In Room Draw, larger groups naturally have greater difficulty at finding housing together than do smaller ones. With this in mind, groups of friends who want to stick together would do well to emulate the seniors of Pond Hall’s second-level suites.
Most of the residents of Pond 210, 212 and 214 (all four-person suites) lived together as freshmen in Valentine Hall. In their sophomore year, six of them lived in Crossett Hall, and the rest would come to visit. Prior to junior year, the group tried to secure housing together in that same dorm by performing a Blues Brothers medley in the annual Lip-Sync concert; they were unsuccessful in their attempt, but were lucky to find adjacent suites in Room Draw.
As senior year approached, the group sought a similar arrangement. “We knew that we wanted the same thing, but in a better location,” said Adam Bookman. “Pond was the obvious choice.”
The Pond suites have all the charms and accoutrements of a college bachelor pad. The suites’ flagship may be the wooden bar, which is kept in room 210. The bar actually has something of a history. “According to lore, the bar has been around campus for about five years,” said Jaime Botero. “Raul Altreche ’06 was looking to get rid of the bar, so he offered it to us at the end of his senior year. Every year we’ve had to take it apart and store it.”
Two other outstanding features are the mounted animals: A fiber-glass hammerhead shark above the bar and a stuffed boar’s head. The shark was procured by Dave Pechman and his father at the auction of an Eastchester, NY restaurant which was going out of business. The boar was a gift from senior Steve Shashy’s uncle, who killed the animal in the middle of the night in a Florida swamp. The head sat in Shashy’s basement for 15 years before he asked his father to let him bring it to school. “I thought it would be something unique for our barroom,” Shashy said. “He let me, and the rest is history.”
The rooms are also adorned with all manner of posters and flags. Of particular note is a sprawling canvas poster of the 2007 comedy “Superbad.” Mike Lariviere won the poster in a raffle at Hampshire Mall. “We are all huge fans of ‘Superbad,’” he said. “Adam even dressed up as Seth for the theme party.”
Pat Benson noted that nearly all of the suites’ furniture was acquired on the cheap, for a grand total cost of $50. The only item that the group had to pay for was their floral-print couch. “All the rest of the love-seats and such have been acquired by the great American art of dumpster diving,” said Benson.
Overall, the group has taken full advantage of what the suites have to offer. “The rooms have played host to a number of important campus activities,” said Benson, “including Senate committee meetings, karaoke sessions and the famous Cocoa-with-Peppermint-Schnappes Christmas parties.”