933 S. State Street

933 South State Street in Ann Arbor was the center of my college experience. This is the story of that house and my time there.
 
The house was built around 1910. For the first few decades of its existence, it looked right over the entrance to Ferry Field. Sitting on the front porch it would have been possible to hear the crowd cheer as Jesse Owens broke 4 world records in the span of 45 minutes in 1935.

This picture would have been from the driveway

1940 Census shows the house was occupied by the famed artist Carleton Angell who created many sculptures on campus and around Ann Arbor, including the famous Pumas flanking the entrance to the Ruthven Museum. He lived in the house with his wife Gladys and their three children.

A parade during WWI turning in front of the house

1950 Census lists Reuben Hartman, a bricklayer tender and his wife Gertrude, a waitress, as the occupants, along with 8 lodgers.
 
Sometime in the decades that followed the house began being rented exclusively to students. One time some guys from the class of 1982 came by and said they had lived there.
 
In 2001 a group of friends who lived there began the infamous BOX house along with some friends in nearby houses. The BOX house was founded on the principals of friendship and novelty. Very soon after the house earned a reputation on campus, which lead to ESPN the magazine including a write-up of the BOX house's famous keg rolling across State St. during football tailgates. The house was then passed down to new generations of BOX house inhabitants along with the traditions, stories and lore.

By the time I encountered the house it had been student-proofed. The original hardwood floors were replaced by white tile on the first floor and berber carpet upstairs. The kitchen had been renovated with builder-grade finishes. What originally was likely a single bathroom on the second floor was split in two and several vanities (pee sinks) added to bedrooms. The siding was white vinyl and the doors were hollow. Any trace of craftmanship was eliminated. The house itself was a dump, but the things that occurred there were the stuff of legend.

My first encounter with the house was at a party during my Freshmen orientation when I got so drunk on the front porch on a warm June night that I slept on a bathroom floor and missed signing up for classes the next day. When I came back to Ann Arbor in the fall I knew exactly where I would tailgate. While my dorm roommate spent his freshmen year football Saturdays as a servant to fraternity brothers that he was desperate to impress, I was immediately accepted in a wide friend circle, no doubt thanks to my older sister who was friends with everyone there.
 

Freshmen Orientation

During my sophomore year I lived in a house 2 blocks away from the BOX house. We would always tailgate at the BOX house, and during that fall the guys living in the house told me I should put together a group to rent the house since they were planning to graduate in the spring. So a few of my roommates and I put together a bit of a ragtag group to rent the house for my Junior year.
 

Tailgates are better with live music

In August 2007 I moved into 933 S. State Street and became part of the next generation to carry on the BOX house tradition. I lived in the back room on the third floor, and upgraded the futon I had my sophomore year for an actual bed. We had 6 guys and 2 girls in the house. Halfway through the year we picked up two more roommates when Brick and Andy were thrown out of their frat and moved into tents in the unfinished basement.

6 of 8 of the 2007 crew before Brick and Andy moved in

The following year was my senior year and the two girls and two of the guys moved out. The two basement dwellers moved into rooms and Paul, Matt and Zola moved in. Zola did a "pledge semester" in the basement, and then moved into a room for winter semester. Matt dropped out of college in the fall and for most of the year we had 9 guys and one hamster inhabiting the house. It was a raucous environment where people would just show up to hang out at any given time. The tailgates that fall were some of the most fun days of my life.

The house oozed patriotism

Living at the BOX House carried with it a certain cachet on campus. Most of the student body was aware of the house and our tailgates. I’d say that more than once I told a girl that I live in the BOX House and she suddenly found me more interesting and/or disgusting. It seemed like everyone had a story about the house.

We may have made this one up

If they hadn’t been there personally they may read about the house as we were mentioned on MGoBlog, College Humor, and a write-up in the Michigan Daily. After I moved out in the summer of 2009 the City Attorney for Ann Arbor sent us a Cease and Desist letter to the house to try and stop the tailgating that they said had gotten out of hand. This lead to some bemoaning in the media and student led protests of the city’s attempts to limit tailgating.
 
While my time in the house had ended, several of the underclassmen roommates continued to live at 933 and then next door at 1001. The BOX house carried on until eventually there was no one left to carry on the tradition and the house reverted back to a regular student house. With that, the BOX house was no more, but the physical house remained.

The house in 2018

When would think about the things I would do if I won the lottery, I always liked to daydream about buying the BOX house and turning it into the most incredible student house. I’d open up the first floor to a big open space with couches and TVs, I’d build bigger porch and 2^nd story deck above, install a great sound system and generally nicer finishes. I’d then rent it out way below market value on the condition that they always host a great tailgate that me and my friends could join in at. That was my dream, but it will never happen.

The house is now fenced off and slated for demolition along with the houses to the north up to Packard. The city has approved a 14-story high-rise between State and Packard and these houses are all being demolished. The front porch where I spent so many hours will be gone, the living room where I watched countless hours of Gettysburg will be no more, the bedroom where I studied and had other significant life experiences will also disappear. In its place only the memories will remain until they too will be forgotten.

The house prior to demolition

 
But I’ll cherish the memories, and wanted to write down some of my favorites since that will leave this on a happier note:
 
Favorite Tailgate Traditions:
Du Hast
We would always start a tailgate Saturday by setting the house sound system (my childhood Gateway computer with WinAmp connected to speakers) to play Du Hast at 5:30 in the morning to wake up the residents, any overnight female guests and half the neighborhood.

Tailgate

Thunderstruck
I think this has gained in popularity in the past 15 years, but the BOX house was well known for circling up when Thunderstruck came on to take turns drinking at each mention of the word “Thunder”.
 
Keg Laps
Typically the Keg was on the porch, so a common game was to drink directly from the key and then run across State St., then across Hoover Ave., and then back across State St before running up the steps and kicking the keg. Miraculously I never saw anyone get hit by a car, but there were some very close calls.

Ann Arbor's finest multi-level tailgate

The Field Goal
Another fun tradition was going out in the street during a tailgate and trying to kick a field over the metal arm holding up the traffic lights. I usually was the holder, and then a few students would be on the other side of the light to return the kick. If it went over the metal arm the whole street would cheer the successful kick. An important thing to note is that we did this in traffic, usually before the cops would come and start directing traffic around 10am.
 
Keg Rolling
Only the most skilled could logroll their keg across State Street, turn it around and roll it back without falling off. I could never do it, but damn if I didn’t try. By the end of tailgate season we would have 20ish empty kegs in the basement so there were plenty of opportunities.
 

Keg Rolling

Favorite non-tailgate traditions:
Fall Foliage Month
During the fall, I think usually in September someone would declare that it was Fall Foliage Month and then we would go out and collect leaves and branches and in one case an entire tree and drag them into the living room. It really spruced up the place for a few weeks.

Fruit in the Street
This was one of the best activities in the house. We would take all the rotten, uneaten fruit from the kitchen/fridge and put it in the middle of State Street. Then we’d sit on the porch and wait for cars to hit it. It was truly joyful game. Eventually the game branched out and the definition of fruit expanded to any food or destroyable items. When the question of “wanna play fruit in the street?” was raised, I never recall anyone ever saying no.
 
Gettysburg
The movie Gettysburg played on constant repeat in the house on a TV dedicated to playing Gettysburg.

Your intrepid author

Hey Ya!
Anytime the song Hey Ya! came on during a party or tailgate everyone in the house would run out to the street for an impromptu street dance party.

Drunkest Man in America
At any given time, someone holds the title of Drunkest Man in America, there was a good chance that man resided in the BOX house, so after a trip to Goodwill there was always someone in possession or challenging for the title of Drunkest Man in America. When the trophy would inevitably get destroyed, we would take another trip to Goodwill.

A typical representation of earning the DMIA title

The Masters/Old Crow Challenge
During the Masters the house would hold an annual beer can golf tournament and try to drink as much Old Crow as possible. There was probably more to it than that, but I was pretty drunk for the whole thing on account of the Old Crow.
 
Friendsgiving
Each fall before departing Ann Arbor to return to our families for Thanksgiving we would host a Thanksgiving dinner for all our friends. We would dress up, and people actually worked hard to prepare a legitimate Thanksgiving feast. It might have been the most “real-life” think we did. But it was always fun and probably the classiest think that we would do.

Christmas Party
The BOX House Christmas Party was always a great way to end the Fall Semester. Besides tailgates, it was probably the most packed the house would get. When Zola lived in the basement he reported that the floor joists would bend and creek with the weight of 100 people on the first floor.
 

All dressed up

Christmas Party

Etcetera
So many little memories. Playing drinking games, Paul’s feud with the street sweeper, watching girls come down the stairs on a Sunday morning looking very confused, Paul’s eating challenges, the house hamster, drinking challenges, and playing through. Many of those small memories are documented by the BOX House blog at https://boxhouse933.blogspot.com/

I'll miss this shithole deeply

Franksgiving

When we inherited the BOX house we also chose to continue many of our favorite traditions. Things like tailgates, Christmas parties and Whimmy Sesh's continued along with one of my favorite traditions - Thanksgiving. It was one last chance for college friendship before we all went home to real Thanksgiving and came back to start studying for finals.

Thanksgiving was the one time of year that the Box house actually put on its Sunday's best and hosted something relatively nice. At least it would start out nice until everyone realized it was an excuse to get drunk on bagged wine.

Amazingly the Facebook invite still exists from the 2009 Thanksgiving. I present it to you.

Justin said he would bring Thanksgiving Tacos.

That year we had 2 Turkeys, a ham and a duck. We turned on the fireplace DVD and acted as civil as we possible could. It was one of the nights that you really appreciated the true friendships that you had in school.

Below are some of my favorite pictures from that evening.

One of the Final weeks we lived with Matt

Chris pressing the flesh

People were very full after dinner

Me with Zola and the fancy wine

The Roommates: Bricky Bear

Brick moved into our house halfway through my Junior year. He was only a Sophomore but I instantly liked Brick. The main reason was because his nickname was Brick. I never really knew why we called him that but I always liked it.

This is the picture in my phone for when brick calls.
(Note the willingness to go barefoot in BOX)

Normally brick would be looking a little more faux fratty than that image. You see brick came from the marvelous world Michigan greek life. He wasn't very good at being in a frat because they didn't let him go on their date party. So to retaliate he threw a huge party at the frat house while his "brothers" were all out at their date party. Then he proceeded to get hammered and pile all the furniture in the front yard. Somehow a fire extinguisher got thrown against a wall and exploded. The brothers returned from their date party about the same time the Ann Arbor Fire Department showed up to fight the smoke billowing out of the house. The next day Al helped carry his futon down State St. and directly into our basement.

Brick lived in the unfinished basement of the box house for the next 4 months in a tent. He had the tent because of all the rodents and insects down there. And I'll be dammed if he didn't manage to bring a girl down there. He often lamented about his "Box pledge semester" on the Box blog.

At heart Brick was a small child. He marveled at everything in awe and his favorite TV shows are re-runs of The Wonder Years. Often after a Michigan loss he would go to his room and watch them or his other stand-by the 1997 Red Wings Championship Season VHS tape. His youthful unrequited love for all sports Michigan would often have him screaming in a childlike rage after losses. He drank heavily and often did shot challenges with himself. He was one of the best drinkers in Box. Though I did once beat him in a Camo Silver Ice drinking contest.

In March of 2009 we embarked on FLASB09. Brick endured 21 hours of sitting bitch seat in Al's G6 all the way to Florida and back. He spent most of the trip wimpering like a small dog and wooing beached whales. He can be seen in the Dirty Sanchez post picture which was taken on the trip.

Brick brought many things to the house while I lived with him. Mostly girls. But also an innocents that was sometimes shocking. Like the time he put a metal can in the microwave and upon roommate protest said "what? that's what I've always done." Brick was notorious for eating half a can of beans and putting the other half back in the fridge.

Brick never took part in the best things about Box. I think I only saw his penis about 5 times, by far the lowest in the house. He didn't relish in the movie Gettysburg, and he definitely was not hanging out in my room playing AOEIII.

The summer between my Junior and Senior years brick embarked on a quest to win the 1996 world series in Ken Griffey JR Baseball. He played all 162 games and on the day he won the final game we threw a big party. It was the happiest I've ever seen Brick. I even posted about it.

Brick was the best person to play pranks on. His normal response would be something along the lines of "Oh no! Aww shucks fellas." One time he was in Chicago and we decided to fill his room up with unused Keno Cards. It took us many days but but we pretty much covered everything in his room.

I'm writing this because today is his birthday. I could think of 100 more stories about Brick, but I'm pressed for time. Even though I only lived with Brick for a year and a half he still remains one of my favorite roommates. I wrote most of this in the past tense but he is not dead. Unless of course he died tonight.

Creepy Steve

Creepy Steve was our neighbor for two years in college. At first he was just known as Steve but his nickname was well earned. We originally knew Steve trough our neighbor Chris Orr. Chris was a legend in his own right having once been threatened by basketball referee Jim Burr and also for having this quote appear in the Michigan Daily:

Perhaps LSA senior Chris Orr has a better approach. Like Vinny, Orr started drinking early and took a few Nalgene bottles filled with Killian’s Irish Red to class just to “keep the buzz going.” Orr gets regularly bored in class on St. Patrick's Day.

Anyways, over the course of two years our group of friends got to know Creepy Steve rather well. Steve was a big lovable oaf. He was one of the kindest and most unintentionally funny people I ever met at college. But Steve's biggest problem was with women.




As much as Steve would try, he was terrible at talking to girls. But what he lacked in charm and charisma he made up for double in effort. But as much as Steve loved trying to get girls, he also loved booze. (As a short side story, Steve once had his mom coming to visit on gameday around 10AM and he got so drunk that his mom showed up and he was passed out on a couch at the BOX house covered with sharpie). But that worked well because Steve was kind of shy, so he could really only talk to - as he called them - "hot chicks" after having a few drinks. This might have lead to Steve's other problem; he was a rather sloppy drunk. So we would be at parties at our friends houses and for the first hour or so Steve would be in the corner drinking beer. Eventually at a certain point in the night Steve would let everyone at the party know that it was time for him to start hitting on girls. And what was this magical signal? Steve would be so drunk that he would completely miss his mouth trying to drink a beer and pour it all down his shirt. To this day the "Creeper Steve" look is a short sleeved button down with beer poured down the front.

So Steve would go around with his beer covered shirt and start macking on the ladies. Steve was equal opportunity and it didn't matter if a girl was way out of his league or already taken by another guy. Usually the conversations wouldn't last long. This is probably because Steve didn't have a great mastery of pickup lines. Generally he would go up to girls and open with a compliment like "You have beautiful eyes" which isn't necessarily bad except when the girl is with a group of her friends and the guy is extrodinarily drunk. He once told our very attractive female friend that "She had beautiful arms". Steve also once told me how he was going to hit on that hot girl in the corner and then went over before I could tell him that she was my sister. This almost always lead to girls coming up to us and asking who the creepy guy with the beer all over his shirt was. And to that we would reply "Well, that's Creepy Steve"

But the story has a happy ending as Steve now has a girlfriend, so his days of chugging beer and wrestling Chris Orr in the front yard of the BOX house may be behind him.

WTTIF Turns Two

I've decided to start using the abbreviation WTTIF for my blog. Or just WTF.

It's the second birthday of my blog, which somewhat coincides with the new year.

After reading over the posts from 2008, I realize that I have a large amount to live up to in 2009. It should be a pretty exciting year. I am in my last semester and I'm only taking 14 credits, 3 of which are pass/fail and 2 of which are a first half-semester mini-course. I'm going to graduate and start a job, I hope. I expect to hit puberty sometime soon, which should be fun. Hopefully I'll actually take Alaska trip I've been vigorously planning. Maybe this will also be the year that I kick that crystal meth habit. I'll be moving out of this shithole, which is sad, but I will be moving into a new place somewhere. I should have some money from selling my Pogs and Benie Babies, so I will invest that into some infomercials, Snuggies it is! Some of my buddies are planning on proposing to their GF's, so I might have some weddings in the future to look forward to.

I've also started contributing to our fantastic house blog. I am going to stop posting on MB&QB because 3 blogs in enough for a kid with a 7th grade writing ability.

Box house: we're big on page 6C

There is an article in the paper today about the box house. Did you know Tom Champion started the box house?

Here is the link to the story.
http://www.michigandaily.com/content/2008-10-22/party-must-go

I'm just getting all sorts of press coverage these days.

Were big on the internet

Today Emily and Hanah were interviewed for some shitty webcast, but managed to drop a good word for the BOX house. It's very amusing, especially because Call on Me is playing in the background.

http://www.thepalestra.com/schoolsite.php?sid=1772&id=7411&rid=184