Fraternity Tradition

I must admit, I enjoyed my four years at the university. Much of that had to do with the fraternity where I lived. I arrived there shortly after I started as a freshman, went through pledge week (and all the torture that involved), and then settled in finally graduating and sad to leave. 

Most universities, and especially fraternal organizations, have many traditions. Ours certainly did. Pledge week, for example, involved having the new members do things like eat various odd things, run naked across campus one night, go on obscure hunts for odd objects like women's underwear, and so on. We each spent one night naked, tied and gagged in our beds. It was fun, and in turn when we moved on, we did the same to the new pledges the next year. Of course, we completely ignored the university's code that outlawed hazing. It was all in good fun, and there was some care taken to see that nobody got hurt - not too badly anyway. 

One tradition centered on any fraternity brother who gave his girl a ring and became engaged. After the brothers learned about the event, the future groom was captured, stripped to his jock or a speedo or perhaps naked, and then he was tied and gagged, and finally delivered to his fiancée as a package for her to open as she pleased. Everyone knew about the tradition, and it was something of a challenge for a brother to keep his engagement a secret to avoid the ordeal. 

In our senior year, Ramon gave his girlfriend a ring. He swore her to secrecy, he told us later. But she told her best friend who was the girlfriend of one of the fraternity brothers. All us suspected she did it on purpose, knowing about the tradition, but we never knew if that was true or not. 

Ramon followed a rigid schedule. After class, he went to the gym and worked out for an hour. Then he returned to the fraternity house, showered, studied for a while, had dinner, and then, depending on the day of the week, studied more, called his girlfriend, or even went out. 

We captured him while he was in the shower. Immediately he knew what had happened, and having been in on applying the "tradition" to others in the past, he didn't fight. We let him dry off, and we let him put his jockstrap on. Then we tied him up. 

We tied his wrists in front of his stomach. A pole just over two feet long went between his elbows, in back holding his elbows out behind his body. Tape held the pole in place so that Ramon wouldn't be able to dislodge it thus freeing his arms enough to reach knots or his inevitable gag. We tied his legs, put a rubber ball in his mouth and wrapped his lower face with duct tape, and reinforced all the ties with more duct tape. His legs were drawn up behind him in a very tight hog-tie. Ramon wasn't going anywhere soon. 

Then we went to work being as creative as possible. On the front of one leg we carefully wrote in black ink, "Beware this area, do not open, you have been warned" and from the words, drew an arrow up to the bulging pouch of Ramon's jockstrap. "Do Not Open until Christmas" was written large on his back. "Keep quiet, do not remove" was written on the gag. "A gift for Alicia," was written on his forehead. "A good relationship requires strong ties," was written on one leg. "Ramon is showing you the ropes, don't disappoint him," was written on one arm. There was more until his whole body was covered with phrases. 

Next, we loaded Ramon into a gunny-sack - made of loosely woven material so that air can easily pass through. The sack was closed at the top with a large red ribbon and bow. We carried the sack out to the pick-up truck of one member, and drove Ramon to the apartment where Alicia shared a room with a friend - the friend who had told her secret to our fraternity brother. The friend knew what was coming, so she had agreed to be elsewhere for the night. 

We put the sack with Ramon in it by the door of the apartment and knocked. Alicia answered, and we said we had a package for her, carried the bag in and put it on the floor in the middle of the room. Then all of us left. And we waited for Ramon to return to the fraternity house. But he didn't show up that night. He finally came around mid-morning Saturday. As he sat in the dining room eating a late breakfast, some of us talked to him. He didn't say much -- only that he knew we might find out, and that it had been fun. But I noticed the clear deep rope marks on his wrists - still plainly visable. Ramon had been tied up until just a short time before his return to the frat house. 

Most of us attended the wedding which took place about a week after our senior year ended. At the reception, I managed a short talk with Alicia. I hadn't come up with a wedding gift yet, and asked her confidentially if there was anything that they needed that I could get. "Yes," she said with a smile. "I could use about a hundred feet of light rope, five rolls of duct tape, and a pole about two feet long." I was surprised, but that's what I gave her. I've always wondered who used it on whom? 

20-01-02 
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