The Hot Tub
Walter Hinchman, Former Faculty
In the 1980s, student pranks were often quite imaginative and I had an advisee who perhaps topped them all. Tales of his effort have circulated around the halls of Pomfret for years and have almost achieved the status of an “urban legend.” I have often been asked if it really happened.
The young man in question, a senior at the time, lived in an arcade room and learned that beneath his room were tunnels which carried steam to the radiators in the dorms. He went to the maintenance shop, in those days where the Parsons Lodge is today, and never locked or much supervised during the day. He borrowed some tools, including a saw, and returned to his room where, when the dorms were empty, he proceeded to cut a trap door in the floor of his room giving him entrance to the tunnel below. During regular hours the trap door was covered by an attractive rug. Another “borrowing” secured for him a plastic bin from the gym where it had been used for laundry. A little ingenuity and a hose enabled him to bring water from the faucet in the janitor’s closet, across the hall from his room, and so he was able to fill the plastic bin. Electricity was no problem – an extension cord from the room above provided power for lighting and music. There you have it, a spa, or hot tub, located in the steam tunnel and known to only a very few.
That year was the only time in my Pomfret years that I did not attend graduation as I had a child graduating from college on the same day. My advisee had brought with him to graduation a note which he intended for me and which said essentially, “Check out my room later today.” The note went to a colleague who checked and blew the whistle on the project. Needless to say, the authorities were not pleased. After some negotiation, the student’s diploma was not rescinded, and he returned to school to do what he could to repair the damages, to return what he had “borrowed” and to pay for what he could not correct.
Now that this is in print all can know that it is not just a student fantasy, but that a hot tub really did exist in a dorm.
