How times change

doc-knapp · Wed Feb 10, 2021 9:28 pm

This was my fraternity house. The place of so many happy memories, and it is being torn down this month.

nomadh · Thu Feb 11, 2021 7:40 pm

Great tune. Fits the mood well too.

Sort of wistful

bleys21 · Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:20 pm

Nice one Doc! Want to give us the gear lowdown? I'm curious as to the guitar and amp on the lead sound, as its got some nice sizzle and bite to it!

dearlpitts · Fri Feb 12, 2021 12:00 am

Sounds great. Interested in what gear used to.

aullucci · Fri Feb 12, 2021 12:05 am

Phi sigma epsilon? Where was your house?

doc-knapp · Fri Feb 12, 2021 9:40 am

bleys21 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:20 pm Nice one Doc! Want to give us the gear lowdown? I'm curious as to the guitar and amp on the lead sound, as its got some nice sizzle and bite to it!

I am playing my spanking brand new lemon burst Agile AL3200 MCC with GVH-1 pickups through an Atomic Amplifire modeler using a Soldano amp and cab IR with chorus, delay, and a tube screamer. I love my Atomic Amplifire. There may be more advanced amp modelers on the market, but not one that sounds this good at this low a price point. Someday I'll upgrade to a Quad Cortex, Fractal, or Kemper, but for around $300 you can't beat the Atomic. Every day I see another new amp modeler on the market. It's a great time to be a guitar player!

doc-knapp · Fri Feb 12, 2021 9:43 am

aullucci wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 12:05 am Phi sigma epsilon? Where was your house?

LOL, that's Sigma Phi Epsilon. It was the Penn Iota chapter. Our house got shut down for under age drinking, and then the school revoked the lease and is tearing down our home to build a new dorm. A sad end to a great era. I have the best memories of my life from when I lived there. So many of my brothers truly became my family. We've stayed close for decades.

sabasgr68 · Fri Feb 12, 2021 10:52 am

Love it, doc @doc-knapp . What´s not to love about a 3200?

Great feeling through the song.

aullucci · Fri Feb 12, 2021 11:09 am

doc-knapp wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 9:43 am
aullucci wrote: ↑Fri Feb 12, 2021 12:05 am Phi sigma epsilon? Where was your house?
LOL, that's Sigma Phi Epsilon. It was the Penn Iota chapter. Our house got shut down for under age drinking, and then the school revoked the lease and is tearing down our home to build a new dorm. A sad end to a great era. I have the best memories of my life from when I lived there. So many of my brothers truly became my family. We've stayed close for decades.

Oops. Been a while since I've recalled the Greek alphabet...

I've been going through a similar thing for a few months. Our fraternity got bitten by the virus - we own a house in downtown DC that we struggled to fill in regular times. When the school shut down last spring, we lost all our income and have been carrying a $6K monthly nut that there isn't any incoming money to pay. We tried to shuffle the deck and buy time, but they're not back in class this spring, so there won't be any income at all until at least September. We sold it to the university; they're tearing it down for parking. But, exactly like you, some of the best memories of my life happened in that house, with some of my favorite people in the world. Right before we sold, we had this wonderful drunken zoom call with about 60 people. I still speak daily or weekly with a half dozen or so of my brothers, but it was so great to reconnect with some of the guys I've not seen in a while.

Sorry about your house. Enjoy the memories.

doc-knapp · Fri Feb 12, 2021 12:10 pm

It's funny you should say that. With covid going on we finally decided to do an alumni Zoom meeting one day a few months ago, and it's continued to grow. We've been getting together on Zoom about once a month since then, and it's been one of the highlights of my day. We just laugh about the stupid shit we did in our younger years and catch up on each other's lives. We were actually going to have a "goodbye party" at our house last weekend, but we had an ugly snow storm which caused us to cancel. It's sad to see what has become of the fraternity system. Legal issues and covid have destroyed a great legacy. Fraternities were on their way out at my school for the last twenty years. When I started college the drinking age was 18, and we used to charge a few dollars for admission and have 25 keg parties. By the end of my freshman year, the drinking age was raised to 21 and we could no longer charge, but the campus turned a blind eye to underage drinking. With the limited funds it shrank to 3 keg parties. By my senior year they were shutting down frats if there was any underage drinking. They threw my frat out 3 years ago for repeated violations. We were arguing to get the chapter re-opened and then the college decided to terminate the lease and bulldoze the building. I feel like I lost a home.

aullucci · Fri Feb 12, 2021 1:53 pm

Same damn story here. They've been trying to shut us down since I was there 20 years ago. And, in fairness, we were royal bastards about paying attention to their rules. Underage drinking was never legal. We never cared. But it really was the Rona that nailed the coffin shut.

The Zoom calls are great. A bunch of middle aged guys crying about where their hair has gone and wondering whether they can still drink 37 beers before falling down. Reminiscing about the time we made the pledges cut the grass with scissors. Man, those were the days.

redman · Fri Feb 12, 2021 3:29 pm

Great tune sorry about the frat house I went to a 2 year "Technical Institute" the school is still going strong but now it's a "Technical College". I was a local and lived off campus 3 of us rented a big old farm house on a huge plot of land I'm not sure how much but we couldn't hear or see anyone and no one could see or hear us so many many parties at my place.