On Friday, February 25th, at 10:46pm, the Haystack received reports of three friends seen on the balcony of the Hopkins Observatory in Currier Quad. The friends had snuck up there even though that’s not allowed, proving to themselves that they were just a little bit dangerous.
“Look, is going on roofs not allowed by CSS? Sure,” said Ethan Johnson ‘23. “But we can’t live our lives in fear. Sometimes you just gotta get up high to get some perspective about everything that’s below you. Sometimes you gotta see the world from all the way up.” Johnson and his other rabble rousers gazed upon Williamstown from approximately 10 feet in the air, about eye level with the second floor of East.
“You can’t let a fear of getting in trouble take over your life,” said Johnson, who probably could have jumped off the top of the observatory and landed feet first. “I’m a thrill seeker. That means I live for the thrill. I’m so lucky to have such adventurous friends, these guys will do any of my crazy ideas.” Last week the pals went into the 24 hour room on a Saturday night. Johnson even took a sip of a beer in there.
“The stars are just beautiful up here!” Susie Bolts ‘24 exclaimed, “I’ve never seen anything like this!” The three spent 35 minutes pretending to see constellations that the others were pointing out. “Oh! There’s Casseopia!” Jack Maxwell ‘24 pointed out, to which Bolts quickly replied, “Oh yeah I saw that one too, um do you see Aquarius over there? Yeah I see Aquarius over there.” They will all be relieved to find out that none of them actually saw a single constellation other than The Big Dipper that semi-clear night. Although, we cannot confirm that Johnson ever really saw The Big Dipper. While none saw constellations, all confirmed that they really like stars a lot.
The night was not without its tensions. “Fuck everybody duck,” said Johnson. “It’s CSS!” The whole gang dropped to their stomachs. In fact, it was just a regular car passing by– an easy mistake to make considering both have headlights and wheels.
“Look at that tiny paper town down there” said Maxwell, puffing an herbal cigarette and staring mostly at the crosswalk light on Route 2. “Full of phony people living phony lives. Those little collegiate robots. So caught up with their little essays and readings. It’s all so silly when you get some perspective from up here” he said, at eye level with Griffin 5.
“Hah, I bet if there weren’t East and Goodrich and Lasell and Goffs and West and that Geos Building and Wachenheim and the Thompson Chemistry Labs in the way we could see some stupid Hoxsey party from here.” Bolts laughed to herself, “ Partying just to feel something that they probably won’t even remember tomorrow. They have no idea what it's like to live for now.”
When asked why the three had elected to sneak up to the roof, they made sure to let us know that they were “putting it all in perspective,” and that “we’re all just people.” The gang didn’t know it then, but they would then go on to tell the story of that crazy night for the next 5 months to literally anybody.
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