Your stories and memories from Stack
Issue date: 11/17/09 Section: News
The Battalion would like to thank everyone that submitted stories for this special commemorative Bonfire edition. Due to space constraints we were not able to run every story we received, but they are all worth telling so we have included them here.
K. Rachelle Goldman
At Bonfire '92 (yes, really, at Bonfire) I met the man I would fall in love with, move away with and marry. Bonfire was even more special to us, we always said, because we were Aggies and that is where we were introduced.
Three years after my graduation, we moved back to College Station and both found jobs affiliated with the University. My husband's position required international travel, but in the fall of 1999 he would be home days before Thanksgiving...days before Bonfire...so I kept this happy thought as I went to sleep the night before he was to return. As always, my alarm was set to go off very early, just as NPR relayed the stories from overnight.
But this morning, the news was about us. Us Aggies... Bonfire had fallen and people were hurt and students were ... dead.
And all day long I went through the motions for my students. I went through the motions for my colleagues. I went through the motions for my friends. I did not cry.
I worked at the Rec center and was told that if anyone showed up to my class- anyone at all- I needed to teach class the best I could because those were the people who needed me to be there, to make life normal, even if it was just for an hour. So I did it, and people came, and I taught class, and I did not cry.
And I read every newspaper article, and I watched all the TV news, and I listened to the radio, and I did not cry.
Just after 7 p.m. that night, about 14 hours after I waking up to one of the most horrific days I have lived through, my husband's plane landed at the BCS airport. He had been on flight after flight for nearly a day. Only focused on our pending reunion, he did not read any newspapers, see the TV or listen to the radio during that time.
He did not know.
I had to tell him. I had to tell him all of it. He had been gone for weeks, but right then I had to tell him about every minute of the past 14 hours. And I cried.
Bonfire will always be more special to us, because we are Aggies and that is where we were introduced. 17 years later, for us, that is still true. But 10 years from that horrible day in 1999, it is also an anniversary that is difficult, raw and emotional. And when we think about it for too long, we both cry.
K. Rachelle Goldman
B.S. Plant and Soil Science (class of '92/graduated '93)and M.S. Genetics 2000
aggieandy61
.........bonfire, Nov 1958..after working on it,as sundown approaced we'd stand-guard around our small warming-fire.. we Fish were "guarding it" from would-be T-Sip intruders who might want to light it prematurely.. I recall a Jr, Mr Olds.. was cautioning us to "be on the guard for anything suspicious" ..we saw headlights coming right toward us erratically on the old drill field S of Duncan, of course we took immediate action..as it came within view, it was only some Sr's heckling us in the "Aggie Bonfire Special", a Maroon & White '29 Model A Ford..Courtesy of a gung-ho Northgate business-Ag.. trying to see if we were doing our job.
We worked on Bonfire as it were a job - did what our rank & responsibility permitted, obeyed the head-operations offcr, and very strong memories preclude any possible injuries,bad events as I recall..but the ensuing TU game however would be long remembered.
"Good stuff lasts..."
Gene Montalvo
November 1969 - A Fish in the Band. Moving logs to the stack at night and having someone ruin coffee for me (add sugar and cream). Couldn't drink it again until I learned to drink it black. Still the tallest on record. Gig 'em Ags.
Cheney Coker
Memories
1.) Upperclassmen running up and down the halls of Aston, pre-dawn on cut days, with chain saws blaring in order to wake people up.
2.) Going out to the stack to carry logs in a freezing rain only to be told by the Redpots that we weren't needed. Lots of CTs were working but the non-regs were told to stand around in the rain. A dozen of us finally went and got a log and moved it to the stack on our own before going back to bed. Later that day
3.) Watching the stack start to lean immediately after it was lit in 1981. A very large log was tossed on during push and it wasn't vertical so when it started to fall it pulled the stack with it. The band, all 300 of them, were standing next to the stack and hundreds of students were trying to get as close as possible when I saw it shift again. I turned to my girlfriend (now wife) and shouted, "We need to move back now!" and we moved as far away as it was tall. The stack fell not too long after that, right where the band had been no less than 10 minutes earlier. That is when I knew the Bonfire was a major tragedy waiting to happen. Texas A&M and the entire student body should be glad that only 12 people died ten years ago. Let's look back fondly on Bonfire, but let's not be so foolish as to bring it back.
Cheney Coker '82
Neil Hruzek
Getting a call from student life a couple days later at work (UHaul) asking if we had any boxes the parents could use. We loaded up a car, a couple hours later, and told them to come back if they needed anything else. My boss found out when they sent a letter to me saying thank you for the donation. To my surprise, he was only upset that I did not give up a truck or trailer...I offered but the need was not there. That was the only time we did not get griped at for being off on inventory that I can remember. The unity of our school is something that I have never seen anywhere else.
Ellen '84
Waking up early on my 38th birthday to news reports of the Bonfire collapse. Worrying about my nephew, Joel, because I knew he was out there working every chance he had. Panicking when I could not reach him then finally getting through to him to find out he was okay but that he was waiting on news of his buddy, Bryan. Then learning Bryan had died. Tough day. Being an Aggie and being that it happened on my birthday has changed the way I look at Nov. 18 and my birthday. It's still a day of celebration for another year of life and it's still a day of sadness and remembrance for Bonfire, A&M and the victims, but it's also a day that I could not be prouder to be an Aggie!!!! I still believe in Bonfire and feel strongly that it should continue on. Gig'em.
Keith '90
(1) Watching the burn with my idiot friend Jimmy and his girlfriend... the winds shifted, and the ashes and embers started falling on a large part of the crowd. Most of the crowd parted immediately, but he and his girlfriend thought it would be magical to "dance in the burning embers" raining down. Which did look neat, but at some point he looked up and got an ember directly in the eye. It was swollen for a week. Stupid Jimmy...
(2) Standing solemnly outside the police fence on what should have been Bonfire night 1999 amidst the flowers, notes, bibles, stuffed animals and other items left in memoriam. A redpot was also standing silently outside the perimeter, holding a log upright burning like a candle, staring forlornly at the pile of logs that he'd helped build.
Scott Simonds '98
Lived in Hart Hall 94-97 and helped build 3 different bonfires. Some of the funnest times of my life. All of the traditions that went along with bonfire within the dorms were really fun. We used to love and go and mess with the corps or the other other dorms and raise hell and yell and scream at them and throw toilet paper in their trees. Rarely did anyone ever throw a punch, but it was fun to see how riled up we could get the Walton guys. I loved every second I was involved with it and wish the Aggie students today could all get to experience what I did.
Wick '84
Riding out to the cut site on the flatbed trailers as a fish, damn cold. Finding the biggest diameter tree we could for the first butt to cut down with his axe (CT's didn't use chain saws). Gettin' put on a s**t list when we couldn't even pick the tree up, much less carry it to the loading area.
Being out on at the stack wiring logs the night Jackie Sherrill came out and got his inspiration for the 12th Man kickoff team.
Watching the '82 bonfire collapse after only 15 or so minutes due to high winds and having to jump out of the way as the outhouse came flying our way inside the perimeter.
Sleepin' in the back of my truck on Duncan field multiple times after bonfire fell.
Watchin' the outfit dorm sign burn in the 1988 bonfire as the outfit had been disbanded.
Nights and days spend working on the stack. Grade points lost.
Turning on the tv at 0430 on 18 Nov, seeing a live feed from CS and knowing immediately what had happened. Then the phone started ringing. Then the tears started flowing and didn't stop until we beat the hell outta tu.
It has never been about the burning but about the building. The campus dynamic has changed greatly since Bonfire is gone. Bring it back.
Trey Jackson
Carrying company logs on our shoulders while our upper classmen rode them out to the trucks, loading them by hand, getting a skidder stuck up to the steering wheel by the sheer weight of one of those things, "borrowing" our company commander and "relocating" him, pumping 10,000 gallons of jet fuel on the stack, and lighting a cigar on the coals, only to wait another 6 weeks for my hair to grow back.
Ric - 1995-2000
First Bonfire...learning to check the direction of the wind before deciding where to stand after inhaling the smoke and watching my buddy have a hole burnt into his jacket from falling embers...
Other years...stopping at the Dry Bean on the way over and always will remember how quickly it got hot no matter how far away you were once it went up...
Last year there...camping out for tickets for the game against tu and having the party quickly turn quiet as we learned the reason for all the sirens we kept hearing go by...
It was always a great tradition, but too much pride kept it from being properly managed in my opinion.
Christina '03
Waking up early the morning of the collapse to my roommate throwing a phone up to me in my bed, saying your mom is on the phone and she is freaking out. Helicopters buzzed overhead, as the news was flooded with news of the collapse. Our dorm was supposed to be on stack that night, but schedules were changed, and I was studying for a big exam. We spent the next four days out at stack, watching and waiting, taking turns to get food at Chick-fil-A, as they searched for survivors, praying that those still stuck would survive. Exams were canceled, and labs were put on hold. It was a painful experience for everyone in the Aggie family, and we will never forget those lives lost or their families. Bonfire is not special because of the bonfire, it is the tradition, like so many others in Aggieland that make it special. It is the teamwork required to make it possible, the students who dedicate their time and energy, and thousands of Aggies who used to gather the night before the t.u. game to watch it burn. My good friend lost her bonfire buddy in 1999, and still thinks of and prays for his family. We were all touched in one way or another, and must always keep those who lost their lives in 1999 in our hearts, especially this time every year, as they will always have a sacred place in the Aggie family - they exemplified what the 12th man is. We are a family, and we work hard to keep traditions alive, because at the end of the day, that is what sets A&M apart, our traditions, our family, and what we pass down from one generation to another. My mom and dad - class of '78; my aunt and uncles, right behind in '79 and '86; myself, class of '03; my brother, class of '09; my son, class of 2027; my daughter, class of '2029. Bonfire is a tradition we now hold in our memories, and even though it does not burn on campus anymore, what is most important is that it burns in our hearts. "The Aggies are we, true to each other as Aggies can be...."
Louis '10
Living my freshman year in Moses as an R.A.B. Even though Bonfire was off campus I could only imagine what the 'real' bonfire would've been like.
A year later the university kicked everyone out of the dorm and converted it into a co-ed all freshman dorm. But that didn't stop us from recruiting and messing with freshman the following year.
Billman98
1995...running around the base as it was torched...the heat....awesome sight....1999 sitting in Kyle Field for the memorial...
Bill Matthews '64
I'm class of 64. I remember working in the muddy fields, loading trucks, drinking hot coffee, and as a fish, several of us had some special duty (which I don't remember) that we must have done well since we went back to Dorm 5 early and were given permission to join the Senior and take a steam shower.
But what I remember most started on the Friday before Bonfire, Nob 22, 1963. The stack was scheduled to be built the following day. I didn't have a care in the world other than a class after lunch. My outfit, Sq 5 - The Filthy Fifth - had the first and second floors. As I walked into the dorm, several radios were turned on and Ags were gathered around listening. Someone called out to me that the President had been shot - in my hometown - Dallas.
As others arrived in the dorm, it had turned very quiet. Not knowing what else to do, I got my books and left the dorm. As I stepped out of the dorm, I did not put my hat on - it just didn't feel right. I remember looking at others and everyone was walking uncovered. The usual "activities" that happened every other day on the campus were dropped - that afternoon we were all Aggies who has lost a Commander-in-Chief.
Over the next few days, many discussions were held by school administrators and student body leaders. Should the game be canceled? At first, the answer was yes but then it was changed to no - "lets dedicate the game to JFK". The most immediate decision was to stop the bonfire. No stacking would occur, no midnight yell and the center pole would be left standing. The next week, after the decision was made to have the game, the midnight yell was put back on the schedule. I still remember our yell leaders standing on a truck flatbed and leading us in a yell practice.
The "young sweet thing" who was with me that night would become my wife the next fall.
Texas AMC saw many changes in the four years between 1960 and 1964 - we were officially integrated, the Corp became non-compulsory, women were permitted to attend full time - if they were wives or daughters of facility, employees or students - and the name was changed. We of the class of '64 and "late or early bloomers" of '63 and '65 were the last class to have Texas A&M College on our rings and diplomas - or at least most did :-)
All of these changes have proven to be good for the university and because of these my daughter is class of '96.
So, as you remember the fallen by going out to the Bonfire memorial, as you walk along the pathway and pass the missing class marker remember that our bonfire was given up to honor our country's President. Also, never forget that too many names of members of the classes from the 1960s are on the Wall.
It is also worth mentioning that when we gathered for our 25th reunion - that senior class honored us by inviting us to march in behind the band for midnight yell practice.
Bill (Pope) Matthews, '64 Sq 5
Christina
Architecture. Class of 2003. -- I worked on Bonfire my freshman year. We would get up before daybreak and drive out to cut very early. I remember how cold it was and how gross our clothes got. We weren't supposed to wash until Bonfire burned. I still remember how big it was before it fell. There was a channel on TV where you could watch a live stream of the stack, watch crews working on it day and night, trying to get done before the tu game. It was a week until it was to burn so they were on full steam. We got a call at 5am to see if we were ok because my roommate was the Bonfire pot for our dorm (Haas). That's when we found out it has fallen. I quickly turned on the channel and saw lights and trucks all over. It was the weirdest sight I had ever seen. We quickly dressed and ran down to the Polo Fields. We were ready to help out if needed. It was the worst day in my whole Aggie experience. When we started hearing about the people stuck inside. I was out there off and on all day. I volunteered that evening to pass out sweaters to all the people surrounding the site, it was a cold night. I can never forget seeing everyone's faces. They wouldn't take their eyes off the fallen stack, only to cry some more. I also remember seeing them pulling bodies out. I can never forget that experience. Some students gave all they had for the school and tradition they loved. Although, I never saw Bonfire burn, this memory will stay burned in my memory for the rest of my life. We will never forget --- 11-18-99.
BQ 2003
I remember fighting the nonregs over center pole. I remember helping my ol' lady make our fish guidon. I remember wearing the virgin stripe at my first cut. Father/son cut, and my only picture of stack, standing with my dad. Skipped classes, all night shifts. We finally had a night off, and stack fell. I sometime wish we were there so someone else wouldn't have been. I remember our outfit falling out for muster after someone pulled the fire alarm at 2:30, and the daze I was in for a week that I spent trying to help at stack. I remember the newswoman asking me what a "baby pisshead" on my pot meant when I was helping break down the relief tents. I couldn't answer. We left our guidon at stack with all the other memories. My parents came to get me for Thanksgiving, then when I came back, campus was never again the same.
Off campus bonfire is not Aggie Bonfire - it is a sad shadow of a great tradition. No Corps, no Aggie Band, no yell leaders - its just another fire.
AGBQ'07
I had a teacher in middle school that was class of 1997 and she worked on every Bonfire while completing her degree and would wear her dirty overalls on Fridays before really intense games. She told amazing stories that had me hyped up about seeing it when I got to A&M, but I had missed out on what made it so special at the time.
The next year when it fell, she was almost fired from her teaching spot because she wore her coveralls for the next two weeks in support of the tragedy. My school district was ran by oppressive businessmen who didn't understand the importance of school tradition or common decency. She promptly quit after that semester and moved to Houston and I never saw my Aggie teacher again.
I thought about her every year while I was at A&M, especially on the anniversaries of that fateful night. I know for a fact that she wanted to be there, even if she couldn't do anything to stop the tragedy, but to be there in body as well as spirit to help out her fellow Aggies to the best of her ability.
It finally came to me on the fifth anniversary, standing in the early morning in midnights with my buddies. There was a thick fog and a chill in the air, but no one shivered. I remember seeing silhouettes of Corps members and Non-regs standing side by side, silent and stoic in a way that poets can only dream about and never be able to express in words. I felt sorry for students not part of this university, as they will never experience the Spirit that guided the wind that night, every Silver Tapps, and Muster I attended.
I just hope that when the Bonfire returns to the campus, that they will allow a dead elephant to carry a log or two. To see the Aggie Band, Yell Leaders, and Corps of Cadets supporting the student members that kept the tradition alive in its absence will be my next favorite moment as an Aggie.
Chris Drake '81
My freshman year was the last year that non-regs lived on the Quad. Utay was a stack dorm so while I would make at least one cut, stack was our primary focus.
In no particular order, here are some Bonfire memories:
Wearing white pots to fart off the BQ's
Wearing black pots to fart off the Adminstration after they kicked us out of Utay
Cranking a chainsaw on the stairs of Moore Hall
Being the base on stick #2 as a freshman
Snake bite medicine and prayer meetings
The first time I called sticks
Pulling a class set - burning up a Fall GPR and going on Scho Pro
Hearing the theme from Patton and still having the urge to yell "Log me ************!!!!!"
Being the last Yellow Pot from Utay
Changing my opinion of Sips because of the class they showed in '99
Lisa '89
'85: First cut: bringing cookies w/ the cookie crew.
'85: Checking out the progress after a sorority meeting and almost getting stuck in the mud in my heals. Chivalry was not dead, instead some CT carried me back to the curb.
'85: Incredibly wet year. Didn't it stand tall until 4am? I think I was there until 2.
'86-'88: Whoop.
'94: Too much beer and Bones at The Chicken Oops.
'96: Took my T-sip beau. He couldn't believe he was the only one with a pony tail. '86 Redpot HWhite and '87 RP JT sat next to us in the Dixie Oil Co. They laughed when I pulled out my pocket knife to carve initials in the table. Beau cut the tail before our wedding. Austin is a great place for Aggies.
'99: En route to volunteer I couldn't believe my ears. Really - there was great support for TAMU over here.
Chad Robertson '03
As a freshman I was on second stack swing working the late shift in the wee hours of the morning on November 18, 1999. I don't remember a whole lot of that night but I will try to share some of my memories of that night and the months leading up to it. I have many fond memories of Aggie Bonfire and a few not so fond as you could imagine.
I met Micheal Ebanks that night he was working right next to me as a "Crane Monkey" (basically helped guide the logs into stack). I remember he had a 03 on the top of his pot in duct tape, and he kept trying to figure out why the heck the Red Pots were yelling ED at him, and then we decided that if you looked at it right the 03 looked like ED from the top. We got a pretty good laugh out of that. He was a good guy and I'm sad that I only knew him for a few hours.
I remember a loud pop and all of a sudden I was on the ground about 30 foot below where I was on my swing when stack was still standing. It was all of a sudden dark the lights on the perimeter polls all went off. My first thought was, man that is going to be a pain in butt to put back up. I figured if I was okay where I was then everyone else must have been fine too. Somebody came up to me and asked if I was okay then helped me off the ground. I dusted myself off and then realized the extent of the damage. It was incredible how quickly things were organized in such a chaotic environment. Students did what they could until medical help arrived. Then dorms and corps outfits gathered to get a headcount to find out if anyone was missing. It was a rough time there were a few guys from my dorm that I knew well were missing. All of my dorm buddies ended up making it, several had to get immediate medical treatment. One, John Comstock, was the last survivor to be pulled from stack. I remember walking back to my dorm that morning and getting people up to come back and help to move out logs when we were need, and calling my parents in the middle of the night to let then know I was not hurt. They drove 10 hours from my hometown to come see me and made me go to the hospital when they got here and it turns out I had a concussion and a cracked finger, but I was defiantly lucky. I was obviously a little out of it because I went to my 8:00 poly sci class in my grodes and pretty beat up looking.
I also remember my dorm's freshman class kidnapped one of our Crew Chiefs the night before one of the last cuts. I wish I could have seen the look on the Yellow Pot and other Crew Chief's faces when none of the freshman in the dorm came out of their rooms during the wakeup and they were missing one of their own. We had a good time that night and just camped out outside the cut site.
I remember the unloads and the safety fish, you got to love safety fish.
I remember the non-regs and the corps jockeying over the big end of center pole.
I remember the fun and camaraderie that came with Bonfire, but I also remember the 12 we lost.
Moses Hall RAB
First In Last Out
Gary '80
I remember going to bonfire from when we first moved to College Station in 1964, when I was 8 years old. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I also remember the site of the '69 bonfire and how incredibly tall it was. I also remember the Bonfire concerts at Jolly Rolly.
It's sad that my kids can't experience what I did. Maybe some day I can go to the "unofficial" bonfire.
Terry Hutchings '70
I remember working on the '69 bonfire, as a civilian student. I was a senior; it was to be my last bonfire. We had a LOT of Davis Gary Hall residents working on the bonfire that year. Our job was to carry the oak logs from where they had fallen or been stacked, on the ground, to the flatbed trailers and then drop them onto the trailer beds. Some of the logs were enormous and required 20 or 30 people to carry them. Some of the guys had stuffed towels inside of their sweatshirts & on top of their shoulders for some padding.
I also remember the hot "trashcan" coffee that was brought out to us at the cutting and loading sites. It didn't taste very good but it sure warmed us up.
My best bonfire memory is: when the torches were thrown onto the base of the bonfire and the aviation fuel ignited the bonfire. The fire got very hot very quickly and we all had to back up several feet. That, of course, gave us an even better overall view of the world's largest bonfire. While standing there looking at the roaring bonfire, I remember thinking how INCREDIBLE and UNIQUE this whole thing is and that other schools do not undertake anything remotely as great as this bonfire.
Also, 30 years later, I remember the awful feeling that I experienced when I first heard about the bonfire collapse.
Ann Massengale-Johnson`96
Bonfire`95
taking my boyfriend(husband now)a non-AG to burn and sitting on his shoulders, taking tons of pictures, having the time of my life and teaching him(non-AG)the love and awe of bonfire!
Going out there 2 weeks later and scooping up bonfire ashes with my roomates and keeping them in a glass container so everyone who visits my house and now my classroom knows that I was there!
Bonfire (stack)`98
taking our 2 month old son out to the stack site to take pictures & tearing up for no reason at all and praying that he would love Bonfire as much as I do.
Wonderful memories!!!
Gig`em!!!
Kathy - Aggie Mom '01
It is 1998, I am walking next to my son. He is a proud member of the class of '01, member of "A Batt", and a snare drummer in the band. We are marching out of the Quad. It is the first time I've been allowed to walk beside him INSIDE the band. The noise of the drums is deafening, but I can hear the Aggies in the crowd ahead cheering wildly. The bonfire stack is visible, towering high above the crowd. Soon, it will be ablaze. My goosebumps have goosebumps on them; I am so incredibly moved by all that is happening around me. The crowd parts...the band marches in...and the crowd closes around us. I am in tears already.
...It is 1999 and 6am...and my son is calling me from his dorm. "Mom...the bonfire fell...but I'm OK". I am in tears again....
Larry D Mauldin
There is a place in Heaven where a Bonfire burns every night
Followed by a football game lit by its light.
And then the next morning in the early light, it starts again.
A cutting and a trimming and hauling the logs in
The stacking and the singing and the yells
Reverberate thru Heaven and all the way to Hell
And no finer place can be found
for the Aggies to stand
Than upon that hallowed ground, an extention of Aggieland
It is a place where the Band marches free and proud
and strong
And the Corps always marches in a column ten miles long
Now if I get to Heaven, that is where you will find me
A standing and a shouting for all the world to see
I invite you to go there and be part of that crowd
You will feel quite special and mighty proud
For everyone is welcome to join
who has met life's test
And become an Aggie and be know as one of the best
It is often said that Aggies can nare their story tell
For it is about living and giving as well
About sacrifice and doing for others
as best as they can
And standing strong forever and saying they never ran
They are their countries proud Soldiers and Sailors
and Marines that do the fighting and the dying for
the dream
Of the Freedom of every mand and for their team
So if you hear an echo from high above the
next game when the going is getting tough
You will know the Aggies in Heaven are yelling all
the yells from Farmers Fight to Ruff Stuff
They will be standing and shouting in that
unique Aggie Pride
In yells that never end and are known World Wide
--69huslinone 08/22/07
William A. 2000
96,97,98,99, building Bonfire with my buddies.
1999 being there to see the horribly disfigured corpses pulled from under TONS of material and thinking we will rebuild.
2009 Holding my infant daughter in my arms and thinking what I would do to someone if they allowed something so horrible to happen to her.
You people that want bonfire back on campus have no clue.
If you want an honest and open dialogue on bonfire coming back to campus, the first thing that needs to be done is this: The pictures of the bodies pulled from stack that day need to be published. Then let all these diehard bonfire people argue what good it has done for this university.
Alan '02
The two hardest things for me to explain regarding Bonfire to those not familiar are the significance beyond the obvious burning of 2,000 logs and how the student body changed forever in one night. There are no words I can write to summarize or signify my bonfire experience. Some of the attributes bonfire instilled in me and the other workers can be replicated by other student organizations, but I doubt there is any one group that can put them all together in the way that bonfire did. It developed leaders, created life-long friendships, embraced tradition, encouraged stewardship, instilled a can-do attitude all while having the wild and crazy fun college kids want.
Some of the comments I've received about my group of college friends is how different our backgrounds are, how little we naturally have in common, but how similar our attitude and approach to life is. In hindsight, being affiliated with Bonfire had nothing to do with how much money your parents had, what religion you were, what type of car you drove, where you were from or any other divisive characteristic. All that mattered was if you were willing to put forth effort and sweat for something that would likely not yield individual honors or gain you acclaim of the scholastic kind.
To this day, my nearest and dearest friends are those from my dorm that all participated in building Bonfire. Some of the friends I've met since college can't grasp how I can go two or three years without seeing someone from the dorm, but instantly relive stories from those crazy, carefree and innocent years within minutes of reuniting. They just don't understand what bonds us, but to be fair a good portion of the student body didn't understand when Bonfire was still on campus. I'm not delusional. Even with all of the testimonials that have been shared, I fully recognize that we were not in the best graces of the university's administration. We were wild, loud and unrefined. But we also injected a sprit into campus that could be matched by no other group. When bonfire collapsed, so did that spirit.
I salute those who have tried to carry on the traditions with the off campus bonfires. They faced pressure to let the bonfire culture die off head-on by going through great lengths to find and organize cut sites, equipment, insurance, and most importantly . . . the students to keep the tradition alive. They accomplished all this without help from the university they represent so well.
I've long felt that before you could really respect and embrace A&M's large p.c. traditions, you had to first fall in love with the smaller less-recognized traditions. Bonfire served as that medium for me. For example, it was Sbisa Yells, groding and piss-head wrap that enlightened me to the significance of Muster and Silver Taps. I knew very little about A&M and what I meant to be an aggie before I enrolled in school, but the time I spent with Bonfire allowed me to fall in love with Texas A&M and everything that represented.
Alan Bell '02
Moses Hall R.A.B.
First In Last Out
Jake '84
Too many memories to post here, but here are a few: My earliest recollections of life were from attending bon fire with my Mom and Dad when I was around 4 years old. Fast forward many years later:, , , waking up to chain saws in the hall ways of Dunn Hall around 5:00 after going to bed around 3:00 after a night at the Chicken to hit cut site for early morning hard labor. Fast forward more years: , , eating sack lunches at the site watching the stack being built with my two young children, , , then on the night of burn going out with the whole family to watch it light, , then taking them home, kissing the wife good night, , , and the boys would go back to light cigars on the stack and burn our faces, , , then go to sleep under the stars in the back of our trucks, , , , then returning home to grab the kids to go out and cook marsh mellows for breakfast, , , then returning around lunch to cook hot dogs with the kids again. We'd always take a log that had been rolled off to the side out to the deer lease to start a ceremonial fire out there. I can't tell you how much bon fire has played a part of my life, , , no way to explain it. Bring it back.
Andrew
1994 - My senior year in high school and my first Bonfire.
Dad, '51 & '57, drove the family up to College Station from San Antonio to see campus and Bonfire. We spent the afternoon walking around campus, learning the history from the old man, and wondering what college life would be like. We went out to stack early in the day and dad explained the perimeter polls, and the different pots, and the t.u. frat house. That night we joined 70,000+ Aggies and watched it burn in the drizzly November night. Dad new some of the yells but some were new and we had to ask for help in reciting them. It was just an amazing time.
I didn't realize it at the time but Bonfire fell that year, nobody was hurt, and was rebuilt in a couple weeks (someone double check my facts). The whole way homed I imagined becoming an Aggie.
1995 - Freshman year, living off-campus (dorms filled up before I got in).
I didn't get involved in Bonfire but parked in Zachery lot and watched it being built while coming from and going to class. It was amazing watching everyone organize to build something so magnificent. One of my English classes was dismissed so we could watch center pole be put up. The excitement and energy on campus was amazing in October and November. My best friend, a t-shirt t-sip, from SA came up to party and see Bonfire burn. That night after burn he said, "I've been grossly misinformed about Aggies." He graduated from A&M in '03. Collecting ashes.
1996 - Driving down University and everyone honking and waving out the window as center pole heads down the road on a flat bed. Starting to learn where to stand based on the wind so we wouldn't get showered on by ash and embers. Collecting ashes.
1997 - House parties, lots of them. Walking to the Polo Fields. Circling the wagons. ;-)
1998 - Gig 'Em Pompeii. When stack fell it was like a volcano erupting. We were covered in ash and I had a burn on my head through my shirt. We disregarded the winds for some reason. Dat Nguyen and the team giving their speeches. Going back to site at around 3 am and hanging out for an hour just watching it burn.
I wish I could go back in time and be more of a part of Bonfire.
2003 - 2007: Multiple Student Bonfires
The drenched mud bath at hot rod hill was a blast even though stack never really burned. Well, not while I was there. The trek out to stack near Hearne was a pain but the excitement of the crowd and anticipation were fantastic. Getting their early and leaving late to avoid crowds on the buses. Witnessing how Student Bonfire is learning from year to year, especially around logistics. I am very proud of these new Aggies working so hard to preserve a great tradition, and doing it safely.
Jason Weidner
Masters, Class of 2003. Petroleum Engineering Major.
I remember the eerie sound of the news helicopters overhead for days after the collapse. It seemed as if none of the students were talking on campus as long as those helicopters were sweeping back and forth for video of the polo fields.
I also remember getting calls all morning starting at 430am from family and friends to see if I was OK. I knew about the collapse minutes after it happened. Many in my dorm (Moses) were injured
Aggie teacher' 87
Bonfire '85. My husband (boyfriend at the time)was a senior in the Aggie Band. I remember trying to hang onto his belt as the band marched around the bonfire behind the redpots and the torches through the mud. I think I lost a shoe. The heat of the bonfire once it was lit was unbelievable up close. It is hard to describe the intensity of the heat. The Bonfire is more than just a pile of logs. It is about who we are. It is part of what makes us Aggies.
I remember holding my own baby watching news coverage of the bonfire collapse. We all felt the loss of life and innocence.
I hope that the Bonfire does come back. I would be proud for my own sons to be part of the long Aggie tradition. It is who we are.
Anne Boykin
Former Student '71
Just a "few" years ago, in 1967, I was a freshman at A&M, the first woman of 18 Aggies in my family. Wanting desperately to be a part of the Bonfire Tradition that I had watched from the time I was 5 years old, I asked around campus about what contribution I could make. I found a spot in the snack trailer that was placed just on the edge of the drill field near Duncan. Every spare moment I had between classes, on nights and weekends, I trekked over to the trailer and did my part. The most popular items sold were Swisher Sweets, doughnuts, and coffee. It was the greatest ring side seat ever. It was also an education in Corps Pi** Pot decor. Those were exciting times!
When I was a student at A&M Consolidated Elementary School, we looked forward to the days after Thanksgiving when we rode our bikes to the Bonfire site. We played among the ashes often bringing sticks and marshmallows to roast over the embers. It became our own tradition to drop the sticky gooey charred fluffy treats into the ashes at least once before consuming. I guess you could say we still have Bonfire in our blood.
My son, Class of '96, lost two good friends in the Bonfire tragedy. It hit us all very hard. I think that the Bonfire Memorial on campus, the Bonfire memorials at Brison Park and the years that have passed have been a respectable amount of time and tribute. Those Aggies who tragically lost their lives and the families and friends who still mourn will always be remembered with or without Bonfire. I think it is time to prove that we have learned an incredibly tough lesson and that we have learned from past mistakes.
Richard Hay
One story that really comes to mind is the bonfire of 1989. It was the year after the redpots marched over the drillfield during elephant walk (1988)
BQ Juniors were guarding the field with orders to keep the people OFF.
That caused a fuss when the redpots tried it again, until we got them to march between the drillfield and the Bandroom.
That was what started it, that evening, after the band marched around bonfire the dead pot (old redpots) and redpots tried to take the Drum majors torches away to get back at the band for being such asses about the drillfield. Well you can imagine how that was received. A drum major tossed his torch onto that pile
of fuel-soaked wood and WHOOSH there it went! (on the video you can tell that the torches went on in a very ragged order)
At that the deadpots took after the Bugle rank with their axehandles and the next thing we know it was a general melee. (On the official bonfire picture you can faintly see thefighting reasoned debate at the base)
The aftermath was that the BQ leadership had to sweettalk and work everything out with the redpots. The class of '90 considered it the very best bonfire ever!
Captain Brewer was Very busy getting all the horns fixed before the tu game.
Hal Richards
I was a fish in the Aggie Band in 1971. Colonel Adams did not allow us to go to the cutting area. He did not want any of us to risk marching half time. So our job was to work 4 hour shifts (4 on and 4 off) through the weekend at the stack which at that time was behind Duncan Dining Hall. We were divided into small squads and supervised by sophomores.
Our delightful sophomores were very insistent that we chew tobacco. Right of passage and all that crap. I had gotten all of the tobacco chewing experience I needed when we stole some chew from my uncle when I was 8. I invented the trick of using Tootsie rolls. The spit looks just like tobacco juice and…. no need to puke!
Clay Kuboviak
Howdy!
I'm just blessed to see this great Aggie tradition going on to this day. I think Bonfire is the one and only tradition that shows the true Aggie Spirit. The tradition of Bonfire is about teamwork, discipline, spirit, leadership, etc... What many people don't understand is that Bonfire doesn't have to be held on campus to be Aggie Bonfire. Bonfire is, and has always been, about the students. It's built by Aggies for Aggies...hence Aggie Bonfire. Bonfire started off as a pile of trash, then some freshly cut logs were added along with trash, then in the 1940s (i think), the Bonfire switched to all logs and the tee-pee design was introduced. In either the early 1970s or '80s, Bonfire's design was chnaged to the wedding cake "tier" design. That design was the most dangerous design Bonfire has seen (logs were supported on top of logs...very unstable). Bonfire got out of hand in the 1990s and resulted in a tragedy. Bonfire was then "reborn" by what is now known as Student Bonfire. Bonfire is currently built with every log touching the ground but resembles the wedding cake "tier" design but is MUCH safer...and the stack stays up longer when burning! It goes to show that not even an accident as bad as the in 1999 can stop this tradition.
People are so use to seeing Bonfire held on campus that they assume that if it isn't, then it's not the tradition...WRONG. The purpose of Bonfire is teamwork, leadership, etc... As long as it's built by students, for students, the purpose behind the traditon is there. Texas A&M needs to let the students continue Bonfire with the way it's going now.
Bonfire isn't built every year to be burned. It's built to teach each student teamwork, leadership, etc... It's burned to be destroyed so new students will have the same experience.
Thanks and Gig'em!
Build the Hell Outta Bonfire!
Travis Kiser
My name is Travis Kiser, Im a sophomore History Major. I grew up in Bryan/College Station. Every year my family would take me to go watch Bonfire being built. Both of my parents went to school here, my dad was a Red Pot his senior year and my mom would hand out water and cookies to students who were working. The day after Bonfire would be lit my family would go cook off of the still burning ashes of the stack. My mom took my little brother and I to see the stack two days before it fell in 1999. Bonfire was "The Tradition" of Texas A&M, nothing will ever compare to seeing thousands of Aggies carrying torches and cheering and swaying in unison.
Kassie Cesna
Howdy!
My name is Kassie Cessna and I am a sophomore sports management major from College Station, Texas. Having lived here all my life, I've probably seen more bonfires than most students currently attending A&M. What makes me even more unique? I was actually born on a Bonfire night. As my mother was in labor, my dad and doctor were looking over the skyline at Bonfire burning bright. What a sight that must have been. Needless to say, Bonfire was in me from literally the day I was born. Bonfire was something I went to with my dad growing up, up until the year it fell. I just remember it being a fun atmosphere full of love. Bonfire is something that united Texas A&M and created a burning passion, literally and figuratively, to Beat the Hell out of those tsips. I just remember Bonfire being a time of everyone loving each other and acting crazy. I remember the day it fell as if it were yesterday as well. I was in 4th grade, and it was like my town had come to a screeching hault. It was a tough week, and needless to say the outcome was tough as well. But I know that what has happened now is what's best for the University. We will NEVER forget the 12 we lost, and we will ALWAYS remember that on November 18, 1999 Texas A&M University was forever changed. Thanks, Gig 'Em, and Build the Hell!
Barry Dickens
I was a member of company L-2 and we were an engineering outfit, our sister outfit was F-2, a business outfit. As engineers, we had Head Stack Red Pot and as business majors, F-2 had the finance pot. This was significant because it guaranteed that head stack would always be an engineer and the finance pot would go to a business major, and so went most of the other pots. Back then fish were not allowed on the stack. They could arrange logs, they could go to cut but they did not work on stack. You learned how to build a bonfire beginning your freshman year and each outfit had specific responsibilities. In that way the information was passed down to each class as well as lessons learned so that there were slight improvements to bonfire each year. Sometime after I graduated, L-2 was disbanded for I don't know what reason but when that occurred, what happened to that red pot? Was it guaranteed that an engineer would be head stack? The bonfire that fell was not constructed like the ones we built from '80-'84.
Bonfire to me was an outstanding experience and nothing else compares to it. The friendships and memories made are still fresh in my mind. Nothing can replace it and I hope it comes back to A&M as a student led activity again soon.
In the attached picture from left to right are: Forrest Word, Barry Dickens (myself), John Zachry, Bob Hubble, Jim Garner, and Tom Herring. This is a picture of our sophomore year while we were guarding bonfire.
Cheryl Ketchum
Hello,
Are you still taking bonfire memories? My daughter, who is a freshman this year, thinks I need to submit the story about how my husband ('88, Company E-2) and myself ('90, off-campus Aggie) met, due to being Bonfire buddies in 1987. If it wasn't for Bonfire, we would probably not have met, married, and had a daughter who is attending her first year at A&M during the 100th year anniversary. She understands the importance of Bonfire and is helping out with it this year off-campus.
My husband and I had not been back to a Bonfire since graduation, but we were on our way to visit our first post-graduation Bonfire the year it fell (near our 10th year wedding anniversary). We were getting ready to head out to College Station when we heard the news. We did see the makeshift memorials and attend the special yell practice.
My father attended A&M ('70), and I was born in Bryan while he was a student. I have a baby picture taken in my mother's arms with the Bonfire burning in the background!
Please let me know if you are still accepting stories, and I will be happy to write one.
Thank you,
Cheryl (Finley) Ketcham
Class of 1990
Now living in Smithfield, Virginia and celebrating 20 years married to my Bonfire Buddy
Carolyn Harwell
10 years, It seems so long ago when we woke up to the tragedy of the Bonfire collapse. Many question now, whether to have bonfire return or not. There is no easy answer. Our family shared that special night every year as a family tradition. It was a one-of-a-kind memory making time. We'd drive by the site along the way of the process of building, watching the stack form. We watched the outhouse being put on. We watched as the Yell leaders weaved through the campus and made their way with torches to light the bonfire. For me, as a student, I saw my first snowfall on my first bonfire night! Now, our family has the memories shared of those special nights. After Bonfire fell, we visited the site. We attended the candlelight memorial, before the yell practice at Kyle Field, stopping at the flag pole in front of the Systems building where so many Aggies had left their Aggie Rings, as a tribute to the lost Aggies who would never receive theirs. We carried our lit candles through the campus, all the way into Kyle Field. Those memories will forever be ingrained in our family. We now have the memorial to visit and it's such a precious remembrance. The pain that we felt was as if we had lost our own family member and yet, I know that we do not have the pain that the families of the 12 that lost their lives did, but we grieved for them and we still do. Why do we grieve still? Because we are the Aggie family and the spirit of the Aggies is what makes this school so special!
Connie Moore
During my time at Texas A&M, the student body was still trying to decide if it wanted women on campus, in the Corps, or "heaven forbid" in the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band! Seeing today's very talented women in all those organizations makes me sure we made the right decision!
Bonfire was one of the last bastions of male domination-women were not allowed within the "perimeter" (I think I'm remembering the right term for the inner circle nearest the stack)-in order to be a part of the action, we were invited to the site to work shifts serving hot chocolate, coffee and snacks to the "real" (male) workers on the stack.
So during my senior year, I eagerly signed up for several shifts of hot chocolate detail, had a great time doing it, and when the flames went up, that was MY BONFIRE! I really felt part of the burning desire to beat t.u.
Gig 'Em Aggies! BTHO t.u.
Matt Poling
Bonfire was never a one night event for me but a monumental endeavor uniting Aggies in a common purpose from the heat of August through the first chills of "Bonfire Weather!" until the eyes of the entire state turned to Duncan field prior to the big game. All I know about teamwork, sacrifice and leadership had it's start as a fish leading the logs around the cut site and stack. Some question whether or not this tradition is still worthy of returning to campus. My only question is whether or not the university is still worthy of hosting it.
K. Rachelle Goldman
At Bonfire '92 (yes, really, at Bonfire) I met the man I would fall in love with, move away with and marry. Bonfire was even more special to us, we always said, because we were Aggies and that is where we were introduced.
Three years after my graduation, we moved back to College Station and both found jobs affiliated with the University. My husband's position required international travel, but in the fall of 1999 he would be home days before Thanksgiving...days before Bonfire...so I kept this happy thought as I went to sleep the night before he was to return. As always, my alarm was set to go off very early, just as NPR relayed the stories from overnight.
But this morning, the news was about us. Us Aggies... Bonfire had fallen and people were hurt and students were ... dead.
And all day long I went through the motions for my students. I went through the motions for my colleagues. I went through the motions for my friends. I did not cry.
I worked at the Rec center and was told that if anyone showed up to my class- anyone at all- I needed to teach class the best I could because those were the people who needed me to be there, to make life normal, even if it was just for an hour. So I did it, and people came, and I taught class, and I did not cry.
And I read every newspaper article, and I watched all the TV news, and I listened to the radio, and I did not cry.
Just after 7 p.m. that night, about 14 hours after I waking up to one of the most horrific days I have lived through, my husband's plane landed at the BCS airport. He had been on flight after flight for nearly a day. Only focused on our pending reunion, he did not read any newspapers, see the TV or listen to the radio during that time.
He did not know.
I had to tell him. I had to tell him all of it. He had been gone for weeks, but right then I had to tell him about every minute of the past 14 hours. And I cried.
Bonfire will always be more special to us, because we are Aggies and that is where we were introduced. 17 years later, for us, that is still true. But 10 years from that horrible day in 1999, it is also an anniversary that is difficult, raw and emotional. And when we think about it for too long, we both cry.
K. Rachelle Goldman
B.S. Plant and Soil Science (class of '92/graduated '93)and M.S. Genetics 2000
aggieandy61
.........bonfire, Nov 1958..after working on it,as sundown approaced we'd stand-guard around our small warming-fire.. we Fish were "guarding it" from would-be T-Sip intruders who might want to light it prematurely.. I recall a Jr, Mr Olds.. was cautioning us to "be on the guard for anything suspicious" ..we saw headlights coming right toward us erratically on the old drill field S of Duncan, of course we took immediate action..as it came within view, it was only some Sr's heckling us in the "Aggie Bonfire Special", a Maroon & White '29 Model A Ford..Courtesy of a gung-ho Northgate business-Ag.. trying to see if we were doing our job.
We worked on Bonfire as it were a job - did what our rank & responsibility permitted, obeyed the head-operations offcr, and very strong memories preclude any possible injuries,bad events as I recall..but the ensuing TU game however would be long remembered.
"Good stuff lasts..."
Gene Montalvo
November 1969 - A Fish in the Band. Moving logs to the stack at night and having someone ruin coffee for me (add sugar and cream). Couldn't drink it again until I learned to drink it black. Still the tallest on record. Gig 'em Ags.
Cheney Coker
Memories
1.) Upperclassmen running up and down the halls of Aston, pre-dawn on cut days, with chain saws blaring in order to wake people up.
2.) Going out to the stack to carry logs in a freezing rain only to be told by the Redpots that we weren't needed. Lots of CTs were working but the non-regs were told to stand around in the rain. A dozen of us finally went and got a log and moved it to the stack on our own before going back to bed. Later that day
3.) Watching the stack start to lean immediately after it was lit in 1981. A very large log was tossed on during push and it wasn't vertical so when it started to fall it pulled the stack with it. The band, all 300 of them, were standing next to the stack and hundreds of students were trying to get as close as possible when I saw it shift again. I turned to my girlfriend (now wife) and shouted, "We need to move back now!" and we moved as far away as it was tall. The stack fell not too long after that, right where the band had been no less than 10 minutes earlier. That is when I knew the Bonfire was a major tragedy waiting to happen. Texas A&M and the entire student body should be glad that only 12 people died ten years ago. Let's look back fondly on Bonfire, but let's not be so foolish as to bring it back.
Cheney Coker '82
Neil Hruzek
Getting a call from student life a couple days later at work (UHaul) asking if we had any boxes the parents could use. We loaded up a car, a couple hours later, and told them to come back if they needed anything else. My boss found out when they sent a letter to me saying thank you for the donation. To my surprise, he was only upset that I did not give up a truck or trailer...I offered but the need was not there. That was the only time we did not get griped at for being off on inventory that I can remember. The unity of our school is something that I have never seen anywhere else.
Ellen '84
Waking up early on my 38th birthday to news reports of the Bonfire collapse. Worrying about my nephew, Joel, because I knew he was out there working every chance he had. Panicking when I could not reach him then finally getting through to him to find out he was okay but that he was waiting on news of his buddy, Bryan. Then learning Bryan had died. Tough day. Being an Aggie and being that it happened on my birthday has changed the way I look at Nov. 18 and my birthday. It's still a day of celebration for another year of life and it's still a day of sadness and remembrance for Bonfire, A&M and the victims, but it's also a day that I could not be prouder to be an Aggie!!!! I still believe in Bonfire and feel strongly that it should continue on. Gig'em.
Keith '90
(1) Watching the burn with my idiot friend Jimmy and his girlfriend... the winds shifted, and the ashes and embers started falling on a large part of the crowd. Most of the crowd parted immediately, but he and his girlfriend thought it would be magical to "dance in the burning embers" raining down. Which did look neat, but at some point he looked up and got an ember directly in the eye. It was swollen for a week. Stupid Jimmy...
(2) Standing solemnly outside the police fence on what should have been Bonfire night 1999 amidst the flowers, notes, bibles, stuffed animals and other items left in memoriam. A redpot was also standing silently outside the perimeter, holding a log upright burning like a candle, staring forlornly at the pile of logs that he'd helped build.
Scott Simonds '98
Lived in Hart Hall 94-97 and helped build 3 different bonfires. Some of the funnest times of my life. All of the traditions that went along with bonfire within the dorms were really fun. We used to love and go and mess with the corps or the other other dorms and raise hell and yell and scream at them and throw toilet paper in their trees. Rarely did anyone ever throw a punch, but it was fun to see how riled up we could get the Walton guys. I loved every second I was involved with it and wish the Aggie students today could all get to experience what I did.
Wick '84
Riding out to the cut site on the flatbed trailers as a fish, damn cold. Finding the biggest diameter tree we could for the first butt to cut down with his axe (CT's didn't use chain saws). Gettin' put on a s**t list when we couldn't even pick the tree up, much less carry it to the loading area.
Being out on at the stack wiring logs the night Jackie Sherrill came out and got his inspiration for the 12th Man kickoff team.
Watching the '82 bonfire collapse after only 15 or so minutes due to high winds and having to jump out of the way as the outhouse came flying our way inside the perimeter.
Sleepin' in the back of my truck on Duncan field multiple times after bonfire fell.
Watchin' the outfit dorm sign burn in the 1988 bonfire as the outfit had been disbanded.
Nights and days spend working on the stack. Grade points lost.
Turning on the tv at 0430 on 18 Nov, seeing a live feed from CS and knowing immediately what had happened. Then the phone started ringing. Then the tears started flowing and didn't stop until we beat the hell outta tu.
It has never been about the burning but about the building. The campus dynamic has changed greatly since Bonfire is gone. Bring it back.
Trey Jackson
Carrying company logs on our shoulders while our upper classmen rode them out to the trucks, loading them by hand, getting a skidder stuck up to the steering wheel by the sheer weight of one of those things, "borrowing" our company commander and "relocating" him, pumping 10,000 gallons of jet fuel on the stack, and lighting a cigar on the coals, only to wait another 6 weeks for my hair to grow back.
Ric - 1995-2000
First Bonfire...learning to check the direction of the wind before deciding where to stand after inhaling the smoke and watching my buddy have a hole burnt into his jacket from falling embers...
Other years...stopping at the Dry Bean on the way over and always will remember how quickly it got hot no matter how far away you were once it went up...
Last year there...camping out for tickets for the game against tu and having the party quickly turn quiet as we learned the reason for all the sirens we kept hearing go by...
It was always a great tradition, but too much pride kept it from being properly managed in my opinion.
Christina '03
Waking up early the morning of the collapse to my roommate throwing a phone up to me in my bed, saying your mom is on the phone and she is freaking out. Helicopters buzzed overhead, as the news was flooded with news of the collapse. Our dorm was supposed to be on stack that night, but schedules were changed, and I was studying for a big exam. We spent the next four days out at stack, watching and waiting, taking turns to get food at Chick-fil-A, as they searched for survivors, praying that those still stuck would survive. Exams were canceled, and labs were put on hold. It was a painful experience for everyone in the Aggie family, and we will never forget those lives lost or their families. Bonfire is not special because of the bonfire, it is the tradition, like so many others in Aggieland that make it special. It is the teamwork required to make it possible, the students who dedicate their time and energy, and thousands of Aggies who used to gather the night before the t.u. game to watch it burn. My good friend lost her bonfire buddy in 1999, and still thinks of and prays for his family. We were all touched in one way or another, and must always keep those who lost their lives in 1999 in our hearts, especially this time every year, as they will always have a sacred place in the Aggie family - they exemplified what the 12th man is. We are a family, and we work hard to keep traditions alive, because at the end of the day, that is what sets A&M apart, our traditions, our family, and what we pass down from one generation to another. My mom and dad - class of '78; my aunt and uncles, right behind in '79 and '86; myself, class of '03; my brother, class of '09; my son, class of 2027; my daughter, class of '2029. Bonfire is a tradition we now hold in our memories, and even though it does not burn on campus anymore, what is most important is that it burns in our hearts. "The Aggies are we, true to each other as Aggies can be...."
Louis '10
Living my freshman year in Moses as an R.A.B. Even though Bonfire was off campus I could only imagine what the 'real' bonfire would've been like.
A year later the university kicked everyone out of the dorm and converted it into a co-ed all freshman dorm. But that didn't stop us from recruiting and messing with freshman the following year.
Billman98
1995...running around the base as it was torched...the heat....awesome sight....1999 sitting in Kyle Field for the memorial...
Bill Matthews '64
I'm class of 64. I remember working in the muddy fields, loading trucks, drinking hot coffee, and as a fish, several of us had some special duty (which I don't remember) that we must have done well since we went back to Dorm 5 early and were given permission to join the Senior and take a steam shower.
But what I remember most started on the Friday before Bonfire, Nob 22, 1963. The stack was scheduled to be built the following day. I didn't have a care in the world other than a class after lunch. My outfit, Sq 5 - The Filthy Fifth - had the first and second floors. As I walked into the dorm, several radios were turned on and Ags were gathered around listening. Someone called out to me that the President had been shot - in my hometown - Dallas.
As others arrived in the dorm, it had turned very quiet. Not knowing what else to do, I got my books and left the dorm. As I stepped out of the dorm, I did not put my hat on - it just didn't feel right. I remember looking at others and everyone was walking uncovered. The usual "activities" that happened every other day on the campus were dropped - that afternoon we were all Aggies who has lost a Commander-in-Chief.
Over the next few days, many discussions were held by school administrators and student body leaders. Should the game be canceled? At first, the answer was yes but then it was changed to no - "lets dedicate the game to JFK". The most immediate decision was to stop the bonfire. No stacking would occur, no midnight yell and the center pole would be left standing. The next week, after the decision was made to have the game, the midnight yell was put back on the schedule. I still remember our yell leaders standing on a truck flatbed and leading us in a yell practice.
The "young sweet thing" who was with me that night would become my wife the next fall.
Texas AMC saw many changes in the four years between 1960 and 1964 - we were officially integrated, the Corp became non-compulsory, women were permitted to attend full time - if they were wives or daughters of facility, employees or students - and the name was changed. We of the class of '64 and "late or early bloomers" of '63 and '65 were the last class to have Texas A&M College on our rings and diplomas - or at least most did :-)
All of these changes have proven to be good for the university and because of these my daughter is class of '96.
So, as you remember the fallen by going out to the Bonfire memorial, as you walk along the pathway and pass the missing class marker remember that our bonfire was given up to honor our country's President. Also, never forget that too many names of members of the classes from the 1960s are on the Wall.
It is also worth mentioning that when we gathered for our 25th reunion - that senior class honored us by inviting us to march in behind the band for midnight yell practice.
Bill (Pope) Matthews, '64 Sq 5
Christina
Architecture. Class of 2003. -- I worked on Bonfire my freshman year. We would get up before daybreak and drive out to cut very early. I remember how cold it was and how gross our clothes got. We weren't supposed to wash until Bonfire burned. I still remember how big it was before it fell. There was a channel on TV where you could watch a live stream of the stack, watch crews working on it day and night, trying to get done before the tu game. It was a week until it was to burn so they were on full steam. We got a call at 5am to see if we were ok because my roommate was the Bonfire pot for our dorm (Haas). That's when we found out it has fallen. I quickly turned on the channel and saw lights and trucks all over. It was the weirdest sight I had ever seen. We quickly dressed and ran down to the Polo Fields. We were ready to help out if needed. It was the worst day in my whole Aggie experience. When we started hearing about the people stuck inside. I was out there off and on all day. I volunteered that evening to pass out sweaters to all the people surrounding the site, it was a cold night. I can never forget seeing everyone's faces. They wouldn't take their eyes off the fallen stack, only to cry some more. I also remember seeing them pulling bodies out. I can never forget that experience. Some students gave all they had for the school and tradition they loved. Although, I never saw Bonfire burn, this memory will stay burned in my memory for the rest of my life. We will never forget --- 11-18-99.
BQ 2003
I remember fighting the nonregs over center pole. I remember helping my ol' lady make our fish guidon. I remember wearing the virgin stripe at my first cut. Father/son cut, and my only picture of stack, standing with my dad. Skipped classes, all night shifts. We finally had a night off, and stack fell. I sometime wish we were there so someone else wouldn't have been. I remember our outfit falling out for muster after someone pulled the fire alarm at 2:30, and the daze I was in for a week that I spent trying to help at stack. I remember the newswoman asking me what a "baby pisshead" on my pot meant when I was helping break down the relief tents. I couldn't answer. We left our guidon at stack with all the other memories. My parents came to get me for Thanksgiving, then when I came back, campus was never again the same.
Off campus bonfire is not Aggie Bonfire - it is a sad shadow of a great tradition. No Corps, no Aggie Band, no yell leaders - its just another fire.
AGBQ'07
I had a teacher in middle school that was class of 1997 and she worked on every Bonfire while completing her degree and would wear her dirty overalls on Fridays before really intense games. She told amazing stories that had me hyped up about seeing it when I got to A&M, but I had missed out on what made it so special at the time.
The next year when it fell, she was almost fired from her teaching spot because she wore her coveralls for the next two weeks in support of the tragedy. My school district was ran by oppressive businessmen who didn't understand the importance of school tradition or common decency. She promptly quit after that semester and moved to Houston and I never saw my Aggie teacher again.
I thought about her every year while I was at A&M, especially on the anniversaries of that fateful night. I know for a fact that she wanted to be there, even if she couldn't do anything to stop the tragedy, but to be there in body as well as spirit to help out her fellow Aggies to the best of her ability.
It finally came to me on the fifth anniversary, standing in the early morning in midnights with my buddies. There was a thick fog and a chill in the air, but no one shivered. I remember seeing silhouettes of Corps members and Non-regs standing side by side, silent and stoic in a way that poets can only dream about and never be able to express in words. I felt sorry for students not part of this university, as they will never experience the Spirit that guided the wind that night, every Silver Tapps, and Muster I attended.
I just hope that when the Bonfire returns to the campus, that they will allow a dead elephant to carry a log or two. To see the Aggie Band, Yell Leaders, and Corps of Cadets supporting the student members that kept the tradition alive in its absence will be my next favorite moment as an Aggie.
Chris Drake '81
My freshman year was the last year that non-regs lived on the Quad. Utay was a stack dorm so while I would make at least one cut, stack was our primary focus.
In no particular order, here are some Bonfire memories:
Wearing white pots to fart off the BQ's
Wearing black pots to fart off the Adminstration after they kicked us out of Utay
Cranking a chainsaw on the stairs of Moore Hall
Being the base on stick #2 as a freshman
Snake bite medicine and prayer meetings
The first time I called sticks
Pulling a class set - burning up a Fall GPR and going on Scho Pro
Hearing the theme from Patton and still having the urge to yell "Log me ************!!!!!"
Being the last Yellow Pot from Utay
Changing my opinion of Sips because of the class they showed in '99
Lisa '89
'85: First cut: bringing cookies w/ the cookie crew.
'85: Checking out the progress after a sorority meeting and almost getting stuck in the mud in my heals. Chivalry was not dead, instead some CT carried me back to the curb.
'85: Incredibly wet year. Didn't it stand tall until 4am? I think I was there until 2.
'86-'88: Whoop.
'94: Too much beer and Bones at The Chicken Oops.
'96: Took my T-sip beau. He couldn't believe he was the only one with a pony tail. '86 Redpot HWhite and '87 RP JT sat next to us in the Dixie Oil Co. They laughed when I pulled out my pocket knife to carve initials in the table. Beau cut the tail before our wedding. Austin is a great place for Aggies.
'99: En route to volunteer I couldn't believe my ears. Really - there was great support for TAMU over here.
Chad Robertson '03
As a freshman I was on second stack swing working the late shift in the wee hours of the morning on November 18, 1999. I don't remember a whole lot of that night but I will try to share some of my memories of that night and the months leading up to it. I have many fond memories of Aggie Bonfire and a few not so fond as you could imagine.
I met Micheal Ebanks that night he was working right next to me as a "Crane Monkey" (basically helped guide the logs into stack). I remember he had a 03 on the top of his pot in duct tape, and he kept trying to figure out why the heck the Red Pots were yelling ED at him, and then we decided that if you looked at it right the 03 looked like ED from the top. We got a pretty good laugh out of that. He was a good guy and I'm sad that I only knew him for a few hours.
I remember a loud pop and all of a sudden I was on the ground about 30 foot below where I was on my swing when stack was still standing. It was all of a sudden dark the lights on the perimeter polls all went off. My first thought was, man that is going to be a pain in butt to put back up. I figured if I was okay where I was then everyone else must have been fine too. Somebody came up to me and asked if I was okay then helped me off the ground. I dusted myself off and then realized the extent of the damage. It was incredible how quickly things were organized in such a chaotic environment. Students did what they could until medical help arrived. Then dorms and corps outfits gathered to get a headcount to find out if anyone was missing. It was a rough time there were a few guys from my dorm that I knew well were missing. All of my dorm buddies ended up making it, several had to get immediate medical treatment. One, John Comstock, was the last survivor to be pulled from stack. I remember walking back to my dorm that morning and getting people up to come back and help to move out logs when we were need, and calling my parents in the middle of the night to let then know I was not hurt. They drove 10 hours from my hometown to come see me and made me go to the hospital when they got here and it turns out I had a concussion and a cracked finger, but I was defiantly lucky. I was obviously a little out of it because I went to my 8:00 poly sci class in my grodes and pretty beat up looking.
I also remember my dorm's freshman class kidnapped one of our Crew Chiefs the night before one of the last cuts. I wish I could have seen the look on the Yellow Pot and other Crew Chief's faces when none of the freshman in the dorm came out of their rooms during the wakeup and they were missing one of their own. We had a good time that night and just camped out outside the cut site.
I remember the unloads and the safety fish, you got to love safety fish.
I remember the non-regs and the corps jockeying over the big end of center pole.
I remember the fun and camaraderie that came with Bonfire, but I also remember the 12 we lost.
Moses Hall RAB
First In Last Out
Gary '80
I remember going to bonfire from when we first moved to College Station in 1964, when I was 8 years old. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I also remember the site of the '69 bonfire and how incredibly tall it was. I also remember the Bonfire concerts at Jolly Rolly.
It's sad that my kids can't experience what I did. Maybe some day I can go to the "unofficial" bonfire.
Terry Hutchings '70
I remember working on the '69 bonfire, as a civilian student. I was a senior; it was to be my last bonfire. We had a LOT of Davis Gary Hall residents working on the bonfire that year. Our job was to carry the oak logs from where they had fallen or been stacked, on the ground, to the flatbed trailers and then drop them onto the trailer beds. Some of the logs were enormous and required 20 or 30 people to carry them. Some of the guys had stuffed towels inside of their sweatshirts & on top of their shoulders for some padding.
I also remember the hot "trashcan" coffee that was brought out to us at the cutting and loading sites. It didn't taste very good but it sure warmed us up.
My best bonfire memory is: when the torches were thrown onto the base of the bonfire and the aviation fuel ignited the bonfire. The fire got very hot very quickly and we all had to back up several feet. That, of course, gave us an even better overall view of the world's largest bonfire. While standing there looking at the roaring bonfire, I remember thinking how INCREDIBLE and UNIQUE this whole thing is and that other schools do not undertake anything remotely as great as this bonfire.
Also, 30 years later, I remember the awful feeling that I experienced when I first heard about the bonfire collapse.
Ann Massengale-Johnson`96
Bonfire`95
taking my boyfriend(husband now)a non-AG to burn and sitting on his shoulders, taking tons of pictures, having the time of my life and teaching him(non-AG)the love and awe of bonfire!
Going out there 2 weeks later and scooping up bonfire ashes with my roomates and keeping them in a glass container so everyone who visits my house and now my classroom knows that I was there!
Bonfire (stack)`98
taking our 2 month old son out to the stack site to take pictures & tearing up for no reason at all and praying that he would love Bonfire as much as I do.
Wonderful memories!!!
Gig`em!!!
Kathy - Aggie Mom '01
It is 1998, I am walking next to my son. He is a proud member of the class of '01, member of "A Batt", and a snare drummer in the band. We are marching out of the Quad. It is the first time I've been allowed to walk beside him INSIDE the band. The noise of the drums is deafening, but I can hear the Aggies in the crowd ahead cheering wildly. The bonfire stack is visible, towering high above the crowd. Soon, it will be ablaze. My goosebumps have goosebumps on them; I am so incredibly moved by all that is happening around me. The crowd parts...the band marches in...and the crowd closes around us. I am in tears already.
...It is 1999 and 6am...and my son is calling me from his dorm. "Mom...the bonfire fell...but I'm OK". I am in tears again....
Larry D Mauldin
There is a place in Heaven where a Bonfire burns every night
Followed by a football game lit by its light.
And then the next morning in the early light, it starts again.
A cutting and a trimming and hauling the logs in
The stacking and the singing and the yells
Reverberate thru Heaven and all the way to Hell
And no finer place can be found
for the Aggies to stand
Than upon that hallowed ground, an extention of Aggieland
It is a place where the Band marches free and proud
and strong
And the Corps always marches in a column ten miles long
Now if I get to Heaven, that is where you will find me
A standing and a shouting for all the world to see
I invite you to go there and be part of that crowd
You will feel quite special and mighty proud
For everyone is welcome to join
who has met life's test
And become an Aggie and be know as one of the best
It is often said that Aggies can nare their story tell
For it is about living and giving as well
About sacrifice and doing for others
as best as they can
And standing strong forever and saying they never ran
They are their countries proud Soldiers and Sailors
and Marines that do the fighting and the dying for
the dream
Of the Freedom of every mand and for their team
So if you hear an echo from high above the
next game when the going is getting tough
You will know the Aggies in Heaven are yelling all
the yells from Farmers Fight to Ruff Stuff
They will be standing and shouting in that
unique Aggie Pride
In yells that never end and are known World Wide
--69huslinone 08/22/07
William A. 2000
96,97,98,99, building Bonfire with my buddies.
1999 being there to see the horribly disfigured corpses pulled from under TONS of material and thinking we will rebuild.
2009 Holding my infant daughter in my arms and thinking what I would do to someone if they allowed something so horrible to happen to her.
You people that want bonfire back on campus have no clue.
If you want an honest and open dialogue on bonfire coming back to campus, the first thing that needs to be done is this: The pictures of the bodies pulled from stack that day need to be published. Then let all these diehard bonfire people argue what good it has done for this university.
Alan '02
The two hardest things for me to explain regarding Bonfire to those not familiar are the significance beyond the obvious burning of 2,000 logs and how the student body changed forever in one night. There are no words I can write to summarize or signify my bonfire experience. Some of the attributes bonfire instilled in me and the other workers can be replicated by other student organizations, but I doubt there is any one group that can put them all together in the way that bonfire did. It developed leaders, created life-long friendships, embraced tradition, encouraged stewardship, instilled a can-do attitude all while having the wild and crazy fun college kids want.
Some of the comments I've received about my group of college friends is how different our backgrounds are, how little we naturally have in common, but how similar our attitude and approach to life is. In hindsight, being affiliated with Bonfire had nothing to do with how much money your parents had, what religion you were, what type of car you drove, where you were from or any other divisive characteristic. All that mattered was if you were willing to put forth effort and sweat for something that would likely not yield individual honors or gain you acclaim of the scholastic kind.
To this day, my nearest and dearest friends are those from my dorm that all participated in building Bonfire. Some of the friends I've met since college can't grasp how I can go two or three years without seeing someone from the dorm, but instantly relive stories from those crazy, carefree and innocent years within minutes of reuniting. They just don't understand what bonds us, but to be fair a good portion of the student body didn't understand when Bonfire was still on campus. I'm not delusional. Even with all of the testimonials that have been shared, I fully recognize that we were not in the best graces of the university's administration. We were wild, loud and unrefined. But we also injected a sprit into campus that could be matched by no other group. When bonfire collapsed, so did that spirit.
I salute those who have tried to carry on the traditions with the off campus bonfires. They faced pressure to let the bonfire culture die off head-on by going through great lengths to find and organize cut sites, equipment, insurance, and most importantly . . . the students to keep the tradition alive. They accomplished all this without help from the university they represent so well.
I've long felt that before you could really respect and embrace A&M's large p.c. traditions, you had to first fall in love with the smaller less-recognized traditions. Bonfire served as that medium for me. For example, it was Sbisa Yells, groding and piss-head wrap that enlightened me to the significance of Muster and Silver Taps. I knew very little about A&M and what I meant to be an aggie before I enrolled in school, but the time I spent with Bonfire allowed me to fall in love with Texas A&M and everything that represented.
Alan Bell '02
Moses Hall R.A.B.
First In Last Out
Jake '84
Too many memories to post here, but here are a few: My earliest recollections of life were from attending bon fire with my Mom and Dad when I was around 4 years old. Fast forward many years later:, , , waking up to chain saws in the hall ways of Dunn Hall around 5:00 after going to bed around 3:00 after a night at the Chicken to hit cut site for early morning hard labor. Fast forward more years: , , eating sack lunches at the site watching the stack being built with my two young children, , , then on the night of burn going out with the whole family to watch it light, , then taking them home, kissing the wife good night, , , and the boys would go back to light cigars on the stack and burn our faces, , , then go to sleep under the stars in the back of our trucks, , , , then returning home to grab the kids to go out and cook marsh mellows for breakfast, , , then returning around lunch to cook hot dogs with the kids again. We'd always take a log that had been rolled off to the side out to the deer lease to start a ceremonial fire out there. I can't tell you how much bon fire has played a part of my life, , , no way to explain it. Bring it back.
Andrew
1994 - My senior year in high school and my first Bonfire.
Dad, '51 & '57, drove the family up to College Station from San Antonio to see campus and Bonfire. We spent the afternoon walking around campus, learning the history from the old man, and wondering what college life would be like. We went out to stack early in the day and dad explained the perimeter polls, and the different pots, and the t.u. frat house. That night we joined 70,000+ Aggies and watched it burn in the drizzly November night. Dad new some of the yells but some were new and we had to ask for help in reciting them. It was just an amazing time.
I didn't realize it at the time but Bonfire fell that year, nobody was hurt, and was rebuilt in a couple weeks (someone double check my facts). The whole way homed I imagined becoming an Aggie.
1995 - Freshman year, living off-campus (dorms filled up before I got in).
I didn't get involved in Bonfire but parked in Zachery lot and watched it being built while coming from and going to class. It was amazing watching everyone organize to build something so magnificent. One of my English classes was dismissed so we could watch center pole be put up. The excitement and energy on campus was amazing in October and November. My best friend, a t-shirt t-sip, from SA came up to party and see Bonfire burn. That night after burn he said, "I've been grossly misinformed about Aggies." He graduated from A&M in '03. Collecting ashes.
1996 - Driving down University and everyone honking and waving out the window as center pole heads down the road on a flat bed. Starting to learn where to stand based on the wind so we wouldn't get showered on by ash and embers. Collecting ashes.
1997 - House parties, lots of them. Walking to the Polo Fields. Circling the wagons. ;-)
1998 - Gig 'Em Pompeii. When stack fell it was like a volcano erupting. We were covered in ash and I had a burn on my head through my shirt. We disregarded the winds for some reason. Dat Nguyen and the team giving their speeches. Going back to site at around 3 am and hanging out for an hour just watching it burn.
I wish I could go back in time and be more of a part of Bonfire.
2003 - 2007: Multiple Student Bonfires
The drenched mud bath at hot rod hill was a blast even though stack never really burned. Well, not while I was there. The trek out to stack near Hearne was a pain but the excitement of the crowd and anticipation were fantastic. Getting their early and leaving late to avoid crowds on the buses. Witnessing how Student Bonfire is learning from year to year, especially around logistics. I am very proud of these new Aggies working so hard to preserve a great tradition, and doing it safely.
Jason Weidner
Masters, Class of 2003. Petroleum Engineering Major.
I remember the eerie sound of the news helicopters overhead for days after the collapse. It seemed as if none of the students were talking on campus as long as those helicopters were sweeping back and forth for video of the polo fields.
I also remember getting calls all morning starting at 430am from family and friends to see if I was OK. I knew about the collapse minutes after it happened. Many in my dorm (Moses) were injured
Aggie teacher' 87
Bonfire '85. My husband (boyfriend at the time)was a senior in the Aggie Band. I remember trying to hang onto his belt as the band marched around the bonfire behind the redpots and the torches through the mud. I think I lost a shoe. The heat of the bonfire once it was lit was unbelievable up close. It is hard to describe the intensity of the heat. The Bonfire is more than just a pile of logs. It is about who we are. It is part of what makes us Aggies.
I remember holding my own baby watching news coverage of the bonfire collapse. We all felt the loss of life and innocence.
I hope that the Bonfire does come back. I would be proud for my own sons to be part of the long Aggie tradition. It is who we are.
Anne Boykin
Former Student '71
Just a "few" years ago, in 1967, I was a freshman at A&M, the first woman of 18 Aggies in my family. Wanting desperately to be a part of the Bonfire Tradition that I had watched from the time I was 5 years old, I asked around campus about what contribution I could make. I found a spot in the snack trailer that was placed just on the edge of the drill field near Duncan. Every spare moment I had between classes, on nights and weekends, I trekked over to the trailer and did my part. The most popular items sold were Swisher Sweets, doughnuts, and coffee. It was the greatest ring side seat ever. It was also an education in Corps Pi** Pot decor. Those were exciting times!
When I was a student at A&M Consolidated Elementary School, we looked forward to the days after Thanksgiving when we rode our bikes to the Bonfire site. We played among the ashes often bringing sticks and marshmallows to roast over the embers. It became our own tradition to drop the sticky gooey charred fluffy treats into the ashes at least once before consuming. I guess you could say we still have Bonfire in our blood.
My son, Class of '96, lost two good friends in the Bonfire tragedy. It hit us all very hard. I think that the Bonfire Memorial on campus, the Bonfire memorials at Brison Park and the years that have passed have been a respectable amount of time and tribute. Those Aggies who tragically lost their lives and the families and friends who still mourn will always be remembered with or without Bonfire. I think it is time to prove that we have learned an incredibly tough lesson and that we have learned from past mistakes.
Richard Hay
One story that really comes to mind is the bonfire of 1989. It was the year after the redpots marched over the drillfield during elephant walk (1988)
BQ Juniors were guarding the field with orders to keep the people OFF.
That caused a fuss when the redpots tried it again, until we got them to march between the drillfield and the Bandroom.
That was what started it, that evening, after the band marched around bonfire the dead pot (old redpots) and redpots tried to take the Drum majors torches away to get back at the band for being such asses about the drillfield. Well you can imagine how that was received. A drum major tossed his torch onto that pile
of fuel-soaked wood and WHOOSH there it went! (on the video you can tell that the torches went on in a very ragged order)
At that the deadpots took after the Bugle rank with their axehandles and the next thing we know it was a general melee. (On the official bonfire picture you can faintly see the
The aftermath was that the BQ leadership had to sweettalk and work everything out with the redpots. The class of '90 considered it the very best bonfire ever!
Captain Brewer was Very busy getting all the horns fixed before the tu game.
Hal Richards
I was a fish in the Aggie Band in 1971. Colonel Adams did not allow us to go to the cutting area. He did not want any of us to risk marching half time. So our job was to work 4 hour shifts (4 on and 4 off) through the weekend at the stack which at that time was behind Duncan Dining Hall. We were divided into small squads and supervised by sophomores.
Our delightful sophomores were very insistent that we chew tobacco. Right of passage and all that crap. I had gotten all of the tobacco chewing experience I needed when we stole some chew from my uncle when I was 8. I invented the trick of using Tootsie rolls. The spit looks just like tobacco juice and…. no need to puke!
Clay Kuboviak
Howdy!
I'm just blessed to see this great Aggie tradition going on to this day. I think Bonfire is the one and only tradition that shows the true Aggie Spirit. The tradition of Bonfire is about teamwork, discipline, spirit, leadership, etc... What many people don't understand is that Bonfire doesn't have to be held on campus to be Aggie Bonfire. Bonfire is, and has always been, about the students. It's built by Aggies for Aggies...hence Aggie Bonfire. Bonfire started off as a pile of trash, then some freshly cut logs were added along with trash, then in the 1940s (i think), the Bonfire switched to all logs and the tee-pee design was introduced. In either the early 1970s or '80s, Bonfire's design was chnaged to the wedding cake "tier" design. That design was the most dangerous design Bonfire has seen (logs were supported on top of logs...very unstable). Bonfire got out of hand in the 1990s and resulted in a tragedy. Bonfire was then "reborn" by what is now known as Student Bonfire. Bonfire is currently built with every log touching the ground but resembles the wedding cake "tier" design but is MUCH safer...and the stack stays up longer when burning! It goes to show that not even an accident as bad as the in 1999 can stop this tradition.
People are so use to seeing Bonfire held on campus that they assume that if it isn't, then it's not the tradition...WRONG. The purpose of Bonfire is teamwork, leadership, etc... As long as it's built by students, for students, the purpose behind the traditon is there. Texas A&M needs to let the students continue Bonfire with the way it's going now.
Bonfire isn't built every year to be burned. It's built to teach each student teamwork, leadership, etc... It's burned to be destroyed so new students will have the same experience.
Thanks and Gig'em!
Build the Hell Outta Bonfire!
Travis Kiser
My name is Travis Kiser, Im a sophomore History Major. I grew up in Bryan/College Station. Every year my family would take me to go watch Bonfire being built. Both of my parents went to school here, my dad was a Red Pot his senior year and my mom would hand out water and cookies to students who were working. The day after Bonfire would be lit my family would go cook off of the still burning ashes of the stack. My mom took my little brother and I to see the stack two days before it fell in 1999. Bonfire was "The Tradition" of Texas A&M, nothing will ever compare to seeing thousands of Aggies carrying torches and cheering and swaying in unison.
Kassie Cesna
Howdy!
My name is Kassie Cessna and I am a sophomore sports management major from College Station, Texas. Having lived here all my life, I've probably seen more bonfires than most students currently attending A&M. What makes me even more unique? I was actually born on a Bonfire night. As my mother was in labor, my dad and doctor were looking over the skyline at Bonfire burning bright. What a sight that must have been. Needless to say, Bonfire was in me from literally the day I was born. Bonfire was something I went to with my dad growing up, up until the year it fell. I just remember it being a fun atmosphere full of love. Bonfire is something that united Texas A&M and created a burning passion, literally and figuratively, to Beat the Hell out of those tsips. I just remember Bonfire being a time of everyone loving each other and acting crazy. I remember the day it fell as if it were yesterday as well. I was in 4th grade, and it was like my town had come to a screeching hault. It was a tough week, and needless to say the outcome was tough as well. But I know that what has happened now is what's best for the University. We will NEVER forget the 12 we lost, and we will ALWAYS remember that on November 18, 1999 Texas A&M University was forever changed. Thanks, Gig 'Em, and Build the Hell!
Barry Dickens
I was a member of company L-2 and we were an engineering outfit, our sister outfit was F-2, a business outfit. As engineers, we had Head Stack Red Pot and as business majors, F-2 had the finance pot. This was significant because it guaranteed that head stack would always be an engineer and the finance pot would go to a business major, and so went most of the other pots. Back then fish were not allowed on the stack. They could arrange logs, they could go to cut but they did not work on stack. You learned how to build a bonfire beginning your freshman year and each outfit had specific responsibilities. In that way the information was passed down to each class as well as lessons learned so that there were slight improvements to bonfire each year. Sometime after I graduated, L-2 was disbanded for I don't know what reason but when that occurred, what happened to that red pot? Was it guaranteed that an engineer would be head stack? The bonfire that fell was not constructed like the ones we built from '80-'84.
Bonfire to me was an outstanding experience and nothing else compares to it. The friendships and memories made are still fresh in my mind. Nothing can replace it and I hope it comes back to A&M as a student led activity again soon.
In the attached picture from left to right are: Forrest Word, Barry Dickens (myself), John Zachry, Bob Hubble, Jim Garner, and Tom Herring. This is a picture of our sophomore year while we were guarding bonfire.
Cheryl Ketchum
Hello,
Are you still taking bonfire memories? My daughter, who is a freshman this year, thinks I need to submit the story about how my husband ('88, Company E-2) and myself ('90, off-campus Aggie) met, due to being Bonfire buddies in 1987. If it wasn't for Bonfire, we would probably not have met, married, and had a daughter who is attending her first year at A&M during the 100th year anniversary. She understands the importance of Bonfire and is helping out with it this year off-campus.
My husband and I had not been back to a Bonfire since graduation, but we were on our way to visit our first post-graduation Bonfire the year it fell (near our 10th year wedding anniversary). We were getting ready to head out to College Station when we heard the news. We did see the makeshift memorials and attend the special yell practice.
My father attended A&M ('70), and I was born in Bryan while he was a student. I have a baby picture taken in my mother's arms with the Bonfire burning in the background!
Please let me know if you are still accepting stories, and I will be happy to write one.
Thank you,
Cheryl (Finley) Ketcham
Class of 1990
Now living in Smithfield, Virginia and celebrating 20 years married to my Bonfire Buddy
Carolyn Harwell
10 years, It seems so long ago when we woke up to the tragedy of the Bonfire collapse. Many question now, whether to have bonfire return or not. There is no easy answer. Our family shared that special night every year as a family tradition. It was a one-of-a-kind memory making time. We'd drive by the site along the way of the process of building, watching the stack form. We watched the outhouse being put on. We watched as the Yell leaders weaved through the campus and made their way with torches to light the bonfire. For me, as a student, I saw my first snowfall on my first bonfire night! Now, our family has the memories shared of those special nights. After Bonfire fell, we visited the site. We attended the candlelight memorial, before the yell practice at Kyle Field, stopping at the flag pole in front of the Systems building where so many Aggies had left their Aggie Rings, as a tribute to the lost Aggies who would never receive theirs. We carried our lit candles through the campus, all the way into Kyle Field. Those memories will forever be ingrained in our family. We now have the memorial to visit and it's such a precious remembrance. The pain that we felt was as if we had lost our own family member and yet, I know that we do not have the pain that the families of the 12 that lost their lives did, but we grieved for them and we still do. Why do we grieve still? Because we are the Aggie family and the spirit of the Aggies is what makes this school so special!
Connie Moore
During my time at Texas A&M, the student body was still trying to decide if it wanted women on campus, in the Corps, or "heaven forbid" in the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band! Seeing today's very talented women in all those organizations makes me sure we made the right decision!
Bonfire was one of the last bastions of male domination-women were not allowed within the "perimeter" (I think I'm remembering the right term for the inner circle nearest the stack)-in order to be a part of the action, we were invited to the site to work shifts serving hot chocolate, coffee and snacks to the "real" (male) workers on the stack.
So during my senior year, I eagerly signed up for several shifts of hot chocolate detail, had a great time doing it, and when the flames went up, that was MY BONFIRE! I really felt part of the burning desire to beat t.u.
Gig 'Em Aggies! BTHO t.u.
Matt Poling
Bonfire was never a one night event for me but a monumental endeavor uniting Aggies in a common purpose from the heat of August through the first chills of "Bonfire Weather!" until the eyes of the entire state turned to Duncan field prior to the big game. All I know about teamwork, sacrifice and leadership had it's start as a fish leading the logs around the cut site and stack. Some question whether or not this tradition is still worthy of returning to campus. My only question is whether or not the university is still worthy of hosting it.
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