The Great Christmas Tree Folly

Thank you to Steve Jordan '57 for answering our recent call for memories!

He writes, "It was just before the Christmas break in the fall of 1956. It was tradition to have the pledgemaster lead the pledges into the State forest to cut a tree and boughs to decorate the house. On the way to the forest, they passed by a farm house that had a lovely row of blue spruce lining the driveway. The next morning, the farmer discovered that there were 13 blue spruce missing from along the driveway. Unfortunately, another farmer coming home late that evening noticed a strange car parked on the side of the road.He wrote down the plate number, just in case there was something strange happening. Well, you guessed it, the next afternoon the police were knocking on the front door inquiring about possible blue spruce trees.
 
SAE barely escaped being disbarred. We were put on one semester of social probation, had to pay the farmer $100/tree. Our house corporation president, "Dutch" Rice fought successfully to avoid having the pledgemaster or the pledges from being thrown out of school. Certainly a lasting memory because we all learned lots of lessons from our folly."

We want to hear the best stories from YOUR SAE days. Share them on the message boards.