JJ, Rene & Bill Drive to Denver
James "JJ" Moylan
Your P.S. is Gamma Lambda lore. The story about Mortensen is absolutely
true. That was the first trip from NY to Denver taken by Rene and I. We
picked up Mortensen at a restaurant off the interstate near his house,
Ho-Ho-Kus,N.J., as I recall. I drove the night shift. I was awakened by
the stop by the trooper. Rene and Mortensen explained that Mortensen was
trying to clock the speed of the plane overhead that happened to be the
highway patrol plane. If memory serves this was in western Ohio. The
trooper did not give us a ticket. He probably figured we were too dumb
to respond to it, or, more likely, a little more tolerant of the antics
of college kids back in those days.
JJ Talks About Deckers
James "JJ" Moylan
There are a number of Deckers stories. The one Alan references is the
one where I performed the pistolectomy, as Skeff so correctly recalled.
That is a very delicate procedure and I don't know if I could duplicate
it today. This is also the trip where Bob Wolper formed a particularly
close bond with a fly, those of you there might recall. On another
Deckers trip to go tubing, we had an accident. Jolly was driving and we
had a head-on with a pickup truck, I believe. I was in the middle of the
front seat and just before impact, turned sideways. I ripped up my knee
on the corner of the glove compartment door, but it was Tom Stich who
was the worse for wear. I watched his hair carom off the windshield, go
through it and then bounce back. He sprang from the car and began
running back down the road. I ran after him and got him on the ground.
He was bleeding like a "stuck- pig". I took off my T-shirt and began to
apply pressure to his forehead. He told me to stop because he had glass
in his head. That is when I caught sight of my knee and wondered how I
was able to run after him. I looked up the road and there was Jolly
standing under a tree, looking at the car and, incredibly, eating a
sandwich! About this time, some of the other brothers who were going
tubing arrived at the scene. I specifically recall Felitti being there.
Someone then drove to the nearest town and called for an ambulance and
the police. I left in the ambulance with Stich. The other guys stayed
with Jolly to deal with the police. Eventually, we all got back to the
house and had a few beers. Yes, it was quite a day.
Randy & Bonnie Get Married
Don Skeffington
Al Moll drove up to Ipswich to pick me up for our trip west, hauling a
u-haul trailer behind his green Torino. He visited for a couple of days,
wherein we got some boating and mackerel fishing in, and he bought one
of the biggest lobsters (10+ lbs.) for our departure feast. We hit the
road and stopped in Syracuse at Bruce Carroll's house, ready to form a
two car caravan (Bruce's old blue Chevy [the stud-mobile or muff
mobile], I can't remember exactly). However, first we had to take care
of business in seeing one of our own tie the knot. Randy Tuttle and
Bonnie were the wedding couple and who'll ever forget the bash at
Bonnie's parents house after the wedding. I vaguely remember the most
slurred version of "Dream girl of Theta Chi", and Kevin Moylan - fully
clothed in suit and tie "testing" out the diving board and pool! I bet
Bonnie and Randy are still explaining to her parents that this wasn't
the standard behavior. I don't remember the drive back to Bruce's house,
only waking up the next morning and hitting the road west with one
whopping hang-over. That was cured the old fashion way; torch one up.
The drive west was, as usual, nonstop and the three of us rotated
round robin between the two cars - driving and passenger, etc. The trip
was pretty uneventful and we arrived safe at DU. That's when in Bruce's
infinite wisdom, he visited the Horse's Ass for a nightcap before
hitting the rack. Course he selected Improta's favorite - the Flaming
Hooker - and proceeded to slam the damn thing half over his lips,
burning himself in the process. Dave was somewhat "impeded" in producing
his hand-held fire extinguisher, so Bruce was "blistered". Well this
could go on and on - great memories.
