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The First Weekend
In Jackson Hole
By Jared VanBlankenstein
Before we embarked
on a new journey into the depths of forever friendship we all
were distributed a bead necklace. We wanted all to associate us
with togetherness, brotherhood, unity. So we all donned our
mugs and beads and jumped in the cars that were willing to go
and headed off to Jackson Hole, WY. On the way we stopped at
the top of the mountains…overlooking the deep valley down
below. The sight was beautiful. We all took pictures and then
kept on our way. We rolled into Jackson Hole and it was dark.
We sent in a couple of the guys to secure us a place to stay
while the rest of us stayed in the car talking and getting to
know one another better. After that we went out on the town and
started finding out where the local hotspots were! Jackson
became a great place to go…whether to find Beads to make some
new necklaces of our own, or to find a nice set of matching
paperweights. We visited often and loved every minute of it.
After the brotherhood bond began to grow stronger, we began
to make our mark in our dorm hall. (in more ways then one!) The
majority of us stayed in Rigby hall on the first north side.
Fittingly our name became the side in which we lived. The
Northside Maveriks. T Bone’s color printer worked sometimes
late into the night printing out the latest signs that let
others know that they were entering the zone, the realm, the
Home of the Northside Maveriks. Some were even offended by the
posters and signs but to this day I believe that they were just
jealous. We were called into the deans office and asked what
this “propaganda” was that we were displaying all over the dorm
walls. When we simply told them that we were a group of friends
that were just letting people know who we were, they then
labeled us as a “gang”. From that point on the entire campus,
it seemed, had their curious little eyes on us. If we were a
second late from curfew, wind of that came to dorm mom. If one
of us didn’t shave, the deans knew about it and we would be
called in. We tried not to let that get us down and we found
other ways to have our fun! Incense was a favorite pasttime of a
true Maverik, although Many thought it was used in our dorm
rooms to disguise the “marijauna” that we supposedly were
smoking. Marijauana they wanted…We gave them Tarragon!
Midnight
penny poker was a favorite of all and I believe may have even
been played by succeeding generations of the Maveriks. We would
save all our pennies and play late into the night all together
while listening to self esteem by offspring, or California
dreamin by the mamas and the papas. Every once in awhile you
could see DI, Rhyster, and Myself Jarit jump up and start
singing the back up for california dreamin accompanied only by
the black light and glowing paint in room 110.
Games were one of the favorites of the Maveriks. Whether
it was one of the first games, “Clay fighter” brought by Eazy,
to, “snake”, brought by DI, and we all know Leo’s favorite. TIE
FIGHTER. He would miss school, even sleep to play that game!
Sim City was another favorite past time of some of the Maveriks.
And when it seemed as if one city was sprouting up more then
another, that wasn’t anything a quick little “Natural
Catastrophe” couldn’t take care of!
Pizza was and is a favorite of all the true to heart
Maveriks. Dominos pizza saw the Northside of rigby hall oh so
much. Leo was the Biggest Dominos fan. He would on occasion
skip the laundry for a nice hot steamy pizza pie!! And I don’t
blame him. Nothing beats a late night hunger attack like a
steamy dominos pizza with pepperoni and jalapeńos. On average I
would say about three times a week at least one of us would be
having late night pizzas.
The
bottom line wasn’t what we did. It was if everyone was there.
The more Maveriks the better. We would make it an event just to
go to the local Walmart or we would always wait for even just
one maverik to get out of class to all go to dinner together.
The Maveriks just had a way of getting along with each other.
There were some people that we all were cool with. Even tried to
hang out with us. They were nice and good people, just not
Maverik quality. Some of the Maverik Trips during that first
semester of 1994 were as follows: Jackson Hole (countless
times), Afton (Maverik Mecca), Provo (Murphies bar) Salt Lake (dalton’s
Uncle) Retrix, The Galleria, Intramural soccer, Maverik Runs,
halloween dances, roller derby night, Friendship dances, Walmart,
the post office.
I doubt
that any maveriks old or new rarely went to bed before the wee
hours of the morning. That was our time. A time we could all be
together. A time to laugh and play and spend time.
Maveriks were and to this day are full of the competitive
spirit. Whether it was forming two man teams for bowling or
uniting as a Maverik team to prove to others who we really were.
Or even a Maverik Girlfriend Poll to see who would break up the
fastest or remain together the longest with the girlfriends that
weren’t at school with us. When one would take the dive back
into the single life we would all have a party and with a big
black marker cross the girlfriend off the list…we even would
post who received the most phone calls and letters that week. I
remember once when we were all peacefully chilling shooting the
shiz in 119 and then Rhys busts in the doors saying he is gonna
get in a fight….all of us without any further notice all busted
out the paper weights and ran outside to back up a fellow
maverik.
I myself even got in the dudes face and laughed at him
when he took his shirt off and tried to look bad….I begged him
to hit me once, but probably seeing all of us there, he opted
that he and his two friends didn’t do anything. The bottom line
to this whole first semester event is that some lives came in
contact with each other and all for the better. All of the
things that we’ve been through, be it road trips, reunions,
reminiscing, or reliving. Engagements, weddings, web pages or
MSN messenger, we are all still friends and that is the part
that means the most to me. I couldn’t imagine my life without
the Maveriks, or maybe I don’t want to imagine it without the
Maveriks.
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