Roommate Reflections

Fun With A Hat


As you will remember from the Roommate Reflections episode "Cleaning for a Hat," the goal of room checks every week was to have the cleanest apartment, and thus to win a hat.

Week after week, we strove to have the cleanest-looking apartment and to win the hat, because it wasn't just about winning. It was about showing off.

The fun behind being the possessor of the hat was in displaying it, flaunting the having of it before its previous owner. The R.A. from whom the hat had been stolen, Jury, was forced to watch as his hat was passed around the various girls' apartments and exhibited.

Each week, somebody new took dominion of the hat and did their best to taunt Jury with his stolen hat. Quite frequently, those somebodys were The Roommates.

And, in typical Roommate style, we didn't take on the exposition of the hat half-heartedly.

We displayed the hat more ostentatiously than any other group. Sure, there were those who hung it up on the walls of their apartment, or even took it to class with them, but we took displaying it to a whole new level.

Each time we had the hat,we came up with a new and exotic way to parade our win. We made an art of finding new places to brandish our trophy.

One time, a couple of The Roommates took it to California and took pictures of it being worn at the beach. Another time, we had some random stranger at some random store pose for a picture wearing it. These pictures were posted around campus and some even made it into the yearbook.

On another occasion, we took it to chapel and had a professor toss it to us during announcements.

Time and again, we teased poor Jury with our injudicious use of his poor hat, thus becoming the envy of all the less creative apartment groups on campus, and ensuring ourselves an honorable mention in the pranksters hall of fame.