REUNIONS & MISSING BROTHERS (#57): On Sunday, May 17th, 1971, I went to the Delt House to find everyone in shock or tears. Nelson Stambaugh, who had been only 20 years old, was dead. He and some other brothers had gone cave diving in a sinkhole outside of Gainesville. Nelson got lost when the water clouded with silt. Despite their repeated, best efforts, the others couldn’t find him. Nelson ran out of air and drowned.
I had never know anyone near my age who had died. One day they are there, and the next day they are not. Nelson was a year behind me at Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport, Florida and we had both been in the Exchange Club. Nelson had gone straight to UF and I had gone to SPJC for two years. So I had a younger Big Brother. Then I didn’t.
In 2006, Chris Wimsett had the great idea of a Reunion in Amelia Island. A lot of work went into getting everyone together. We started on Thursday night with a cook out at Clyde Davis’s house. Clyde went all out with oysters, shrimp, burgers, hot dogs and all the fixings. There was a choice of fishing or golf on Friday, followed by a Bar B Q & Foosball Tournament at the Palace Saloon. Saturday, there was a beach party and then a Banquet at the Golf Club of Amelia Island.
It was wonderful to see everybody again and meet their wives. TR Ford traveled up from Key West. I even teamed up for Foosball with my nemesis as a pledge, Mike Hubbard. Cathy came with me and we had a great time.
The Delta met each year for several years in Amelia Island. I remember great cook outs at Clyde’s, golf, and beach parties. The first time I played Bocce Ball was on the beach in front of Dale & Connie Dignum’s house. I have Bocce Ball and great grass in the garden (plus some in pots), if anyone ever wants to play.
Jerry Goudreau and Jim Gauger continued Reunion weekends during football season in Gainesville. A person missing was my little Brother, Robert H. Smith, “Smitty”. Smitty had been a cheerleader and would have loved the football game reunions. Sadly, he passed away at age 56 after a long battle with Parkinson’s. I believe Smitty may have succeeded Dale Dignum and Chris Wimsett as one of the occupants of our departed House Mother’s first floor apartment. I seem to remember hearing that it was possible to fit two couples in the bathtub.
One last college story before we move on to law school. This is another incident that wasn’t well thought through. In our defense, there was a lot of alcohol involved. It was a dark and stormy night, when a friend and I “were grievously over served by an apprentice bartender” (a line from a song by deceased friend Gamble Rogers) at The Library.
The friendship was a bit curious, since my friend was our Pledge Master and I was President of our small Pledge Class. Our relationship should have been adversarial. I was a junior, however, and experienced in the many ways a pledge can be tortured, legally and illegally. After a few weeks, we began to respect each other, and that respect turned into friendship. A friendship that got us both in a lot of trouble.
By all accounts he has survived our fiasco and gone on to lead an exemplary life. His civic accomplishments in Baton Rouge are well know, and he is married to a lovely woman. To respect my Pledge Master’s privacy, I will only refer to him as “PM”.
As I said, it was a dark and stormy night, and we were drinking with friends at The Library. Someone was an Advertising Major, and that struck a chord. We should advertise! Who were our potential customers? “Girls!” Where do the girls we want to reach live? “In sorority houses!” What should we advertise? “Delta Tau Delta!” Since we were out of beer money, we decided to put our somewhat fuzzy plan into action.
PM and I ran back to the Delt House and raided the paint locker, only to find the closet somewhat bare. There were just two cans of orange paint. Not our first choice, since Delt colors were blue and gold. Another problem, we could only find one paint brush. Not to be deterred, and ever the gentleman, PM said, “You take the paint brush. I’ll use my hand.” That settled, we ran off again, to Sorority Row to advertise Delta Tau Delta.
Our plan really wasn’t as crazy as it might sound. It was common practice for fraternities to paint on the sidewalks in front of a sorority house. But, as I’ve said before, it was a dark and stormy night! The sidewalks were wet with rain still falling. The only dry spots were the covered front porches, so we painted the only canvas available. In all we painted the greek letters for Delta Tau Delta on the front porches of 10 sorority houses. My brush strokes were much more artistic than PM’s hand dribbles.
We thought about painting the SAE Lion, but as we peered through the bushes we could see it was guarded. It was well known that anyone caught vandalizing the SAE Lion would have their head shaved and would then be tied to the Lion. We decided to call it a night.
The next morning the Orange Paint hit the fan. We had no choice but to confess to our misdeeds. There was talk about me being de-pledged and PM being kicked out of the brotherhood. But this was the 70s and fraternities and sororities had fallen out of favor. Losing two members would hurt. Also PM was very popular with the brothers and he made a plea that saved us both. We would clean up the mess and promise to never do anything that stupid again.
What a mess it was! After classes, we armed ourselves with cans of paint remover, rags, and brushes and headed back to Sorority Row. We had spilled paint everywhere and sadly, our DTD was nearly unreadable. Still, we had a faint hope that we might meet some girls. It didn’t work out that way.
As we were down on our knees trying to clean up the mess, girls returning to the sorority houses just laughed or made comments like, “So, you are the idiots that made that mess.” “Well, it was raining”, didn’t sound like much of an excuse. Still, we were on our hands and knees, and pretty girls were walking past us. As I have said, this was the 70s, so most of the girls were wearing jeans. Girls in dresses would have made our plight more enjoyable.
One more note about BIG JIM MASLANKA. He was one of the “bigger than life” characters that we all have met, and had a smile and a booming voice to match his stature! Big Jim was a Delta Tau Delta fraternity brother. He was also one of the Steinhatchee Seven, arrested in March 1973 with 9 tons of marijuana. legendary!
Big Jim dropped out of college just before graduating with a History Degree and became a commercial fisherman. He lived hard and it took a toll. I had a chance to talk with Big Jim on the phone while he was in Hospice care in 2017. He sounded exactly the same and said he’d be out of there soon. He fought his way back, but died of a heart attack on February 22, 2018.
Photos: Our younger days; Hubbard & Simmons thrash Kearney & partner at Foosball; Nelson Stambaugh, second from left; Smitty at Delt House in 1986; my pledge paddle for Nelson & Smitty’s for me.