On a Sunday night, I returned from dinner to find a table and chairs atop my bed. This, not being a very unusual experience, did not seem very strange to me. I continued folding my clothes and talking with my cabin mates. None of us really noticed or cared about the table, and we even remarked at how nice it was to have so much more space in the center of Gordy, our cabin. Our quest to make space resulted in us folding the leaves of our table down into what looked like a makeshift desk. This was quickly decorated with material that we thought looked business-like. Random photos were selected from our box of kindling, guitar chords suddenly became business reports. You see, Grunkie had taken hold.
Grunkie made his first appearance during the Nor’ Easter in January when Thomas brought out a gorilla mask dubbed Grunkie. I put the mask on as I was buried in the snow by the rest of the semester. From then on Grunkie lay mostly dormant until that fateful Sunday night. There we were, frantically decorating a table with random photos and guitar chords meant to be business reports. Will, one of our cabin parents was going to check us in that night so we had to work fast, trying to set up before he came to check us in. At around 10:15, Will arrived on our front steps. He knocked twice, Jackson opened and beckoned Will forward into our cabin. What he saw was shocking.
In the center of our cabin stood the table, on either side of it were Levi and I, dressed in all black with sunglasses over our eyes. “Respect” by Aretha Franklin blasted from the CD player behind us. The cabin was dark, only our bedside lights illuminated the strange sight. A figure sat in a chair behind the table, hood on, back turned it was impossible to determine the identity of this stranger. The music stopped and the figure turned slowly in his chair to face the now sitting Will. Upon his face was the Grunkie mask. What followed can only be described as a very strange business meeting in which Will was chastised by Grunkie for his failure to help the Grunkie family business grow over the last quarter. When a slightly confused Will left our cabin we erupted into laughter.
The joy from that wonderfully executed skit brought us closer together as a cabin. Grunkie has made a few more appearances since that Sunday night. Our most recent skit was a slam poetry night. The Gordy skits have become a staple of check-in and always manage to give us a good laugh at the end of stressful days. But, that one Sunday night skit now dubbed “Monkey Business” remains my favorite, and was a defining moment in the history of semester 68’s Gordy Hall cabin.
Aiden Jacobs, Lincoln Academy, Newcastle, ME
