College Pranks

John:

I went to college (class of 62) at the University of California, Riverside. I have enjoyed doing pranks over the years and college was probably the height of such activities.

The University of California, when possible, has a giant "C" on a nearby hillside to advertise the campus. When I was a freshman in 1958 the tradition for this new campus (they had graduated their first 4 years of students the previous Spring) the big task was for freshmen to repaint the "C" in yellow paint to make it sharp and yellow. The next year, as a wise old Sophomore, I would drive some of the new Freshmen up to the "C" in my 1929 Packard I would buy my Freshman year.

As a really wise upper classman I supported or instigated several alterations to the Letter, just because it was there. We found that end-rolls of newsprint from the local Press-Enterprise newspaper was the material of choice to make the changes. It was cheap (free), and it instantly covered the rocks and boulders which surrounded the "C." The first time we changed the letter was to make it a backwards "C." Another time was in honor of the President of the University, Clark Kerr, when he came to the campus for a Reagents meeting that was held at one of the campuses each month. With the news print we made a "CK" to acknowledge his visit.

The meanist thing we did was on a day when high school seniors visited the campus to see if they wanted to attend four years there. In a deep fog that morning we changed the letter to become a Hammer and Sickle, the symbol of the dreaded Soviet Union. As the fog lifted at about noon, I imagine there was a collective gasp from the attendees and the college administration. I don't know if some potential enrollees chose another college to go to.

On the evening of the day-long Scotts on Rocks Day one year four or five of us drove up to the "C" with large tin cans and containers of kerosene. I drove them in my 1934 Ford four door sedan which I had brought down from my home in Berkeley up to the "C" on the rutty road up the back side of the mountain. We placed the cans along the outside of the letter and filled them with kerosene. The others gave me a head start so as to give me cover by being at the carnival when the light-up occurred. They were premature and as I neared the campus I looked up and saw the firey letter. It was beautiful. My partners in crime ran down the steep hill in the dark and arrived at the campus not long after I did.

My favorite book as a youth was "The Compleat Practical Joker" (British spelling) by H. Allen Smith. A slow reader, it took me way too long to read because I would laugh out loud and long several times every page. It would be fun to find that book again.