Unfiltered Story #310616

This isn’t really a story as much as a list of interesting things that I witnessed during my undergrad years that are quite entertaining and mysterious.

#1: During my first year of university, I suddenly heard the classic Mario theme. As it gets louder, I see a guy carrying what looks like a 70s style boom box on his shoulder. Throughout my four years there, I would see him occasionally playing various types of music. Nobody knew this guy’s name and he was known across campus as “Boom Box Guy.” I found out around my third year there that “Boom Box Guy” was actually a title that was passed on. Whenever the previous Boom Box Guy graduated, he would pass on the title, and I believe the boom box, to his successor that was still attending the school. Even articles written for the school paper that reported on the current Boom Box Guy would call him by this title and offer no information as to his identity.

#2: Around every Halloween there was a student dressed as a banana who was chased by a student dressed in a pink gorilla suit. There were some claims that they would even run into classrooms during lectures.

#3: Next to the student union in the courtyard there is spot with a circle design. This spot is called the “clapping” circle. The reason it got this name is due to the fact that if you stand in the center and clap, it make a high pitch squeak sound. It was not uncommon to see students just randomly stop in the middle and start clapping before carrying on. One day, my friends and I decided to take turns clapping in it. One of them was being a bit of grump, obviously thinking what we were doing was stupid and childish. We finally convinced him to clap in the center of the circle. When he did, his bracelet broke. I still joke with him about how his bracelet broke because he didn’t believe in the magic of the clapping circle.

#4: There was an older gentleman that I saw almost every day on campus. He would change locations, but he had a sign with him that had a scripture on it and would also hand out slips with another scripture. Living in the conservative south, I assumed he was just a Bible thumper and nothing more. One day when I walked past him, I took one of his slips and flipped it over. On the back is said something like, “Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and all other religions have some truths, but there is no one true religion.” This made me curious, so one day after class, I saw the gentleman and asked him why he comes out here every day. He said he is here for three reasons: “To talk, to listen, and to help others get closer to God.” He turned out to be a very sweet old man and to this day I still feel bad for misjudging him.