The capturing of the pledge: So, our plan was, if they made it across the border, we just drive back, be back at like 8 AM. We got tomthe border but didn’t cross, kinda drove around that area. Back then you didn’t need a passport tomgo across, but like, Imsaid, if they made it,,they made it. No signs, we start on the way back, and there it was, a Jeep we knewmthat actually belonged to one of the actives, which the pledges had captured. Out of gas.
Friend: Hey, that’s Eric’s Jeep!
Me: (lunges forward from my reclined position again)
And I see the active, and he just shakes his head. He’s on an all expenses paid trip to Mexico, either way. Sitting in his back seat, is this kinda chubby, Jewish kid from Pittsburgh. I’m barefoot, but I get out and runntowards the Jeep and he see’s me and runs off into the desert.
Me: C’mon! Where you gonna go? Stop running.
And he was like, yeah, that is just silly. I have zero desert terrain experience. Gave up very quickly. Nothing the active could do, just wait there at his Jeep until the guys showed up with gas and he could break the bad news. We drove the kid back to Tucson, and his pledge class had to, as a UNIT, mind you, all of them, drive all the way back, 4 hours, get the guy we captured, then drive 4 more hours, back to Mexico, to complete walk out. It is maybe, the very best story I have about my days in a fraternity. It took effort, and a little luck, but we pulled it off. We didn’t quit, and the tradition lived on ... until we got kicked off campus for violating double secret probation.