This letter to editor moved me so.
I went to USA in the early 90’s and was in a popular fraternity there. Just for the sake of things I will not post the name of the fraternity but anyone who went to school back then would pass by the fraternity house on Hillcrest Rd before turning right onto Old Shell in the mornings. I can say as a pledge I was NEVER hazed and the brothers at the time make sure it didn’t happen. Yes, we did drink underage… Who in college didn’t? Even during our ‘hell week’ we were never abused nor forced to drink. There was beer present but the brothers specifically said you don’t have to drink if you don’t want to. No one was punished if they didn’t. This is how a fraternity should be run. That was almost 20 years ago for me and I hope there are still some responsible greek societies down there at USA.
As for Chad Saucier- he was ‘my best friend’ in grade school before transferring to St Pauls. We both moved to Mobile in 5th grade and were the new guys of the class in Catholic grade school. We also lived about 6 houses apart in the same neighborhood so we quickly became good friends. Chad didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Was always wanting to make people laugh and was a great athlete. We grew apart after Chad transferred to St Pauls but still talked every so often and always saw each other all throughout high school at weekend parties. The last time I saw chad was a random encounter in Bienville Square when we were probably 17 I believe. It was Mardi Gras day. We probably had not seen each other in a year or so until then. We hung out for about 15 minutes and caught up on lots of memories. He was so happy and so was I. We then both went our separate ways to our new groups of friends we had. Not too long after that I was at a funeral home standing in line to see Chad one last time. I never made it to the casket. It was too hard and I left. To this day I have never forgotten about Chad and still remember all the good times we had… I still keep the emotions bottled up inside and not sure if they will ever come out. RIP my friend.
In closing, there are good and bad fraternities out there… I hope that the good ones outnumber the bad ones. I am proud to say that I am an alumni of one of the good ones. AEKDB
