Halloween rituals: For most who enjoy the mid- to late-October Halloween season, its thrill is accompanied by horror flicks and an abundance of sugary, high-calorie goodies. However, in our October 30, 2000 issue, we covered in our Speak Up column a diverse range of activities that those at Camosun prefer. Indeed, for those like Karen Shirwood, tricks and treats are the last of things that get them into the spirit: “I like to put on a trench coat and flash people,” she said. “It’s not something people expect from a woman.” For others, like Michel Turcotte—who is now the Camosun College Student Society executive director—breaking the law was a favourite, setting off firecrackers for the ultimate shudder: a $200 fine.
Bad poets society: Barring hacky sack and puka shell necklaces, there is little as apt of college-aged students in the early 2000s as angsty poetry. I suppose this is why in this issue, and perhaps only this issue, we featured “Camosun’s Poetry Page,” where six poems were published over the profile of a melancholic-looking young woman. In the prose work of the poem titled “Comfortably Numb,” hefty boots are to fill with expectations of abstract and profound lines. The poet delivers, writing “Life is like a prison… Life is like a rainbow.” I wince, but I’ve surely written those exact words in a sticker-covered notebook.
B.Y.O.B to class: “Pour yourself a drink,” a Camosun faculty member said once a year to students. In this issue, we covered the boozy class that inspired high attendance rates. While not encouraged in any class at Camoun today, the Bar Management, Oenology, and Mixology course was required for students of the Professional Golf Management program of 2000. After a period of 13 weeks, during which students would study wines, liquors, spirits, beers, and mineral waters, they finally had a chance to mix up their own inspired beverage. Henceforth, my signature cocktail, the Cranbertini, lives on as a testament to Camosun students’ education.