Electrical Engineers are an Endearing Lot

This is the first in a possible couple of blurbs about the electrical engineers that lived on my dorm floor in North Halls way back in the days of old..  I'm not sure how it happened, but there were many EEs on our floor, and they certainly became emboldened by their sheer numbers. Neighbor and friend Don Skerpon was an EE student, but luckily the pursuit of a 17 foot pole vault kept him from joining their exploits.  Don's sons are both at PSU now adding prestige to the Blue Band and the baseball team.  Although (certainly) not an electrical engineering student, Gregg Garrity lived and played among them.  I remember none of the other names, but admired their relentless pursuit of all that is fun in life.



One of their greatest exploits was bringing more than the 1 1/2 TV channels (Johnstown and Altoona) to the rest of us lowly peons on the floor.  With their knowledge of wires and things, and an unabashed proclivity for mischief they climbed the poles on the other side of the street (JoePa's neighborhood) and tapped into the newly installed cable lines.  They then proceeded to run the new line down the radiators the length of the building.  For a small fee, they would then splice into the line at your radiator and give you dozens of channels on a TV, a concept so alien to us that all our grades dropped immediately.

One result was the realization that a station had been created which carried sports 24 hours a day!  Can you imagine?  When I told my dad this, he immediately stated that "it would never work".  One of the only times in life I've known him to be wrong.  ESPN was here to stay, even though most of its coverage was on Australian Rules Football, the third most violent sport on earth, (behind only Hurling and Native American Lacrosse).  I've heard rumors that Ryan Foster has played the sport and will inquire about that directly.


Next up, EEs make the greatest movie ever seen...