Reminiscing about the Ride.
Apr. 11th, 2010 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elwenGoing to Tech changes you in small ways. Like, in how you react to hearing the Ride of the Valkyries.
After Tech, hearing the Ride triggers a whole panoply of emotions. Partly furtiveness, as in, "I hope no one catches me and showers me." Partly a nervous/annoyed tic because of how the song has become associated with finals and stress. And a healthy dose of nostalgia. Ahh, good ol' wacky Tech traditions.
I still remember the night a super-senior stood up with a story (story!) about how she turned on her car and the radio was playing the Ride, and she went "ahh!" and quickly changed the station. Then it rained overnight, so it seemed the car got what was coming to it.
Almost the same thing happened to me today. None of my modern music stations were playing anything good (Sunday afternoons, bah!), so I switched to the classical station, and they were just starting to play the Ride. It was raining, and I kept running from car to door and from door to car without an umbrella, so I think both car and I adequately wetted for the incident.
Originally, I was thinking of making this a voice post and playing the Ride at the end, and inviting any Techers to shower me the next time we see each other. I guess it's like the Tech version of a Rickroll. :D
[For non-Techers: one of the traditions was to play the Ride of the Valkyries as loudly as possible at 7am during finals week -- to remind people to wake up and turn in their finals. Playing the Ride was verboten at all other times, and was punishable by showering.]
There are lots of Tech traditions I wish I had participated in more while I was there, but I think I got a good amount of mileage out of the Ride. As a frosh during my first set of finals, I borrowed some big speakers (at least enough to wake up all of Tunnel) and got up early to play the Ride. With a twist: I cut off the Ride halfway through and switched to Christmas carol chasers instead. Only, I managed to switch over at a part that actually sort of blended with the first carol, so it wasn't the jarring, record-scratching type of break I wanted. Phil told me afterwards he didn't notice at first and was like, "Hey, I don't remember this part..." One of the super-seniors apparently did notice and spent several minutes yelling at me along the lines of "You're not supposed to do that! You have to play the whole Ride!" Afterwards, she could not remember any of this and claims she would not have minded what I did. I guess those are the kinds of things that happen when you're woken up during finals week at 7am by the Ride.
After Tech, hearing the Ride triggers a whole panoply of emotions. Partly furtiveness, as in, "I hope no one catches me and showers me." Partly a nervous/annoyed tic because of how the song has become associated with finals and stress. And a healthy dose of nostalgia. Ahh, good ol' wacky Tech traditions.
I still remember the night a super-senior stood up with a story (story!) about how she turned on her car and the radio was playing the Ride, and she went "ahh!" and quickly changed the station. Then it rained overnight, so it seemed the car got what was coming to it.
Almost the same thing happened to me today. None of my modern music stations were playing anything good (Sunday afternoons, bah!), so I switched to the classical station, and they were just starting to play the Ride. It was raining, and I kept running from car to door and from door to car without an umbrella, so I think both car and I adequately wetted for the incident.
Originally, I was thinking of making this a voice post and playing the Ride at the end, and inviting any Techers to shower me the next time we see each other. I guess it's like the Tech version of a Rickroll. :D
[For non-Techers: one of the traditions was to play the Ride of the Valkyries as loudly as possible at 7am during finals week -- to remind people to wake up and turn in their finals. Playing the Ride was verboten at all other times, and was punishable by showering.]
There are lots of Tech traditions I wish I had participated in more while I was there, but I think I got a good amount of mileage out of the Ride. As a frosh during my first set of finals, I borrowed some big speakers (at least enough to wake up all of Tunnel) and got up early to play the Ride. With a twist: I cut off the Ride halfway through and switched to Christmas carol chasers instead. Only, I managed to switch over at a part that actually sort of blended with the first carol, so it wasn't the jarring, record-scratching type of break I wanted. Phil told me afterwards he didn't notice at first and was like, "Hey, I don't remember this part..." One of the super-seniors apparently did notice and spent several minutes yelling at me along the lines of "You're not supposed to do that! You have to play the whole Ride!" Afterwards, she could not remember any of this and claims she would not have minded what I did. I guess those are the kinds of things that happen when you're woken up during finals week at 7am by the Ride.
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Date: 2010-04-22 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-24 04:53 am (UTC)