GO BACK

or for the very beginning

go to the Rabbit Hole

Neill for your next leader!

Being aroused in the middle of the night to crackling and flaming torches is one of my more memorable Toccoa awakenings. I am given a wedgie that wears like a hoodie, then given warning to stop eating food from people's rooms.

On a more flaccid occasion, the radio sycophants ruin my slumber and drag me down to the WRAF head saint who berates me for my previous evening on-air shift "flippancy," me telling listeners they "could stand" for the National Anthem. Yeah, no one beseeches me to return to the microphone.

So, given these non-enriching moments, I wasn't sure of what to think when upper classmen, school-year 81-82, gently brought me to consciousness (i think), telling me "we're running you for student president. You'll see banners around campus." I squeaked out 'OK,' and drifted back.

As the morning gave proof through the night that the banners were (still) there, i walk among the students, not having to say the usual odd things or make funny faces. They uncustomarily are just giddy; some giving a supportive "vote Neill."

It is amazing the effort those upper classmen put into the banners; thought, humor, and even acrobatics when hoisting a Neill-declaration into the rafters of the school auditorium, aka. gym. But having not arrived there, I'm still reading the 10-ft long presentation of my candidacy which includes 50 details of cabinet and inaugural committees. This banner is strewened across the Earl Hall bricks, a location surely the grand-central station for every student, administrator and staff.

And yet, I couldn't've asked for a better interruption at the gym during chapel. "Neill" in most-giant letters stares down upon the student body and daily preacher, coaxing the attendees to lift heads during prayerful moments, wondering to themselves, "does he really have 19 demerits?" (twenty doesn't get you eggroll, but unenrolled for the TFC semester).

Chapel ends. My joy is surely complete. However, it reaches a higher rafter during lunch:
As the custom, the real student senate presidential wannabes are invited to ascend the SAGA thrown, appealing to the masses in declaring their intention for TFC's political daughter. One by one, receiving applause smatterings, they generalize then return to their afternoon bowl of cereal.

"Hold it!"

Rick Martin yells out from the crowd.
He gets up and comes to the vacant platform. "There's one candidate we haven't heard from." Oh dear, my brain tells me. Rick continues, "Every student running for senate should have that right. Let's here from Neill."

Crap!
I wish i had been woken up one more time in my sleep and warned about giving a speech without teleprompter. However, applause and "yaays" gets me to the stage.
"I want to introduce those running with me."
I invite Weedy, Godwin, and Joel, amongst others, to stand. My only thought at this point was a Saturday Night Live John Belushi skit.
"Do you see them?" i point to those standing and appeal to the crowd. "What is it that makes my cabinet different? They're men. All men. Manly men. Men who enjoy the company of other men."

Sarcastic approval more-than-quietly rewards my utterance... and ends my run.

I'm sure I got one vote.