William Reardon’s Blog

Wheaton College it holding it’s first college dance in 143 years.

Wheaton is a weird place. And not like Christian-weird. Just weird. It being a fellow Chicago suburb, I have some family there, so naturally, I visit there almost every time I’m back home in Joliet.

My first introduction to their weirdness traveling there for a U of C v. Wheaton soccer match, one that Ann was to play in. (To give some context, NOBODY travels to go watch a U of C sports team play an away game. NOBODY.)

Anyway, it was summer, so Sang, Brian, Kingsley and I traveled the 40 minutes or so to go watch the game.

Driving thru the city, it was Sang who first noticed the flags. “What are with these flags!?!”, he asked. At first, I thought it was just Sang encountering the frequent display of patriotism and flag-waving common in the midwest.

“Oh, people display the flag a lot more outside the city. People in the suburbs and rural areas are pretty passionate about their love of America.”, I reply.

“No! Not the American flags! Those flags!� he says, pointing to a flag that really was just a random patch-work of colors, being held from a porch staff, much like an American flag often is.

�Oh, I don�t kn��

�AND THOSE! LOOK! THEY�RE EVER WHERE! WHAT ARE THEY!?!?!�

True enough, they were every where. In kinda a creep way. Each one different. Different colors, different panels, some with images, but most without. Being lost, we saw a lot of them, and frankly, we were a little too freaked out by it to stop and ask anyone for directions.

The mystery unsolved, and Sang yelling �WHAT IS THAT ONE SUPPOSED TO BE?!?� the whole way, we finally found our way to the stadium, the game already in full swing. Being the only U of C fans there, and down by a few points already, we start to cheer “Go Chicago!” Of course, the other fans there, being Wheaton fans, have to cheer in response to us, and being a particularly creative lot, shout back “Go Wheaton!”

Now think about how you would expect cheer to sound. Say it out-loud yourself. �Go Wheaton!� What did it sound like? Probably like �Go WHEAT-in!�, right?

Now imagine how a Louisiana native saying it: �Go we-TON!� Imagine a crowd of 30-40 people, each one thinking they are Adam Sandler�s Canjon Man, yelling it, screaming “GO We-TON!” And this was before Kingsley opened her cooler of concealed beverages, so I know we weren�t drunk yet.

Anyway, don�t go to Wheaton. It�s weird.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2003 at 2:23 pm and is filed under non-sequitur. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.