College Enemy: Dird

Dird was a freshman the same year I was. I really didn't know much about his background. I think he may have been from Indiana, because the first time I was aware of him, he said something about me wearing a Ball State University t-shirt. We did not start out as enemies, nor as friends. We were just a couple of guys who would run into each other on occasion.

But that changed in January of 1985. I had just returned on a late Friday afternoon from Artesia. I was going to go with some other Theatre students to the Southwest Theatre Conference auditions in Fort Worth, TX. Mom was afraid my car wouldn't be able to handle that trip again, so she said I could borrow her Buick Riviera. I drove down to meet Mom, switched cars, and started driving back. It was snowing really hard after I got out of Roswell. Visibility was very bad on the two lane highway, and it certainly didn't help that the car in front of me only wanted to go 20 mph. (Yes, I know safety was a concern, but they could have gone 40 mph and passing was not an option because I couldn't see the headlights in front of me.)

It took me two hours longer than normal to get home. When I did, I just wanted to relax in my dorm room. My next-door neighbor was the Resident Assistant. All of a sudden, he starts blasting his stereo really LOUD! (There were other people in the room.) I was already frazzled and this didn't help. I called his phone. Someone picked up and started talking with a funny voice and acting like it wasn't the RA's number. I politely asked them to turn down the stereo. They hung up the phone. The next thing I heard was Dird yelling, "F*** you, Fayd!"

Then there was a knock on my door. Dird and a couple of other guys (who were all members of Toilethead's fraternity) started yelling at me, saying I had messed up a recording by calling. I apologized, but I told them I had no idea they were doing something special. I told them about having to drive back in the snow, but that got no pity from them.

Nothing else happened that night, but that triggered a series of pranks against me that I thought was never going to end. I started getting calls in the middle of the night. Someone left a cup of urine on the outside knob of my door, so that it would spill on my feet when I opened it. Somebody wrote on my door in Magic Marker, "Die a******!" I was able to paint over it, but they vandalized it again. I painted over that, but when they did it a third time, I decided to not bother anymore.

In the middle of all this, I saw Dird in the lobby of the dorm. He said, "Guess what? I'm going to be your new roommate!" I kind of ignored him. I went to my room to study for a test in one of my Theatre classes that was supposed to take place the next day. About an hour later, he and some of his frat buddies showed up at my room. "I told you I was going to be your new roommate. I'm moving in." Then they set about being jerks the whole time. One of them said he needed to go to the bathroom, so Dird told him to urinated out the window.

I decided to go see the Head RA. I asked him about Dird being my roommate. He said Dird had a private room. When I went back up, everyone was gone. I breathed a sign of relief. However, one of them left his jacket in my room. A few minutes later, Dird and a couple of the other guys showed back up. I opened the door and told him what the Head RA told me. "Well, he lied. I'm your roommate!" I tried to shut the door on him, but he forced his way in. Since there were three of them, I figured I would be better off just getting through the night. Around 2am, they finally left.

I woke up the next morning and knew there was no way I was going to be able to take that Theatre test. Fortunately, Dr. W allowed us to skip one test without consequences. I told him what happened and he let me off the hook. I went back to my room and decided to see about getting moved into the honors dorm. When I tried calling, the Head RA there kept saying, "Hello? Hello?" I realized that those jerks had removed the mouthpiece part of the phone. I asked the RA if he could try to get it back. He said he would try. I knew I couldn't go without a phone for the time being, so I had to go and steal the mouthpiece out of a phone in the Education building. I wasn't proud that I had to do that, but I felt like I had no other choice. Later that day, the RA came back to me with the mouthpiece.

I called the Honor dorm again. The Head RA said they had no rooms available. I would be stuck at Lincoln for the rest of the semester and be subjected to the pranks. One of the worst was when the RA next door was out for the evening. His phone started ringing and wouldn't stop. Then Dird called me up and told me to hang up the phone. After a while, the RA returned with some other people. I could hear them talking about the phone. The RA picked up the phone and hung it back up. He then left. A few minutes later, it started ringing again and the RA did not come home for the rest of the night. I got almost no sleep. The dumb thing is that I knew whose room the call was coming from. But because I didn't know if Dird was going to be there, I didn't want to go up there and risk more harassment. I have no memory of what happened the next day or when the phone stopped ringing. I could only hope that the RA wouldn't go on another overnight excursion. He didn't.

(One thing I should point out is that Toilethead had nothing to do with these pranks. However, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that he knew about them.)

The next year, I was able to move into the Honors dorm. I felt like I no longer had to live in fear of Dird and his frat buddies.

However, about three months into the fall semester, I got a phone call in the middle of the night. I recognized that it was Dird making a prank call. He asked if I was Fayd Ogolon. I told him I wasn't. "Oh, sorry! Wrong number!" I wondered how he got my number. The next day, I saw that the student directories had been released. My dorm number was listed next to my name. This came about because of paperwork I filled out at the beginning of the school year. I had no idea this information was used for the directory. Fortunately, Dird never tried to prank me again.

The next semester, some people in the student government felt like the student body didn't know we were there. They came up with this idea that we would post all of our photos and phone numbers in the student paper so that the students would know who to contact regarding campus concerns that we could take care of. Dird had some position in the student government. We were all gathered to get our photos taken. I told the person collecting the information that I did not want my number published. They never asked why and they did not publish my number. I was the only member of the government who did not have a phone number listed under his name. I didn't care how it made me look, I avoided prank calls for the rest of the year.

I never saw Dird again after graduation. Five years ago, I wrote an essay updating my life for the ENMU Alumni Directory. When I received the directory, I noticed that he had also written an essay, which probably meant that he had purchased a copy of the directory as well. I had this fear in the back of my mind that he would see my name and start e-mailing me. However, that never happened.

Dird appears to have become some sort of military prosecutor. I never would have seen him doing that. I wonder how seriously he would be taken in court if they knew about his hijinks in college.

I have to admit I have a strong feeling that I will run into him again, much like I had a feeling I would run into one of my grade school tormentors. I honestly don't know how I will react if I see him. I can only hope that he feels regret for what he put me through and that an apology will be the first thing out of his mouth. If that happens, everything's going to be okay.