Mele Kalikimaka

I have the Yahoo Launch Radio on right now and the Christmas song that’s on is Mele Kalikimaka, by Bing Crosby. I can’t hear this song without thinking of my senior year of college when I was part of a fake fraternity (I went to a Christian college that had no greek system – so my friends and I made one up). We called ourselves the Alpha Wombeth Omega fraternity, and initiation was drinking a ghastly combination of alcohols and a raw egg (alcohol was also forbidden at my college, but we went offsite to a hotel in the town nearby and rented a room for the hijinks). So five of the guys in my group drank the concoction while dressed up in various ridiculous costumes, and I videotaped the event. There were a handful of others just there to witness the joyous occasion, and after the five guys drank their Jim Jones gruel, they had one egg left and tried to determine who would be the sixth member of Alpha Wombeth Omega.

They picked me. They poured in various liquids and then cracked open the egg and mixed everything together. It looked horrible, but never one to disappoint my friends, I gagged down the “beverage” and became the sole female member of the fraternity.

A few months later the holidays rolled around and we decided to make a Christmas video – and choose Mele Kalikimaka as the song. I was not there when they did the actual recording (in fact, only three of the brothers did the recording), but all of us participated in the video (again, me behind the camera, the guys in front). We then had a friend help us edit the video and overlay the song. It was a masterpiece.

In the spring semester of that year we initiated another four or five guys into the group and participated in school intramural events as AWO. That was a fun time. I don’t talk to those guys much anymore (I only swap Christmas cards with one of them and the rest I haven’t spoken to in years), but I have the only surviving copies of all the videotapes we made that year for AWO.

Tonight when I go home I just may put in that Christmas video for old times’ sake.

03 comments on “Mele Kalikimaka

  • jen , Direct link to comment

    I think a lot of people associate it with Christmas Vacation too. I always associate the song with your AWO videos. Hilarious.

  • Denis , Direct link to comment

    Boy, I hate frats. Wonder why? *lol* I think I’ll take CootieGirl in the other room while the video is playing. I’ve been tortured with it once already. That’s enough for one life time. Maybe we should gets O’s torture over now while she’s young and won’t remember it.

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