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A Trip to God’s Country

11:46 AM EDT on October 24, 2007

After a two year hiatus, my wife and I went back to our tradition of taking the day off work and heading back to Stillwater for the OSU Homecoming Walkaround.  Most people think the Walkaround begins at 6:00, and officially, it does, but the action is during daylight.

As a result of being homecoming chair for her sorority three of her four years in Stillwater, Mrs. Matthews gets a high watching the zombies of Greek life (who have had zero sleep in 48 hours and have ingested little other than Red Bull and Budweiser in that time frame) put the finishing touches on the massive house decorations before the judges make the rounds.  (As a result of having been treasurer of my fraternity for two of my four years in Stillwater, I have a different reaction...which is that I mourn the waste of money.)  She critiques the color schemes, the theme selection, and the pomping skill of each house deck.  Then, she gets positively giddy trying to handicap where the house dec's will place like The Sports Guy trying to guess the lines of pro football games.  (This year, since both of our houses made an awful showing, we could both be entirely objective.) 

Then again, OSU's homecoming a sight to behold and far superior to the production OU puts on:  announcing the presence of Jason White and Brian Bosworth who are at every game, anyway.

For those who have never partaken in the spectacle, I have some photos to share:

This dec, at the Fiji house, was my personal favorite.  That mural, which is atleast 20 feet tall, and done with (I swear to God) nothing more than chicken wire and tiny pieces of tissue paper.  Also, one of the moving parts was a cannon that shot a nerf ball at the castle pictured above.  After the nerf ball hit the castle, one of the towers fell.

Mrs. Matthews' favorite was this decoration outside the Alpha Gamma Rho house.  She liked the collage style and the black and white (flavored by orange) color scheme.  I liked that they played Dave Matthews Band's Everyday on the loudspeaker.

The AGR's are the homecoming Nazis at OSU and take as much pride in winning the homecoming sweepstakes trophy as Sooner fans do in beating Texas.  Seriously, during rush they question rushees about their welding skill.  They came in second this year, losing to the Sig Eps.

Speaking of Sigma Phi Epsilon, here is part of their dec.  The overall theme had something to do with The Price is Right, but this departure from the theme was actually the most impressive part.  My complaint, though, was their use of "Century of Greatness." Sure, Oklahoma has only been a state for a hundred years, but Oklahoma A&M was founded in 1890.  To me, it's saying, "this school sucked for seventeen years before getting it together."

The Kappa Sig display was nothing to write home about, but I love me some Peanuts.

I think the Phi Taus pomped a replica version of my house, complete with a giant Pistol Pete bursting through the roof.

If Mrs. Matthews were to ever get her dream job of hosting "What Not to Pomp", this would be her first feature.  Noting that her room used to have a window pointing out to the SAE yard, she told me, "I don't think I could have slept with that thing out there."

I am of the opinion that Sigma Nu should have been disqualified for quoting Garth Brooks on their display.

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