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YOUR BALANCE
A question for you older grads.
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A question for you older grads.


Jun 11, 2017, 6:22 PM

I was talking Clemson with a class of 67' grad today.
His then vs my then vs now.
I was telling him about my first haircut at Clint's. I asked the barber to cut it a little short. The man never picked up a pair of scissors and went straight for the electric clippers.
My friend said it sounded like I got a "rat" haircut and proceeded to tell me about how freshmen used to get scalped and forced to wear orange "RAT Hats" everywhere.
Funny story.
Can anyone here verify?

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Why do dogs always race to the door when the doorbell rings? It's almost never for them.


of course. this is the first you've heard of that?


Jun 11, 2017, 6:24 PM

http://sawdustforbrains.blogspot.com/2010/09/fifty-years-ago-my-rat-season.html

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"Anybody that says Coach Brownell is the best coach to come through Clemson is going to start an argument." -JP Hall


Re: of course. this is the first you've heard of that?


Jun 11, 2017, 6:26 PM

yep,
An expert on everything, I am not.

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Why do dogs always race to the door when the doorbell rings? It's almost never for them.


Re: of course. this is the first you've heard of that?


Jun 11, 2017, 8:17 PM [ in reply to of course. this is the first you've heard of that? ]

First day you got on campus your head was shaved probably by an upper classman. We still have hubby's rat hat somewhere. An Orange ?beanie, and woe to the rat who lost his hat. Once Hubs was in downtown Greenville and a Furman rat grabbed his hat and took off running. (A common prank), of course hubby had to chase him down and beat him up.

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Re: A question for you older grads.


Jun 11, 2017, 6:31 PM

if you have to ask any explanation would be lost on you

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did you get a kneck massage they were awesome***


Jun 11, 2017, 6:32 PM



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Re: A question for you older grads.


Jun 11, 2017, 6:55 PM

It is hard to believe there are Clemson students and graduates that do no know about this era of Clemson. I started in 1964. Yes, you got your head shaved. Yes, you had to wear a rat hat. Also, you had to run errands for upper classmen. Get up on the dining room tables and sing the alma mater or Clemson fight yells. Two years of ROTC were mandatory. We had drill and ceremony every Thursday afternoon. Clemson was only eight years removed from being an all military college at that time. There were very few women and no women's dorms. It was a very different place from the current Clemson.


Message was edited by: tinker®


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Re: A question for you older grads.


Jun 11, 2017, 7:34 PM

The era and military history, yes of course.
I guess I should have specified the emphasis on the hats.
Made the post hoping for more stories.

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Why do dogs always race to the door when the doorbell rings? It's almost never for them.


Re: A question for you older grads.


Jun 11, 2017, 7:38 PM

Of course! Shaves heads and Rat hats!

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my father was there during the rat era, so I guess I'm not


Jun 11, 2017, 8:16 PM

Quite that old. He was there during the transition years from military to the time when it is not military.

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Back in the dark ages


Jun 11, 2017, 8:58 PM

Not only did you get your head "shaved" they charged you a dollar. You never got to eat a meal (until after the USC game) without at least someone having a rat stand and start the cadence count, at which point you stood up and joined in.

Tinker is wrong about one thing, the first women's dorm opened the fall of 1963. We went from around 100 coeds to over 400 in one year. Talk about thinking you had died and gone to heaven.

There were pep rallies every Friday night and the "rats" would catch the head cheerleader and throw him in the fountain up at the Clemson House. I imagine once or twice he might have gotten away, but not in the 4 years I was there.

Someone already mentioned ROTC drill. The army cadets drilled on the practice football fields just north of Death Valley and the intramural field just north of Fike. The air force cadets drilled on Bowman Field.

You wore a coat and tie to the football games and dates typically wore a suit and heels. There were no upper decks or stands on the hill. Lots of kids playing football on the hill and sliding down on cardboard during the games. The only time fans were on the hill were for the Carolina game. There was no rock when I was there and the team came down the hill because it was the shortest way from the dressing room. No Tiger Paw either back then it came in early 70s I believe.

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Re: A question for you older grads.


Jun 11, 2017, 9:55 PM

I still have my Rat Hat. My wife asked me last week do I want to be buried with it. I'm thinking "Yes".

As for the haircut, I always called it a "GI" 'cause that's how they cut a GI's hair.

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Re: A question for you older grads.


Jun 11, 2017, 10:04 PM

It is true.

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Re: A question for you older grads.


Jun 11, 2017, 10:05 PM

Guys, y'all don't have any idea!! My freshman year began in Sept 1948, when Clemson was a military school (100%). I went from Darlington to Clemson on a bus with one army surplus footlocker. Got there just before sign-in closed for the day. Only an upperclassman cadre was there for the first week. Our heads were shaved next day after class pictures. Issued uniforms. Learned to march first week before you were part of a company the following week.
If you hair had not grown back long enough to part by Big Thursday (USC game in October), every bit of food and condiments left on the mess hall tables were dumped on your head at the evening meal before leaving Clemson (I have photos of that event that I took when I was a junior). Incidentally, upperclassmen did that to all rats whether their hair parted or not. After that supper, we would go to the latrine for a shower.
Rats were hazed the whole freshman year - running errands (Juice shop, post office, whatever). We were beaten with paddles, sabres, anything available - sometimes to the extent of blood. This happened usually after dinner meals on the barracks hall (attendance mandatory), but could also happen in rooms anytime. My buddy and I were saying just recently that we would never have to to Clemson because of the hazing if we knew then what we know now. It was really humiliating and degrading, and the President and head of the military department didn't care. Some upperclassmen were really butts; a few were nice to us. At the end of the school year, the rats would grab the butts and soak them in a pool near Riggs Hall. A significant number of freshman would leave Clemson after the first week or so.
We had to clean upperclassmen's rooms ever morning - making beds, etc. Since we had a shortage of freshmen my rat year, I had 2 rooms to take care - 4 in one and 3 in the other. On Friday afternoons, we had to clean the rooms spotlessly for Saturday morning inspection at 8 AM; that including mopping, dusting every inch, and cleaning M-1 rifles. On Sunday nights, we had to count those upperclassmen's dirty laundry, bag it, and haul it down to the laundry early Monday morning before breakfast. On Fridays, we had to go get the clean laundry and fold it to military locker specifications. Depending on the upperclassman, if he got any room demerits during the inspection, he would take it out on your butt.
Class attendance was VERY mandantory; two unexcused cuts and you were out. We had to be in our rooms by 8:30 PM. I and one of my 3 "ole ladies" were wake-up orderlies, meaning we had to wake up 120 cadets on our company each morning by 6:30 roll call.
Enough of this; it's making me sick! Verify if you will by getting in touch with some of us who are still living. Some of it can be verified by old issues of TAPS. They did away with the military in 1955, after I had graduated. Again, I'd never go through it again - never! They said it instilled discipline. It really instilled hatred, unless you were man enough to endure it and forgive! I have two graduates living near me from the class of 1953; neither has ever been back to Clemson because of bad memories.
I love Clemson and I love my classmates. Not many of us are left, but we still communicate to the extent possible.
Feel free to ask questions or comment if you wish. Also, please excuse any typos.

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Re: A question for you older grads.


Jun 11, 2017, 10:29 PM

My father in-law graduated in 1929 and was also from Darlington!
I know in the 60s and 70s roommates were still referred to as "my old lady", wonder if they still do that?

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Re: A question for you older grads.


Jun 11, 2017, 10:06 PM

My grandfather graduated Clemson in 1925. I wish that I could have heard his stories.

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A fellow with the last name Tinsley


Jun 11, 2017, 10:09 PM

gave me my rat cut in August '67. Right there on The Loggia.

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Hartins - do you seek revenge?***


Jun 11, 2017, 10:49 PM



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Re: A fellow with the last name Tinsley


Jun 12, 2017, 9:49 AM [ in reply to A fellow with the last name Tinsley ]

Could it have been Ken Tinsley? He was there around that time.

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As a Rat in 1965 - I had to run errands at all hours of the


Jun 11, 2017, 11:07 PM

night for upperclassmen in the Deacs Frat house. One night i refused to open the door for several hours, pretending I wasn't there. After hearing threats that they would get me the next day because they knew I was there, I climbed out my window (luckily on the ground floor). walked around the dorm and entered the front door and was met by the guys who were still pounding on my door. They were shocked to see me come in and told me about how sure they were that I was hiding from them. Surprisingly, they let me off without sending me on the errand - a trip to Dan's to bring back burgers. I hated all the harassment we endured at evening meals - never getting more than a bite or two before doing another cheer for weeks before the first home football game. Cocka-doodle-doo and "the class of '69 is different" still echo in my ears.

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