to Haley's softball game and meet up with adult friends. Saturday morning we headed over to the fraternity house on campus. Debbie met lots of my friends while we sat on the deck listening to music, drinking beer, and watching the kids head down the "water slide" built on the hill. Below you see Debbie and me, Mary, and Liz.

Since I'm the chapter's board of trustees president (mortgage, insurance, alumni relations, etc.), I did a brief inspection and caught up with Ryan, the president. But soon it was time for crawfish. Just think, all that super spicy crawfish, corn, potatoes, and mushrooms on a table outside with great music, friends, and cold beer. Mmmm... ready to go again!

As the drinking and fun continued, the volleyball kicked into high gear. At this point... at least in my head, I was in as good shape as the 18 year olds and I was jumping and spiking that ball like a pro. Again, that's probably all in my head but hey, it was great at the time. We stopped just long enough for a group shot that included ATO's from at least 20 years. And of course no drunken fraternity party is complete without the chanting of vile, dirty, horrible limerick that is totally not appropriate for me to repeat here. But sure is fun to scream at the top of your lungs and remember the days gone by!

All the while, many of the young guys and girls (yes, college women in bikinis... gotta hate that) were diving down the homemade water slide which consists of huge rolls of plastic sheeting, water pump, a dug out pit, and if you're lucky... a little soap to keep things slick. I caught great shots of Billy diving mid-air someone about to get tackled. The malt and hops in my head began to tell me, "It's okay Jim, you still got it. Go for it!". I'm not so sure.

With my heart pounding and not wanting to look like a total goob to Debbie or these college kids, I took off and sort of "semi" dove but sorta wussing out at the last second and just falling onto my knees. As I whizzed down the hill, I felt every uneven bump, pine comb, and beer bottle under that slide, flipping over and heading to the pit backwards. I finally splashed in the brown, grassy, murky water and jumped up for my victory dance. Regaling in my superiority over these young punks (yeah right!), I had a beer and watched the others for a while.

We danced, partied, and had a blast all night. The crawfish seemed to never stop and Debbie caught this final pic of me sitting by myself 10:00 at night still eating away. It took a few weeks of rest and running for my stomach, liver, and bruises to heal. I'm ready for next year!

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