I go to Kean to move into 303 Rogers because I lived far enough and got to bypass the freshman dorm living. My parents are helping me move my shit into the apartment and I meet Eric Tichenor, my roommate. Along with Eric was a dude named Bobby Henkel. I remember humping my crap from car to room while Bobby and my Dad are chatting it up. I happen to catch this one moment when my Dad asks Bobby if they allowed alcohol in the apartments and in no uncertain terms and with the reaction time of an airbag, Bobby responds with “oh yeah.” It was beautiful to see the realization that my Dad was coming to in those few seconds of interaction with Bobby, the first Phi brother I ever met.

Not one to turn down a cocktail himself and knowing his two sons are right at the base of his apple tree, my Dad pretty much knew the score as he and my Mom left me in the apartment and to my own D-vices. So were hang’in out getting things out in the open and finding a lot of common ground already between the 3 of us so the comfort factor was immediate. Time passes and Bobby announces that he’s headed off to work, to a liquor store of all places. Like a good Phi brother, he takes our orders for alcohol hoping to aid in the delinquency of already delinquent minors.

Time seemed to stop from the moment he left us till the time he got back. Needless to say, Eric and I, with plenty of start-up cash for the semester to come, liquidated plenty of assets to get us rocking our first night. Bobby get back and we put it in gear right away.

 Without telling a soul, somehow, these dudes just started showing up at our apartment, jumping right in to the “assets” and low and behold, we had a full-on RAGE in our apartment. There were a group of guys that were TIGHT as hell and cool to us, and lots of strangers that just happened to filter in. The joint was so jumping that it led to mine and Eric’s introduction to the 3rd floor RA, Andy Ford. He was pretty cool after some behavioral guidance but little did he know that it was just foreshadowing what was to come from 303 Rogers for the next 2 semesters. He should have known because unbeknownst to me, he was well acquainted with those COOL guys, the Phi brothers.

We went into the wee hours of the night with a few beer runs on top of what Bobby brought back from the store. Some of the Phi brothers that were there that night were Bobby Henkel, Dennis Hendricks, Ray Fortuna, Rasta man, Bert Barbuty but I’m only kinda guessing because I was walking around unconscious that night and into the morning. I woke up the next day to an apartment that needed dental records for identification. It looked like a recycling dump for green, brown, clear and any other shade of glass bottle you can think of, and this was before the whole recycling movement. There were casualties on the chair, couch floor, all over and I was thinking that I should be checking their pulses and clearing airways ‘cause these people looked dead. After surveying the damage and assessing my first night at college, I knew right then that I found my home. There was no doubt in my mind from that moment on that I was going to pledge and become a Phi Brother.



Danny Medina
Alpha Ata 1983