PKT25: Paddling
In college, when I mentioned that I was in a fraternity there was often somebody asking what kind of hazing we did to our pledges. Given that most mainstream media coverage of fraternities is usually of either some kind of alcohol related incident, a hazing death, or both, this was an understandable question. Heck, our National tried to make all of our chapters go dry at one of the national conventions I attended. We managed to prevent that, but given all the trouble alcohol has caused for fraternities over the years, none of us actually were upset with them for considering it.
Unlike some other chapters, our chapter was pretty strenuous about keeping rush dry. Alcohol was not involved in any of part of our pledge program. More importantly, the culture of the house had a healthy attitude toward alcohol. There were plenty of people who chose not to drink at all, and some mild occasional teasing was about all that happened. Since everybody got teased about something at some time, that was pretty much par for the course. There was certainly no expectation that anyone drink, and it didn't play into any of the discussion about who to give bids to or who should be initiated.
I don't want to imply that we are all sober, or that people didn't occasionally drink to excess. We were a bunch of late teens / early twenties young men partying. Mistakes were certainly made, but they were our own mistakes, not ones we forced on our other brothers, pledges or guests.
Leaving alcohol aside, we really didn't do much that looked like hazing. I suppose if you squint real hard having to wear a pledge pin or complete a black book might look sort of like hazing to someone who'd never been hazed, but nobody ever complained about either at all, and I'd be dubious of anyone who had.
There was the matter of the front door. It had our coat of arms / seal / logo / whatever the term was on the door, and because of that we told pledges that they had to enter through one of the other entrances. In good weather during daylight hours this might mean the doors into the chapter room or the back door, but pragmatically in an age without cell phones, this meant going to the side door on to the driveway and ringing the doorbell. Since there was a large overhang covering this door to block the weather, this wasn't even particularly unpleasant in bad weather. It was probably a bit annoying, but since pledges didn't get a house key they would have had to wait until someone let them in regardless.
Unsurprisingly, a major component of the post-initiation party was that the the NIBs (Newly Initiated Brothers) would enter via the front door. The House Manager would then give them house keys so they never had to ring the doorbell again. To this day, it's one of the three keys on my key ring, although I'm sure they've changed the locks at some point in the last 20 years since I graduated.
But what about paddling? It's right there on the schedule. Surely hitting someone is hazing, right? Well, maybe. It was probably more like hazing than anything else we did, but it was really far from being a serious concern. Here's how paddling went:
The Big Brother would make a paddle to present to his Little Brother, and the Little Brother would make a paddle to present to his Big Brother. Phil made me a football shaped paddle. Patrick stole the top off of a desk and turned it into a paddle. Vic actually carved something that looked like a fist. I still have all three on display in my office. I have NO idea what paddles I made for the three of them, but given my lack of creative talent it wouldn't surprise me to learn that I found an appropriate sized piece of wood and left it there.
At the paddling ceremony, the paddles would be exchanged. Most of the time there was a ceremonial tap (Little->Big, Big->Little) and that was it. That was the case with me for both Phil and Patrick. Occasionally someone might decide to try a harder swing, but that was actually comparatively rare. Vic actually shattered the paddle he made for me when he took a harder swing, but that had more to do with the quality of the wood than anything else. It certainly didn't hurt very much, and he glued it back together for me.
It was also permissible to challenge other brothers if you were so inclined. This might happen once or twice a semester. I got challenged a few times over the years, and it never particularly hurt, in part because we had strict guidelines about where you could actually make contact to prevent injury. You also were under no obligation to accept a challenge, and many people didn't. Even when a challenge was accepted, it was not uncommon for someone to fake out the other person by winding up hard and then delivering just a light tap.
Technically this was ritual, but in the years before I was initiated paddling actually had previously taken place during open parties, so it wasn't particularly secret. It was only moved to a private event because it was a weird and awkward break during the party.
It wouldn't surprise me to learn that back in the 1970s paddling was a lot more like hazing, but for us it was for fun. Unless someone felt particularly upset about not being allowed in the front door, there wasn't anything else that was even close to hazing during my time at the chapter.
Honestly, in my five years at the fraternity, I think we may have had more Blackout parties (5) than we had people who got Blackout drunk. We'll talk about Blackout and fraternity parties in general next time.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling
Semesters Fall 1996
Events Detour
Other Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History
Unlike some other chapters, our chapter was pretty strenuous about keeping rush dry. Alcohol was not involved in any of part of our pledge program. More importantly, the culture of the house had a healthy attitude toward alcohol. There were plenty of people who chose not to drink at all, and some mild occasional teasing was about all that happened. Since everybody got teased about something at some time, that was pretty much par for the course. There was certainly no expectation that anyone drink, and it didn't play into any of the discussion about who to give bids to or who should be initiated.
I don't want to imply that we are all sober, or that people didn't occasionally drink to excess. We were a bunch of late teens / early twenties young men partying. Mistakes were certainly made, but they were our own mistakes, not ones we forced on our other brothers, pledges or guests.
Leaving alcohol aside, we really didn't do much that looked like hazing. I suppose if you squint real hard having to wear a pledge pin or complete a black book might look sort of like hazing to someone who'd never been hazed, but nobody ever complained about either at all, and I'd be dubious of anyone who had.
There was the matter of the front door. It had our coat of arms / seal / logo / whatever the term was on the door, and because of that we told pledges that they had to enter through one of the other entrances. In good weather during daylight hours this might mean the doors into the chapter room or the back door, but pragmatically in an age without cell phones, this meant going to the side door on to the driveway and ringing the doorbell. Since there was a large overhang covering this door to block the weather, this wasn't even particularly unpleasant in bad weather. It was probably a bit annoying, but since pledges didn't get a house key they would have had to wait until someone let them in regardless.
Unsurprisingly, a major component of the post-initiation party was that the the NIBs (Newly Initiated Brothers) would enter via the front door. The House Manager would then give them house keys so they never had to ring the doorbell again. To this day, it's one of the three keys on my key ring, although I'm sure they've changed the locks at some point in the last 20 years since I graduated.
But what about paddling? It's right there on the schedule. Surely hitting someone is hazing, right? Well, maybe. It was probably more like hazing than anything else we did, but it was really far from being a serious concern. Here's how paddling went:
The Big Brother would make a paddle to present to his Little Brother, and the Little Brother would make a paddle to present to his Big Brother. Phil made me a football shaped paddle. Patrick stole the top off of a desk and turned it into a paddle. Vic actually carved something that looked like a fist. I still have all three on display in my office. I have NO idea what paddles I made for the three of them, but given my lack of creative talent it wouldn't surprise me to learn that I found an appropriate sized piece of wood and left it there.
At the paddling ceremony, the paddles would be exchanged. Most of the time there was a ceremonial tap (Little->Big, Big->Little) and that was it. That was the case with me for both Phil and Patrick. Occasionally someone might decide to try a harder swing, but that was actually comparatively rare. Vic actually shattered the paddle he made for me when he took a harder swing, but that had more to do with the quality of the wood than anything else. It certainly didn't hurt very much, and he glued it back together for me.
It was also permissible to challenge other brothers if you were so inclined. This might happen once or twice a semester. I got challenged a few times over the years, and it never particularly hurt, in part because we had strict guidelines about where you could actually make contact to prevent injury. You also were under no obligation to accept a challenge, and many people didn't. Even when a challenge was accepted, it was not uncommon for someone to fake out the other person by winding up hard and then delivering just a light tap.
Technically this was ritual, but in the years before I was initiated paddling actually had previously taken place during open parties, so it wasn't particularly secret. It was only moved to a private event because it was a weird and awkward break during the party.
It wouldn't surprise me to learn that back in the 1970s paddling was a lot more like hazing, but for us it was for fun. Unless someone felt particularly upset about not being allowed in the front door, there wasn't anything else that was even close to hazing during my time at the chapter.
Honestly, in my five years at the fraternity, I think we may have had more Blackout parties (5) than we had people who got Blackout drunk. We'll talk about Blackout and fraternity parties in general next time.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling
Semesters Fall 1996
Events Detour
Other Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History