The Dorm-Hall Slip-and-Slide

Ten Buckets of Soapy Water. One Dorm Hallway. What Could Go Wrong?

The main hall was where most of the girls lived.

Then there was Craton—the other building, a little ways away.

I lived in Craton for two years, both times on the second floor, before eventually moving off campus.

One Saturday night, a group of freshmen were so bored that no movie night would suffice. Someone, somewhere in that group, came up with what they clearly believed was their best idea ever.

“Let’s make a Slip ’N Slide.”

Not outside.

That would be crazy.

Too dark. Too inconvenient.

No—right there. On the second floor hallway.

They huddled for maybe a minute, worked through the logistics (loosely), and got to work filling buckets with soapy water. Then they dumped bucket after bucket down the hall.

That’s when the cracks in the perfect plan appeared.

Dorm rooms, as it turns out, have a few inches of space under the door.

And soap water—enthusiastic, determined soap water—does not respect personal boundaries.

Did they knock on doors to warn people that ten buckets of suds were incoming?

Nope.

The water made it into my room.

I had one casualty.

My slippers.

At that point, panic set in. Towels were grabbed. Girls scrambled down the hall, attempting to block door after door with a single towel each—like that was going to stop the tide.

Then they stopped worrying about containment altogether.

And proceeded to have fun.

Sliding down the hall.

Laughing.

Living their best second-floor lives.

The next morning, I saw the aftermath.

Soap stains streaked the hallway carpet, stubborn and unmoved by whatever half-hearted cleanup attempt had happened the night before.

And do you know who cleaned up that wild Saturday night?

The custodian.

It took several attempts before the stains were finally removed.

The freshmen slid.

The slippers paid the price.

And the custodian got the honor of erasing the evidence.

Moral of the story: The freshmen made the memories. The custodian got the consequences.