Sammy Arrowsmith

   My old dorm had several “characters” in it.  Some were troublemakers; some were “ladies’ men”; but none were as interesting as Sammy.  Sammy had bright red hair with freckles by the bushels.  He had a pointed nose with a narrow face that made the wind whistle when it blew past him.  Sammy worked at McKee’s bakery on the afternoon shift while going to college in the mornings.  He was a hard worker - I’ll give him that.  But Sammy had misplaced values.  McKee’s was Adventist and our college was Baptist, so Sammy thought it his duty to steal from McKee’s to hurt the Adventists.  I have no idea why he even worked there.  But as I already said, Sammy was a character.

   The fall Halloween party was in a few days and we were all planning our costumes.  We had the usual bums and pirates and cowboys.  But Sammy was not very creative.  He wanted to go to the party, but he couldn’t come up with a costume idea.  Someone had a thought.  Why not go as a mummy?  Sammy had twenty or thirty rolls of masking tape that he had pilfered from McKee’s that would make him look just like an Egyptian mummy.  So it was settled.

   The night of the Halloween party, we all got dressed, including Sammy.  He wore ordinary clothes.  But we wrapped him with rolls and rolls of masking tape.  We pulled a sock hat over his head and wrapped him head to toe.  Only his eyes and mouth were visible.  Not even one freckle could be seen.  But Sammy had so much tape on him that he couldn’t even move.  He was as stiff as a board.  So, Rudy and Denny, the biggest boys in our dorm, picked him up like a log, hoisted him up on their shoulders and all of us went to the party at the gym.

   Just inside the door, Rudy and Denny put Sammy down.  Then they stood him up in the corner and just left him there.  Sammy couldn’t do anything, he just stood there propped up in the corner.  He couldn’t sit down; he couldn’t move his head; he was just there.

   We laughed at Sammy and left him there.  But the joke backfired on us.  Sammy was a hit!  The girls took turns feeding him snacks and getting him drinks.  He was never alone.  The whole night he was surrounded by girls, anxious to help!  And at the end of the night, Rudy and Denny loaded up Sammy and we all walked back to our dorm.  Everyone walked except Sammy.  He rode back.