PRE-FROSH MEMORIES

"Memories, like a comer of my mind...scattered pictures, of the way we were..." Every third weekend of April, Harvard undergrads are made to feel between five and 10 years older, as ambitious, idealistic and clueless pre-frosh arrive. Their arrival hearkens back to days of yesteryear, when we were pre-frosh and had bright futures ourselves.

BED BUMBLE

Juri E. Henley-Cohn '00 was victim to a classic pre-frosh dilemma in April 1996. The bed-switch. "My pre-frosh host was a good childhood friend of mine," he explains. "She had three other roommates, one of which had a friend visiting that weekend. The roommate and her visiting friend were both going to leave early the next morning, so they decided to sleep on the common room futon (where l was supposed to have slept). This way, they would not wake anyone when they got up." Unfortunately, Juri ended up sleeping in the roommate's bed, and the mixup climaxed--since the girl lived in a double. "This roommate came home very late that night and proceeded to undress very slowly right in front of the open window," Juri recalls with a big smile. "She was completely illuminated by the moon," he notes, the smile getting bigger. "To this day, l still don't know whether or not she knew l was in the other bed instead of her roommate."

REVEALING STAY

Matthew F. Delmond '00 has a story about one of his blockmates that he couldn't wait to blab. The tale revolves around another perennial pre-frosh dilemma: the guest bathing. "She was getting out of the shower--naked--when her host's boyfriend walked into the bathroom. l guess he just stared at her in shock for like five seconds."

HELLO MY NAME IS...

Everyone has trouble with faces, especially on pre-frosh weekend. Laura M. Coates '00 quickly bonded with her host in the afternoon, and then came back in the evening to pick up the great conversation where it had left off earlier. "We had a two-hour conversation," she remembers, "and toward the end l called her by her name. She looked at me kind of strangely. Apparently l had not called her by the right name. In fact, l didn't have the right person." During the second conversation, she had actually been talking to her pre-frosh host's roommate--who happened to bear an uncanny resemblance to her! "How was l supposed to know they weren't one and the same?" she exclaims to this day.

PLAYING BALL

Marc Stad '01's pre-frosh weekend was a true test of fate. "l wanted to go back home to California," he remembers, having had an awful day in pre-frosh '97's rainy weather. "l had made up my mind. l was going to Stanford, so there was no need to stay here for the remainder of the weekend. l seriously was going to pack my stuff and head to the airport when l met this girl who, after a few hours, decided she was going to convince me to go to Harvard. We hung out the whole day, pretty much ditching most of the pre-frosh activities, and ended up at the football field. While at the football field, she kept telling me that l had to go to Harvard. There we were at the 40-yard line and l still had a tennis ball in my hand that l had picked up at the tennis courts. The girl came up with a proposition: Throw the ball. If it went between the goal posts, l would go to Harvard. If not, Stanford. Fair enough, l figured. So, l threw the ball, and here l am."