My first year of college was an interesting time. I moved into the dorms to be independent of my family but also because I didn't have a car to travel. I can tell many stories about my first year in the dorms but for this post I'll focus on some stories about the first dorm I lived and about a person I have labeled the mystery pooper of Franklin Hall.

Old Dorms Are The Worst

I remember the first dorm building I lived in was a real fixer upper. By fixer upper I mean the building was torn down the year after I moved out because it was so old and horrible. It was ancient and didn't have air conditioning so it was sweltering in the warmer months. The smell of a basement (mildew type odor) came out of the vents in the winter when the heat was on. It was right across the street from the train tracks so you'd hear at least 10 trains a day and at night passing by blaring their horns. The floor would vibrate as they passed. We didn't have an elevator so you had to lug all your belongings through a tiny stairwell to move in and out. The worst part was no personal bathrooms. All residents shared one bathroom on each of its three floors.

The bathroom had two parts: one side with toilets and sinks, and the other with shower stalls.

Social Anxiety and Communal Showers! Ahhhh!!!

So I really hated sharing a bathroom with other people. Social anxiety and private behaviors like showering and potty time don't mix. I usually went in there during hours when no one was around like late at night. After midnight showers were normal for me. They didn't have spaces for you to put your belongings on. You only had one tiny hook for a towel or bathrobe. You were forced to strip in your room and wear a towel or bathrobe to the shower down the hall. Social anxiety and naked under robe walking don't mix.

Saturday Night Finds

Saturday nights were the nights of partying in college. It wasn't uncommon to find a drunk girl throwing up in the toilet on Saturday nights. On a few occasions I went to open a toilet stall and wacked drunk girls sitting on the floor with the door because they didn't lock it. Saturday nights the bathroom was busy during late hours and it was a good idea to sanitize yourself after using the bathroom.

Don't Talk To Me Naked

The strangest part of showing in a communal bathroom was the chatty people. I remember going in there to shower alone and after a bit having someone come in and take a shower near me. I specifically remember one girl trying to strike up a long conversation with me while we were showering. I'd never had a conversation with another person while showering...or naked at that point in my life and was really weirded out by it. I chatted with her to be nice but I was incredibly uncomfortable.

WORD OF ADVICE WHEN YOU SHARE A COMMUNAL SHOWER AREA: Don't talk to strangers while you're naked. It's a very bad place to try to make new friends.

The Mystery Pooper

We had monthly dorm meetings where our resident advisor talked to us about the goings on of the dorm and tried to create community spirit. In the middle of the school year several meetings were used to deal with a big problem with the community showers. Someone was pooping in them. Every once in a while someone (probably the same person) would poop in the shower and leave it.

We didn't have janitorial staff that came everyday to clean. The janitors came in three times a week. Because of this, it was up to the resident advisors to deal with the problem. At the monthly dorm meetings the RA's would tell us all that this behavior needed to stop and to tell them if we knew who was doing it. The pooping happened only on my floor which really sucked. No one ever admitted to the crime and every so often it would happen again.

No one knew who was doing the pooping but everyone was angry about it. The college charged people for excess garbage cleanup if residents made a mess in the halls. If a student left a bag of garbage in the hallway it was a $25 charge. For the poop in the showers we all got charged $1 for every offense. Every single person in my building got charged $7 at the end of the year because the person was never found.

I'd say there there were over 100 residents in the building. Seven dollars from each of those people meant the college actually made a good profit over they mystery pooper. Maybe someone who worked for the school was sneaking in to take a poop to earn the college some extra easy cash....

Goodbye Dump

Because they torn the building down, the college let each of us pick the specific dorm we wanted to live in the next year. I picked one with private bathrooms, air conditioning, nice carpet, and was far away from the trains. Best years ever in that dorm.

Do you have any dorm stories about shared spaces like bathrooms?

---