The thing that stands out in my mind were Friday nights with our guitars. Richie Schecter would lead and Roy Warner and I would follow along on songs like Teenager in Love, the House of the Rising Sun, If I were a Carpenter (substituted Joel Miller for a Miller), Bamboo and a whole lot of other songs of the day.
by Lenny Berkowitz

I remember going to see The Drunkard in my freshman year, an off-Broadway play, in which the theater troupe encouraged the audience to engage with the actors on stage. We loved it so much, and couldn't wait for the next year where we, as sophomores, could "speak up" more and enjoy the frivolity better than we did as pledges to the house plan.

However, the following year (I believe it happened then), they changed the format and frowned on audience participation. They just wanted to do their play! In fact, security at the theater almost threw out several of us who were rowdy and who were heckling from the audience. We felt "cheated"!!! Remember this guys? I distinctly remember a guy coming up to Elliot Kornreich and threatening him with removal, unless he quieted down!
by Howie Spinner

I remember one night in the House in Flushing. It's very, very late, 2 or 3 AM. A bunch of us are in the living room. We've been smoking joints and maybe, "Ike's" hash. Some alcohol might also have been involved, maybe not. The fire in the fireplace is the only source of light. Allison Steele, "the Nightbird" is playing records on WNEW-FM.

Howie Haskowitz is in the rocking chair. Hurdy Gurdy Man by Donovan comes on the stereo. If you remember, this song starts slowly and increasingly builds to a crescendo as the rhythm of the song increases in speed and tempo. As the song starts, Howie begins to rock slowly in the rocking chair. As the tempo of the song increases so does the tempo of the rocker in the rocker.

Each of us is mesmerized by Howie who says nothing. He just keeps increasing the speed of his rocking. As the song goes faster and faster, Howie is going faster and faster and faster and faster and then...just as the song hits its final note, the rocking chair goes crashing backwards onto the floor leaving the room in a sudden silence with Howie, flat on his back, his legs up in the air still straddling the rocking chair.

Then everyone breaks into spontaneous applause for Howie's performance. Howie however, is out cold. I don't remember who else was in the room.

If you were there, please let me know. And Howie, don't be embarrassed over this memory. In those days we were so much more in touch with our true spirits, less encumbered by others expectations of us and far less worried about what others might think. We experienced an inner joy and spontaneity that is so hard to experience as grown up adults. Be proud of your central part in this story. I remember it and you with fondness and warm feelings.
by Al Crane

I remember playing in a very wild Bamboo football game. The referee (Charlie Ross) had been making some very poor calls against our team all day long and it appeared that it was quite deliberate. Play after play, he made penalty calls against us, when obviously there were none. Coach Ronnie Levine told us to keep our cool and just play the game. Despite the referee, we hung in the game until the end. Our opponent (I can't remember which houseplan it was) was driving downfield in an attempt to pull out a victory. On 4th down, the quarterback threw a pass into the endzone. I cut in front of the receiver and interceptied the ball running it back the entire length of the field for what appeared to be the winning touchdown. But unbeknownst to us, the referee was again calling back the play. His explanation was that he had mistakingly blown the whistle during the runback, and the play was dead! I flipped out and attacked the referee. Obviously, I was tossed out of the game and our team refused to go back on the field. We protested the game and the protest was upheld. I believe the entire game was to be re-played at a later date. But I can't remember if we ever played the game.
by Richie Schecter

I remember Ike going down on the stripper in the living room and someone getting a **censored** upstairs with her friend.
by Howie Baker
AND IN A RELATED COMMENT

I remember at the house at 149th street Artie Rosenheck brought in a hooker who did a strip tease? She sat on Rosenheck's face and had her way with about 20 members of HOB. What a night.

by Marty Mitchell

I remember when I got my first car, a 1957 Plymouth with a stick on the column and Rambler seats. Warren Greher, Dave Portnoy and some other geniuses got the car opened and pushed it from its parking spot in the street to behind the house on Northern Blvd. into the back yard. The first car I ever had, having it only 2 days. I was really pissed.
'57 Plymouth

by Howie Baker

I remember at a get together at Howie Baker's house, we looked out his front window and in amazement watched as Warren Greher's car caught on fire from dried leaves. His car was completely destroyed. Howie's car burned too, but his Warren's was new.
by Richie Schecter and Howie Baker

I also remember Ronnie Levine breaking down a bedroom door because I was in there with a girl. He said that we were doing something illegal which would or could put the entire house in jeopardy. I think that he was just jealous that I was in a bedroom with a girl, but I was really scared. He was no pacifist.
by Howie Baker

I remember when Ronnie Levine gave all of us a horseracing tip. He said the tip came right from the horse's mouth. There was no way this horse could lose, especially in the mud. The horse was Sir Charles Pick. We bet lots of money on the race and must have had a hundred tickets. Well needless to say Sir Charles pick died at the gate. When R.L. got back to the houseplan we had placed all of the losing tickets over the fireplace mantle with a sign, Thanks, Sir Charles Pick - can't lose!

by Barry Tiras & Richie Schecter

I remember when Richie Green and I (I'm not sure if anyone else went) signed up for an "Outdoor Education" class that was essentially a 7-8 day trip to St Johns (the American Virgin Islands). We camped out in tents on the beach in the Nat'l Park and hiked and explored the island. I think we got 1 credit towards our degree. I remember about 20-25 people in the class, lots of heat (it was in June), lots of sand flies, no sex, and very very cheap booze. They sold beer in vending machines for 25 cents or so, and we drank heineken's by the case. I think we either took a red eye home or a very late at night flight. Richie Schecter picked us up at the airport and brought us back to Bamboo. All I remember after that was Richie Schecter lying on the floor moaning and groaning and repeating "I ate the rug, I ate the rug" after consuming most of a bottle of top notch Puerto Rican Rum (151 proof) that we had brought back that cost us about $3.00.
by Ely Licht

UPDATE: Ely just visited me (Richie Schecter) in Las Vegas and guess what he brought for me?

WARNING: The label reads, "Do not use this product for flaming dishes or drinks. All 151 proof rum may flare up and continue to burn when ignited, possibly with an invisible flame or intense heat. Do not remove or puncture the flame arrester in top of bottle. Removing the flame arrester may cause the content of the bottle to become ignited and intense flaming will occur.

I remember the same night. I was talking to the inside of my shoe and I had a conversation with Buster Brown. I also spent the night on a bathroom floor for very good reason. Plus for the next 2-3 days we played poker in the kitchen and every so often I got up to throw up and came right back to the table. To this day, I have never had rum and coke. One night was enough for a lifetime

by Nolan Skolnick

I remember a place in Brooklyn called "The Country Club", but on the awning it said, "Warm Beer and Lousy Food." Everyone referred to it by that name. When someone got up to go to the bathroom a spotlight would follow them and the comedian would pause while everyone watched? And I think there was a microphone in the bathroom and the audience could listen to someone pee and flush. There was also a blower in a vent on the floor and when a woman who was wearing a loose dress would walk by it would blow up her skirt and a sound would go off. When a woman would order meatballs, the waiter would make a big deal about it in a very loud voice, "You're ordering balls!"
by Al Crane and Richie Schecter (combined recall)

CLICK HERE for a great article on the Country Club

I remember the pay phone in the kitchen that acted like a gambling machine. At a time when the dial tone was $.10, you could get a dialtone by dropping a nickel and hitting the coin return at the right time during the descent of the nickel. Sometimes we used it as a crude game machine
by Steve Rosen

The phone number was "FLY-YOGI"
by Len Sklerov and Steve Laskowitz

I remember my dad saw a coke machine at either an auction or a distress sale. I believe Doug Luba, who had a truck before they were popular, went down and completed the transaction. Bamboo became the proud owner of the coke machine. Some of us were entrusted with the keys to the old classic bottles of Coke for the machine, while others found it more convenient to break into the storage area in the basement to bypass the coin slot.
by Jeff Brook, Chris Channon and others

I remember how closely we kept track of the supply of Coca Cola in the basement, and how cokes were a dime! Monthly dues were $ 3.00, and then were raised to a mighty $ 5.00 -- still the world's biggest bargain at the time!

by Richie Zalman

A Sad Note from Glenn Seidman - The coke machine was destroyed in the fire!

I remember the Buckboard Inn. It was a dark, romantic, quiet place for drinking out on Long Island. I (Chris) went there several times, with good results. It seemed to get a little busier later on in the evening. Luckily, never got a DUI. They used to play only Johnny Mathis songs and of course, it was all s-l-o-w dancing.
by Chris Channon and Richie Schecter

Nolan Skolnick, true to his Miami roots, had an old small Chevy convertible. Much like other Chevy’s of that era, it spent most of its time out of commission, taking up a very valuable parking place in the back yard of the HOB mansion. I guess Nolan liked to be able to see his car, since he lived in the HOB mansion for some time. True to our preoccupation with events of no great consequence, it was quite cause of consternation among some of the HOB members.
by Chris Channon

I remember playing rough touch football, on the offensive line, no less, and getting the shit kicked out of me, breaking my glasses, and generally having the best of times. We even won a few games. Steve Wolff, Ziperstein, I remember were QB's. We played right on the grounds at QC
by Richie Zalman

I remember so many of the members had absolutely drop-dead gorgeous girlfriends! It was worth being present at the house just to say hello to everyone.
by Richie Zalman

I remember one evening a group of us (7 or 8 as I recall) went to, if believe, a Wetsons, over near Utopia Parkway on Northern Boulevard, to get some food. A couple of lovely gals passed by, and a couple of our guys went out to talk to them. Across Northern Boulevard there was a pizzeria with a bunch of locals in there. About 5 or 6 of the locals saw our two guys trying to pick up the two gals and they came across Northern Boulevard to try to intimidate our guys. The rest of us went out of the Wetsons to support our guys. Next thing we knew another dozen or so of the locals came running out of the pizzeria to support their guys. We were outnumbered 2 to 1 and those other guys were itching for a fight. Just then the pizzeria operator came running over from his store and started yelling at everyone. He was a tiny guy, no more than 5'3" or so, but very aggressive verbally himself. I remember him putting one of our guys down verbally (I think it was Harvey Harnick but I'm not sure) and then one of the locals started to argue with the pizzeria guy. Next thing I remember was the pizzeria guy smacking the local hard across the face and single handedly breaking up the entire throng (close to thirty guys all told). I remember feeling really glad to get out of there in one piece.
by Len Sklerov

.....I remember when ... our house on Northern Blvd. was attacked by hoodlums coming from the bar across the street. Warren Greher, our President at the time, confronted the intruders. He incurred a broken collarbone, as he was thrown against the wall. A few of our brave members (not mentioning any names) hightailed upstairs.

.....At the time, I was the bouncer (tough guy) and ran to Warren's rescue. I was then attacked from behind, punched in the mouth and thrown to the floor. A short period of time later, we moved out of the Northern Blvd. house.
by Richie Schecter

The Great Bar Raid

I was in the kitchen when they came in (I think there were only three or four guys but it seemed like more). Richie Schecter and Warren Greher, engaged them quickly - I was always impressed by Richie's bravery- then they came in the kitchen where I was with somebody (don't remember who). One of them hit me on the head with a coke bottle and punched me in the chest (I went for a stitch or two at the emergency room along with a tetanus shot - the next day I had a huge black and blue mark on my chest). The next thing I remember is talking to a couple of plain clothes cops who didn't seem all that upset except they told us to remove all the highway signs in the building. Remember, a couple of our guys had a thing about taking signs off freeways,etc. and hanging them in the hallways and stairwells. The signs came down the next day.
by Andy Gottesman

I remember being at the Northern Boulevard house helping to write the Frolics skit that we did with Ivy House in the spring of 1967. It was the first time we actually did original music (thanks to Steve Rosen); prior to that time we had written parodies for existing music.

I clearly remember Steve Rosen, Andy Gottesman and Dave Vogel participating in the writing, and I'm pretty sure there were others too (perhaps Richie Zalman and Artie Rosenheck, maybe even others).. The key character was named "Fein Ben Lo" (Ben Fein was then the president of the student body) and I also remember helping write some lines about a "Lotus Ravine" (Ben's girlfriend at that time was named Lois Levine).

We started the skit with a take off on Fiddler on the Roof, having Ken Geller spotlighted sitting on top of a building and playing an instrument (I think a violin). It amazes me that I still remember some of the song lines. Does anyone else remember: "We give you praise Fein Ben Lo. You are the king of us all. To you our lives are devoted. You mended and paved the great wall" (a reference to some project Ben Fein had accomplished getting something at school repaired)? Does anyone else remember: "Just don't cross him. There is no one can boss him. Just like Samson--but he has no hair" (Ben was losing it early)?

by Len Sklerov

I remember another skit; the "Me Kong Delta" fraternity skit. It closed with a line I'm still proud of participating in writing, because it was, for Queens College at that time, an early expression of discontent with the Vietnam War. If my memory serves me, the line was performed by Richie Schecter and it was -- "Me Kong Delta, let there be peace".
by Len Sklerov

I remember when the House of Bamboo was torn down to make way for a crappy apartment building that still stands on the site in Flushing. I am happy to report however that the Knighthouse next door went first!
by Bob Schwager

Who could forget a good old HOB Bash. I remember we filled at least three garbage pails to the top with the absolute cheapest liquor and fruit juice. We got so drunk that when someone staggered into me, I fell through a glass window in the kitchen and somehow the drapes kept me from getting killed. Steve Pasternack passed out and the police were called and he was so blitzed he couldn’t talk to them. It took all of us to convince the police not to take him to the hospital. I vaguely remember being driven home in a semi stuporous condition and literally getting pushed out of the car onto my front lawn. My parents dragged me into the house and I spent the rest of the weekend sitting with a bucket and an upright mattress puking my guts out. Ah, the good old days.

by Bernie Nash

Does anyone else remember Richie Schecter's white Mercury Comet or Doug Luba's green Chevy station wagon (manual transmission with the shift on the column)? Does anyone remember driving with the Duke back then and feeling completely safe?

by Len Sklerov

Does anyone else remember that we had standard seating areas in the cafeteria and CMC and that at any given time of day you could go to either place and always find some group of the guys to spend time with?
by Len Sklerov

I remember that great day of triumph for House of Bamboo on April 18, 1964 at the Party Out of Power Republican Mock Convention at Queens College. House of Bamboo constituted the Oregon delegation and its candidate was the then Great Governor of Oregon, Mark O. Hatfield. Starting with only nine delegate votes, the HOB delegation managed to secure the Republican nomination for Governor Hatfield. I was Chairman of the Oregon delegation and the other delegates were David Vogel, Jerry Schulman, Mike Schwartz, Andrew Gottesman, Robert Shulman, John Jokl, Harris Schectman and Howard Stone. Our alternate delegate was Richard Golden. The other candidates at the Queens College convention for the Republican presidential nomination were Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona (who became the real 1964 Republican presidential nominee), Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge from Massachusetts, Governor John Love of Colorado, former Vice President Richard Nixon, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, Governor George Romney of MIchigan, Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, and Chief Justice Earl Warren of California. This must have been Governor Hatfield's finest hour and he later acknowledged in a letter dated April 28, 1964, with great gratitude the support and organizational triumph of HOB. Barry Goldwater ultimately lost in a landslide to Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 election. If Governor Hatfield had been elected president in 1964, history may have turned out very differently over the last 40 years.

Gov. Hatfield
by Mike Solomon

I remember our favorite card games; namely "Anaconda" (pass 3 to the right or left), "Red Dog", "Criss-Cross" and the big money game "6 replace 2!"

by Richie Schecter

The house on Roosevelt was a gem, compared to the house on Northern Blvd. It was located on a busy but well kept street. There was a garage in the back of the property, a concrete wall behind that, and the LIRR trains ran 20 or 30 feet below. There was a chain link fence marking one of the property lines, and every fall, vines of grapes covered it.

We parked in the back of the house, when there was room. R.L. had a black Dodge? with PUSH BUTTON TRANSMISSION. Al Crane's Batmobile had a hole in the floor in the back passenger foot well. Pick up the floor mat and watch the highway go by.

The living room had a front and back section. On the weekends several of us played Hearts in the front room. We'd also play a variation called "Pass the Trash", sometimes called something else. Howie Haskowitz, Ronnie Levine, Zippy, Richie Schecter, Nolan Skolnick, Al Crane, myself, and others, wasted countless hours. It was great fun. Later, we would go out to Wetson's, for burgers, and malts so thick you could get a hernia. We went out together, in groups, to shows and concerts. At the "Drunkard", we booed the villain, and cheered the hero. A long-legged, red and black bustiered, actress came down from the stage and sat on my lap during the show. I remember a group of us had great seats for the Lovin' Spoonful, at Colden Auditorium, and I remember seeing a Joan Baez concert at the old Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, during which she brought out Bob Dylan. I know there were other concerts; maybe someone else can recall some..

Friday's were always interesting, generated by the suspense of who might show for our party, but there was also something else that offered up exciting entertainment ... the card game. It was a nickel/dime game of seven high-low, Chicago, red dog, 5 and 7 card stud, and invented games I can no longer remember. People smoked cigars, wore eye shades, borrowed money, and even ran home to get more, after tapping out. The characters always changed; the commentary was always hilarious.

Afterwards, some of us would go to the Blue Bay Diner, eat a meal, and say those three famous words to the waitress..."do it again."

One semester, I was social director. A thankless job if there ever was one. We had some good parties. We had some no-shows. We met future Foll-icks partners. Some met future marriage partners.

Late, after Friday parties, we'd turn off the phonograph and living room lights, and put on WNEW to hear Allison Steele's show.

I'll always remember the hypnotic effect of Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man, as we sat in the darkness of the house, seeds flashing and exploding. Oh. wow!
by Richie "Tex" Pront

On October 6, 1961 our then current College President, Dr. Harold Stoke, banned a talk by Ben Davis (Secretary of the Communist Party of America). After a rally held on October 25, and after failing to lift the ban, the Queens College student body struck on November 16. Over 70% of the student body boycotted classes and marched on the campus. These marches were held in conjunction with other City colleges. As a result the ban was lifted in December 1961. While this seems tame today, this was one of the first campus demonstrations held for free speech.

by Barry Lubart