Iowa State: May 1988, Mayan, dry ice and Max’s shower

May 1988 was curious in Ames. Me, Brian, Paul, and Jeff (who was from Haber) skipped VEISHEA and headed to Chicago to watch three games at Wrigley Field, Cubs and Giants…which was a great time. When we got back, it turned out we’d missed the first (stupid) VEISHEA riot…which led to a second riot in 1991 and eventually the end of the century-long tradition in 2014 (of note with that first riot…everyone arrested was from out-of-town and wasn’t an ISU person).

ASIDE: The whole out-of-town thing has continued…when you see rioting, inevitably it is people from out of town who start it. Locals are rarely involved in destroying their own towns (there are exceptions). This sort of thing also ended celebrations and special events at a number of other colleges/universities at the end of the 20th century.

So, the following week was ‘Dead Week’, a week where everyone’s supposed to be quiet, where professors don’t issue assignments, and students prepare for Finals. Back in the ’80s, that was necessary for quite a few classes, engineering/science or otherwise. I mean, I had a final once that began with “Explain FDR’s rationale for opening relations with the Soviet Union, taking into account social, economic, and international political factors.” That was the FIRST of three essay questions…damn, Kottman was my idol!!!

But on Foster, we tended to stay loose, regardless. Why would Dead Week be any different? Well, we had one guy on the floor named Mayan. He was a Physics guy. And since VEISHEA was about showing off campus, departments went all out with demonstrations–Home Ec was famous for cherry pies, the arts people did a bunch of music stuff, and Physics…well, they liked experiments. And when it was all done, there were always leftovers.

One of the things I remember from Physics 101 and the prof, a guy named Dr. Hill, was a comment he made one day that liquid nitrogen was cheaper than gasoline. He dumped a bunch of it on the auditorium floor and said, “That just cost me five bucks out of my budget.” So–the stuff was inexpensive and no one cared what happened to it.

So one day, I THINK it was about May 15–the weekend heading into Finals–Mayan comes in…and as I write this, I realize it was a Sunday, right after church/lunch–that’s important for the story here in a minute. Anyways, Mayan’s carrying a large tub containing liquid nitrogen probably about three gallons in size, looking for something to do with it. Now, what can you do with liquid nitrogen…something that steams/looks like smoke when it hits a surface. Hmmmm.

Well, another guy was just back from church and lunch and decided to take a shower. That was Max. He was in 310-A, right across from Paul and Ed. Max because the target.

With a number of witnesses (who aided and abetted), Mayan waited for the shower to start, heard Max step in, and took the liquid nitrogen container and slowly started pouring it out next to the bathroom door and the inch-high crack at the bottom of it. Mayan started pouring it quicker and then we had someone (Paul? Ed?) start banging on the bathroom door, yelling “Fire! Fire!”

Inside Max HAD TO HAVE SEEN the smoke from under the door because Mayan was pouring it fast now. There was a commotion inside the bathroom, then the door opens with Max naked trying to pull a towel around himself…as he opens the door to Mayan with his oversized coffee-pot cylinder of liquid nitrogen and 7-8 guys all waiting to watch Max’s expression when he got out of the bathroom.

I don’t remember Max’s expression. I don’t know if he was amused, angry, bothered, or any combination of those. I think he understood he’d been got. I do remember a little bit of a smile, him shaking his head, and saying, “You guys are dicks” before he went back into the bathroom to finish his shower. I think he would’ve been much more upset if cameras were ubiquitous like they are today. Hah–that would’ve made a great TikTok video.

But the beautiful thing–there was no social media. It remains a memory, something that everyone can laugh at, especially if you know the guys involved, but is most special to those who were there in the moment. I wonder if they ever think about it, what details they recall.

No amount of video can bring an event to life–to be real. Watching it on video wouldn’t be the same even for me having been there back in May ’88. What details do I have right? What have I forgotten? What have I embellished? I don’t honestly know. What I’ve written is what I believe to be true–what IS true in my memory…and that has to be good enough.