A Tour of the Hovse!


Although Blacker Hovse as an entity is really the moles themselves, the building does tend to reflect a bit about our identity. (That’s what happens when you can paint murals on the walls).

So when we found out PFE wouldn’t be happening, I filmed a tour of the hovse to show you all what its like! This is normally a thing we do in person, and true to that experience, many moles interrupted me, shared their own perspectives, and constantly said “wait did you make sure to film X”?
So the planned 5 minute, 2 person video, turned into a 25 minute, 9 person video instead. Regardless I hope you enjoy it, and see our murals, alleys, moles, and more. I can’t wait to meet you all in the fall when you can see it in person!


4 responses to “A Tour of the Hovse!”

  1. Irene, I resided in Blacker in the fall term of 1971, being the only guys (with my roommate) in Heaven. The rest of the alley were women.

    This is obviously different than the current pseudohistory which you describe in the video.

    Hell was almost all sophomores at that time.

    Since I flamed out shortly after the start of second term, I do not know when things changed.

    My favorite thing to do was to nap on the pathetically old couch on the balcony accessed from Heaven.

    Sharon Long, surely a legend, recruited me to caltech. We both went to the same high school in Denver, she being two years ahead of me. She went on to great things both in research and in public service at Stanford. Also, a MacArthur Grant recipient and participant in advising president-elect Obama on science issues.

  2. Rick, that’s really interesting to hear! I’m well aware that many “”confirmed”” stories of Blacker’s history are a bit more dodgy that the storyteller likes to imply, but I honestly had a fair amount of trust that Hell being all frosh was a long standing tradition. We enforce it now during roompicks and reserve the alley for the new frosh who rotate in, but I imagine it began more naturally. Do you remember if Hell was seen as a more or less desirable alley at your time? I have no idea when the tales of heating problems are supposed to have been from.

    It sounds like even if all-frosh Hell is a more recent invention, some other things have stood the test of time. The couches on Heaven Balcony continue to be extremely old and decrepit — I wonder if any of them are the same as when you were there….

    This is all making me very nostalgic for the hovse! Here’s hoping we’ll be back on campus at some point before I graduate…

  3. In the early 90s Hell was nearly completely Frosh for the simple reasons that the rooms were generally the smallest in the house and the location of the hallway led to them being unpleasantly hot in the more summery months. There would sometimes be a token Sophomore or upperclassman who picked a Hell room on a whim, but typically they were considered some of the least desirable rooms and were thus still available when frosh picks came up.

    Speaking of the heaven couches… have you heard of “Thump. Thump. Thwack. Thwack.”? At one point Freshman year when I was rooming in 60, I was (for some reason) in a hurry to get to the kitchen and chose to vault over one of the heaven couches… The first “Thump” was my forehead contacting the top of the opening to the kitchen and imparting a sudden change to my angular momentum. The second “Thump” was my body striking the floor pretty much all at once. The force of this then caused my shoes to fly off my feet, into the kitchen, and strike the cabinet there (next to where the hyperspatial bypass used to be) with a “Thwack. Thwack.”. Other frosh who were in the kitchen at the time were concerned, then amused. I did not sustain any serious damage.

  4. Five things:

    1. Since you cannot shove a whole tree into a fake fireplace, how do you properly dispose of Christmas trees dried by careful winter-break-long neglect?

    2. My frosh room, good old #12, is now the Kremlin kitchen!

    3. I am glad to see that the restoration did not harm the confusing blueness of the tapestry people.

    4. My mind wonders if it is possible that Bevan, now in his 40s, has still never had McDonald’s food – or has my nattering middle aged mind imagined Bevan’s lack of McDonald’s experience?

    5. This post is titled “Tour of the Hovse” but the video is titled “Hovse Tour.” Given the latter, shouldn’t there be more showers involved?

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