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MIT students return, destroy car

By adamg on Sun, 09/04/2016 - 12:50pm
Destroyed car near MIT

Elmer shows us the remains of ΖΨ fraternity's year-starting carbash, in which people take turns, well, bashing a car.

Neighborhoods: 
Cambridge
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MIT
students


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Comments

By Elmer on Sun, 09/04/2016 - 3:01pm.

... but forty-some years ago when I attended a rival technical institute on the opposite end of Route-2, carbashing was an annual event.

Last night, the parking lot at the corner of Mass Ave and Albany Street had a sign saying it would be closed all day Saturday, but since I arrived just after midnight, I went ahead and parked as usual — then I saw the burned out car!

There were three students sitting by the wayside and, as I got out of my car, one of them walked up and asked if I'd be parking there all night. I told him it would be just for a couple of hours while dancing across the street at Paradise. He said there was a tow truck on the way to pick up their car, and asked if I'd park off to the side to be out of the way.

IMAGE(https://elmercatdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/car-bash2.jpg)

Of course, after moving my car, I had to ask the students what the story was. Once they explained about it being a carbash, I knew exactly what it was all about. Even before the tow truck arrived, the students began to clean up the mess. When I left Paradise at 2:30, there was no trace of the bashed car in the parking lot..

These students worked very hard just to get to MIT — it's even harder to make it through to graduation. The carbash is a celebration where students can physically rid themselves of frustration before starting another year of grueling work.

Good Luck to the students, and Best Wishes for the new semester!

By adamg on Sun, 09/04/2016 - 3:35pm.

Thanks for the correction and the photo to begin with.

By anon on Sun, 09/04/2016 - 8:09pm.

Did you goto RPI, too?

That car bash was still happening 20 years ago, behind the Union at the (I forget the name) big brick frat house.

DESTROY!!!!!!

By ZachAndTired on Mon, 09/05/2016 - 1:24am.

I went to your (kinda sorta) rival in Worcester and we had an annual car smash at WPI too. Nerds like to break stuff.

By SwirlyGrrl on Mon, 09/05/2016 - 11:46am.

We like to break stuff under controlled conditions.

You don't see many incidents of cars tipped over and burned around nerd schools when it comes to sportsing victories (or, in the case of Keene, pumpkins).

By ZachAndTired on Mon, 09/05/2016 - 12:48pm.

Ehh that's not necessarily true. There were cars flipped at WPI (technically just of campus at the Sole Proprietor) after the 2004 ALCS.

By Bill Tarkulich on Sun, 09/04/2016 - 11:09pm.

The year has just begun. What happens when the stress cranks up? Torch a city block?

By SwirlyGrrl on Mon, 09/05/2016 - 4:19pm.

Maybe that's because frustrated women have to be in by 12 o'clock?

By GoSoxGo on Mon, 09/05/2016 - 8:36am.

n/t

By Central Scrutinizer on Mon, 09/05/2016 - 10:37am.

a rival technical institute on the opposite end of Route-2

Williams College?

By SwirlyGrrl on Mon, 09/05/2016 - 11:44am.

It crosses the border and stays Route 2.

But it doesn't end in Troy, but at I-87 to the west.

By anon on Tue, 09/06/2016 - 6:04pm.

The car in the photo is in a lot that's always gated. How do you park there?

By Ron Newman on Mon, 09/05/2016 - 6:23am.

MIT's Baker House dorm used to drop a derelict piano from the roof every year. I don't know if they still do this.

By anon on Tue, 09/06/2016 - 6:03pm.

They do, on Drop Date, the last day you can drop a class.