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Centennial 8,
Sept-Dec 1998
By Jeremy Cates
In my opinion it all
began with some shish-kabobs. (By the way I’m DI, my real name
is Jeremy Cates and I’ll be telling this history. It may be kind
of hard to understand but hang in there with me) that was what
was being served the night a few OGs got together and made a
pact. It was a pact that put these old friends back together
after two years of being in different parts of the world. The
pact was the Maverik Thumbpole. Basically that night we agreed
to live together for the following semester. It was the
beginning of an era…
Pictures were taken and memories were made that night.
In fact I think that if you go to certain photo galleries you
can see the five of us on the porch of the apartment with
shish-kabobs in hand. Eric and myself lived in that apartment
with four other guys for the last half of the spring semester of
98. The apartment wasn’t to see its full glory until the rest of
the Maveriks moved in and claimed what was rightfully theirs.
To prepare for the move in the fall we had to stockpile
our vintage furniture at Eric’s grandpa’s pad in Afton Wyoming.
So we packed up the Jeep Grand Cherokee and El Sueño (DI’s Jeep)
with all the goods for the following semester and headed up
there. We spent some time in Jackson that weekend. At the time I
had a girlfriend, and she came up and brought a friend with her.
That was a double mistake, because my girlfriend ended up
getting on my nerves the whole time because I wasn’t spending
enough time with her, and her friend and Leo got naughty. In the
end, Leo assured us that nothing happened. We took his word for
it. It was on that same trip that we decided to take the Jeeps
up to see Eric’s land. Well, El Sueño got stuck and it took a
lot of work to get it freed. But it was a time that us Mavs
(Johnny, Bone, DI, and Eric) came together and got the job done.
Bone got splattered with mud big time, pretty funny.
We went home that summer and didn’t have much contact
but we knew a good semester was on its way. I for one was
excited to get things started in the fall. My brother Shag was
getting back from the mish in Argentina and was slated
(unbeknownst to him) to room with Leo. When Shag got back and
got used to the states we loaded up El Sueño and headed out to
Afton to meet Eric and pack up the furniture that we left
behind. It also gave Shag and I some time to get reacquainted
because we hadn’t seen each other in 3 years. We chilled
together at Beaver Dick camping for a day, and we stayed at the
Rex one night because we couldn’t get into the apartment. When
we got to Eric’s Grandpa’s house we helped finish the deck that
grandpa was working on and then we loaded up the furniture and
headed out.
Once at the apartment everyone started to show up and
the good times began. I wish I could give ya’ll a blow by blow
of the whole semester, but I have to limit this thing to 2
pages. I’m just going to ramble on for the next few paragraphs
and hope that you can get something from it.
What I remember from that semester was change and yet
things stayed the same. It’s kind of hard to explain. We had
evolved as friends, and things weren’t the same as they were
when we were in the dorms 2 years before. But at the same time
things kind of were the same as they were before. Anyways, that
doesn’t make much sense. I’m going to attack this by talking a
little about every person that was there. Here goes…
ERIC and I roomed together in the middle room. It made
for a lot of noise because we were surrounded on both sides by
the other two rooms. We usually had to bang on the walls to get
Johnny or Leo to quiet down, or to stop the Rasta vibes (Bob
Marley bass). When I first got there the semester before Eric
introduced me to a few of his friends. Brit and Cat come to
mind. We hung with them quite a bit. They hung around the place
and were good company. You could on occasion find them chilling
with Leo (another roommate) in my room! (But that was the
semester before Leo had a girlfriend in the fall, just to
clarify) Eric at the time was seriously dating a girl named
Josie. We would get the phone call every night from Josie asking
for Eric. She was down in Salt Lake, and so there was an
intricate commuting arrangement. Josie would come up on some
weekends and Eric would go down others. They made it work. They
are married now. Eric proposed to her that semester. Eric kept
busy with his climbing aspirations and school. Eric was also key
in helping to keep the apartment clean. This was a battle that
we fought often. We were determined to have a clean apartment.
So a schedule was made up and we took turns doing different
chores. Eric was the enforcer. One example of a rule was that if
someone left a dish in the sink for more than 3 days that dish
went in to their bed (dirty), no questions asked. We had a very
clean apartment, especially for a bunch of guys. Eric also was
integral in decorating the apartment. We had the place decked
out in everything totally 60s and 70s vintage. Velvet, rotary
phone, black lights, disco ball, shag carpet murals, etc. Eric
also liked playing around with his laptop (as did other previous
roommates…) and he also enjoyed dressing Johnny’s hair for
special occasions.
---As this goes on I’ll interject little anecdotes about
different things. It won’t be very coherent---
JOHNNY was the character. He roomed with T-bone in the
room on the left. Johnny liked the room very very steamy and
hot. He kept the heat up to 90 and had a humidifier going 24-7
it seemed (when it wasn’t full of yellow liquid). Johnny had
many stories to tell from that semester. He had an interesting
B-day gift where many women adorned him with unique surprises. I
won’t go into detail, but it was a night to remember. It was a
gift received in exchange for a dance that Johnny had done
earlier for the same girls. Johnny got the fro, the robe, and
the groove on that night. Johnny has a few dances he calls his
own. If you’re lucky you can sometimes see him doing the “Funky
Chicken”, “Punta”, and “Forbidden Johnny”. Classic stuff. Johnny
grew his hair out as long as Ricks would allow. He was stylin’.
Let’s see what else. Johnny is also an avid bowler. So he bought
a pin and painted it with glow in the dark paint. He then
displayed it above his bed, but that didn’t last long because it
was so bright he couldn’t sleep. Johnny also liked playing “We
are the World” every Sunday morning. Johnny was a great Home
Teacher too. He helped his fellow sisters by reading scriptures
to them. Johnny survived the trip to the Grand Tetons. We hiked
up to a lake that was beautiful. But the hike was all up-hill
for miles. Needless to say it was a struggle for us all. But we
made it and we ended up swimming in the coldest lake in the
world. You could hear Johnny’s screams for miles and miles.
Johnny dated many women this semester. It was a time of excess
and love. Many women tasted the sweet flavors of Outback
restaurant on Johnny. We often neutralized Johnny and his
belongings… enough said.
TBONE was the backbone of our apartment. Bone was an OG
from the beginning to the end. As I mentioned earlier Bone
roomed with Johnny. You could hear them up all hours of the
night talking about the mysteries of life and what not (probably
Johnny’s love life). Our bedrooms were lined up next to each
other and the walls were thin. Bone was studying computers at
the time in an effort to graduate from Ricks. You could often
find Bone surfing the net and doing his homework. We never
understood any of his assignments. But he would let us use the
computer if we needed. Rumor has it that some people accessed
things on his computer that they weren’t supposed to! It was
crazy in Centennial 8. We had one phone line, 6 guys, 5 phones,
and 3 computers. We had to have patience. (I could have
mentioned this in Eric’s paragraph but Jos was a regular
caller.) Bone unbeknownst to any of us had his eye on Sarah Salo
(Sarah Pope at that time). Sarah was a good friend of the
apartment and came by often to chill with all of us. Little did
we know that Bone was priming her for a semester of dating and
later marriage! Bone kept us chill with the sounds of Marley. We
would chill and play poker late into the night with those vibes.
Bone’s room was the place for pillow talk. We would chill in
there while Johnny slept, or Bone slept and talk about anything
and everything. It was a good stress relief. Bone D.J.ed a
couple good parties that semester at Brit’s house. Bone knows
how to spin and put those songs together. I’m sure there is a
good hip-hop term for how good he is at it, but I don’t know
what it is. Here is an amazing feat by Bone. I mentioned the
trip up to the lake in the Tetons. The lake was 32 degrees, one
degree away from freezing. It’s as cold as water can get without
getting hard. Well most of us jumped in and out as fast as we
could. Not Bone. He pulled of some kind of Nirvana deal and was
able to push the coldness out of his mind. He swam all the way
across and then back. Amazing.
LEO was in classic form. (Although he wasn’t the same
Leo from freshman year. He was matured quite a bit as all of us
had, and he had lost some hair.) He was busy getting things
ready for marriage to his girlfriend Heather. We knew they were
serious and that it was only a matter of time before Leo dropped
the question. By the end of the semester they were engaged to be
married. So needless to say they were pretty lovey dovey. They
were usually all over each other. Leo spent as much time with
her as possible. Leo enjoyed playing video games. I think he won
the Superbowl on “John Madden 98” 45 times in a row one night.
Sometimes I would wake up at 4 in the morning and find Leo
kicking some video football butt. Leo was very active in the
ward and church. He even taught a couple Sunday school lessons
while wearing his blue Italian corduroy suit! Leo was also the
Family Home Evening Dad if I remember correctly. I think he
became Dad after his bump and grind with one of our sisters at
the first family BBQ. I think she liked it. Leo came with our
family to the Haunted House. That was a good scare and romp
through the woods for us all! Johnny even ran very quickly to
make it through. Leo enjoyed making fine Italian cuisine which
required extra extra extra virgin oil ($100 bottle!). We would
borrow the oil on occasion to make sloppy Joes and scrambled
eggs. Leo was excelling in school, improving his GPA at every
turn. According to Leo, he graduated with a 3.8 from Ricks!!!
Leo drove a Ford Taurus. He drove it out to Dad’s Bar, and to
Eric’s Grandpa’s house. Leo roomed with my brother Shaggy (Chris
Cates). I had roomed with Leo freshman year. The computer
matched us up and put us in rm #110. Just think if the computer
had put me in 2nd south or something! Anyways, Shag learned that
living with Leo is the best! Free Ben Harper tunes and lots of
knick-knacks to play with. And when you get bored you can always
jump in the pile of clothes. Leo put his bed up on blocks to
make room for the pile. Sometimes we would kill the pile for
him. Once Leo had a knock down drag out with a woman. Sarah Pope
had Leo begging for mercy when he tried to shock her with the
shocker. The shocker was a self-defense device that became a
novelty for us. I liked to shock people every once in a while
for a good laugh. It hurt like heck and rendered part of your
body helpless for a few seconds. Anyways once Leo tried to shock
Sarah and to make a long story short, it was the wrong thing to
do!
SHAG my bro had just got back from his mission and
decided to live with us. He didn’t know what he was getting
into. Shag is a part of the Mavs that lived in Rigby for the
95-96 year. Shag was busy with school and women. He dated around
like a mad man. He saw a girl named Mickey. She constantly
showered him with gifts of freshly baked goods. They ended up
breaking up though. It was good while it lasted. Shag
unbeknownst to us at the time had his eye on Brit (the girl that
lived across the street), but that was a relationship that would
develop the next semester. Shag roomed with Leo so he learned
the ways of the great Leo. Shag was quite the cook. Although it
didn’t require virgin oil, he whipped up some great Argentine
casseroles. I would always beg for some. Shag was also a great
Home Teacher. He helped the needy sisters of the ward by reading
scriptures to them. Shag was getting the place ready for the
other Mavs of his generation to take over when we left after the
semester. At the end of the fall semester, Eric, Johnny, Leo and
myself took off for other places. Bone and Shag remained and
carried on the tradition.
All in all it was a great semester. Towards the end of
the semester, we had a Maverik gift exchange, which had become a
Mav tradition. Leo accused me of messing up with who I was
giving a gift to in order to make him look bad. We got a good
laugh about it. I think it was that semester that in a sense
carried on the legacy and ensured that we would be friends for
many years to come.
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