12 Years Ago Today

I am born and raised in Houston. I was in HS in '99.

I remember that day much like I remember Columbine, Oklahoma City, and 9-11.

It was tough to see that.

They should bring it back to campus but through a co-op with a local construction company.

Do you have a figure on the liabiity ATM had to pay out to the victims there??? If any? Was the project insured?

I can't imagine bonfire ever returning to campus. As a freshman (fall 1990), my dorm had a "fish pickle." They took the freshman off campus to a pasture and gave them as much beer as it took to get them to agree to become a "letter head." You would have a letter shaved onto your head so that the freshmen could line up and spell something for a picture. I lived in Law Hall, and our freshman spelled out "LAW HALL, RED arse AGS". I had been tipped off about this by an older relative and left town that Friday.

My dorm wouldn't allow you to go to cut if you had been drinking, but some did. I remember a buddy of mine who lived in Moses Hall. It was a coincidence that they were right next to us in the parking lot waiting to get assigned an area to cut. It was probably 6:30 in the morning, and this guy was still so hammered he could barely stand. Once you're assigned an area, the next thing you get is an axe. Oh, and you've probably heard of the company this guy's father owned. I won't say it, but it rhymed with "Mapps", began with a 'Z', and they made potato chips.

Once cut was done, we had stack. That's when we went to the field where bonfire was held and put it together. I was a junior when they moved it to the Polo Fields. I can't remember the name of the field that they used before that, but it was the one south of the Corps dorms.

Cut was an adventure. Every Friday night, we would go to "bonfire parties." These included everclear punch and card or dice games. I have a distinct memory of playing a dice game called three man and this hot, hot chick drinking me under the table. I also remember a card game called "up the river, down the river." After the parties, we would go to midnight yell practice. After yell, we would go to stack.

If I was smart, I would spend stack sitting by one of the small fires that were burning eating free cookies and hitting on girls. If I'd had too much everclear to be smart, I would be hard at work on stack. It might be fairly harmless, like falling in the mud trying to "frick out" a log. It might not be so harmless. I remember once driving a truck. You would back up slowly to raise a log and pull forward to lower it. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Wait till you're 18 or 19 and have been playing three man all night.

In short, bonfire was a disaster waiting to happen. When it fell, I was certain that it had to do with drinking. We all were. We were wrong. It turns out that there were no formal plans, only a general design passed down from class to class. Bonfire was supposed to be 55' high when finished. When it fell in '99, it was over 70'.

Bonfire was the most important event on campus. If you lived on campus and wanted the real "A&M experience" it was the most important thing that you could do. Bonfire, turkey, and the t.u. game defined Thanksgiving in Texas. You would even see a thousand or so teasips who made it over from Austin for bonfire because it was so much more redass than their retarded "Hex Rally."

Looking back, the entire thing was so ridiculously dangerous. There was no formal design, and as far as I know, there were no "adults" at cut, load, or stack. It was all a bunch of loaded college kids supporting A&M and having a good time.

One, two... frick t.u.!
Three, Four... frick the Corps!

Aggie Bonfire wasn't a "normal" bonfire. It took 125,000 man hours to build and was attended by 50k people.

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Wrong.

It WAS a normal bonfire until the Aggies got carried away with it over the years.

My point was that a group of students can get together and have a normal type of tradition of celebrating.

I have to admit, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for the aggies over the bonfire incident. So many people I have talked to about it seem to view it as some sort of natural disaster.

I see it as monumental hubris. As a matter of fact, hubris seems to be another one of those weird aggie traditions. My hope is that y'all can calm that shite down now that you're not under Texas' shadow anymore.

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Save the cynicism and digs at TAMU traditions for another day, WildTchoupitoulas. Not today.

Hubris is a tradition for the entire state of Texas.

"Everything in Texas is bigger."

"Dont mess with Texas."

"Texas is a whole 'nother country."

This is a good example of why UTexas fans will always think their shite taste bests.

that being said....
It is a great state better than most. Great history. Great opportunities. I am glad I live hear.

I don't normally link to stuff on TexAgs, but for the classless who would make light of the Bonfire tragedy, please read this thread. Members of the 1999 TAMU football team share their memories of November 18, 1999:

[url]LINK ]

You may never understand what Bonfire meant to Aggies, and that's ok. But please respect the memory of these students.

So if you no longer play "Varsity" why continue Bonfire on or off campus?

Tbird is right. Burning of bonfire is very insignificant compared to the building of bonfire and the life long friendships that are made and the lessons that are learned

I'll never forget waking up and hearing about it falling. I went to an off campus one back when I was in grad school. It was neat but I'm sure it was much better when it was on campus.