Welcoming Committee
Charles V. Henry ’52
Each year, returning to school, the average Pomfret student found a welcoming committee of flies waiting for him in his room. Page six of the Student Manual said, “Flies die after the first frost.” Until then, however, the student was forced to cope with these infamous insects in any manner conceivable to the human mind.
Various sorts of canned sprays had the greatest popularity, although many boys resorted to the time-tested fly paper. The flies seemed to outlast the boys where sprays were concerned, for frequently boys could be seen running from their rooms, coughing and gagging with the fumes in hot pursuit. The sticky shears of Ben Benoit, the school barber, were tangible evidence of what happens to most of the fly paper.
Barc Gordon ’52 probably had the most interesting method of extermination. He’d pin the beasts against the ceiling with the small end of a broom pole. A three-quarter inch hole in the ceiling of the lavatory in Upper Four seemed to be the only result of this method, however.
