News Staff Reporter
Why is Mem Basement different from any other dorm? According to Mark Nemec ’07 and Matthew Sanger ’07 the answer is “more love!” From playing Halo to hall ball, and going out on movie runs to partaking in the “Mem House pleasure train,” this dorm is closer than most.
Perhaps it is because they are all on one level, or maybe because they are all juniors (in addition to prefects Frank Hamilton ‘06 and Eliot Jia ‘06), but one opinion that all Mem Basement boys share is that they were already friends before coming into the dorm. Nemec believes that the varied heritage of the eight boys is also part of the answer. What happens when an Italian-American, a part-Hispanic, a Canadian, and a Jew all live together? According to Nemec, “more love pouring out of four rooms than you could ever imagine.” Although Brian Bottini ‘07 sadly testified to the lack of slumber and shower parties (due to single stalls), his face lit up when he tried to summarize all of the boys’ pranks. “We just all pranked each other, it was ridiculous,” he said. After many a shaving cream covered door and too many water bottles left to leak on peoples beds, Bottini noted, “Yea, we are a little past that now.”
However, as lighthearted as Mem Basement may sound, the boys upstairs in Mem have a different story to tell. “They don’t like us, and we don’t like them,” said Sean Carey ’09. When asked why there is so much animosity, an unidentified freshman boy muttered “because they think they freakin own the place, and they think we think the same, but really Chris Danner owns it, and he knows it!”
The juniors are notorious for trying to steal the freshman boys’ pizzas and scaring them randomly. Nemec and Sanger agreed they are probably pretty intimidating to “the little boys.”
“We tell them not to come down. They aren’t ready for the pleasure train, if you will,” Nemec said, shaking his head.
When asked for a final statement, Nemec paused for a minute and replied, thinking hard, “Mem Basement is the best dorm on opposite day... I mean, the worst dorm on opposite day! Yea, that’s right!” So, based on an afternoon of investigation, it is clear that down in the dungeon’s of Choate’s largest and most notorious living quarters, lies a surprisingly welcoming brick-lined hallway of camaraderie.
