Page 200 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
filler, that it consists of three words that are, at most, intended to convey interest and, perhaps, a bit of polite shared wonderment or appreciation, often intended to keep the conversation going. But I had never heard “Is that right?” in Brooklyn, or anywhere else for that matter. Neither had I ever heard the expression “as it were,” which I soon heard repeatedly. (On a somewhat less sophisticated level were boot and moon, new words that came up frequently as people relaxed.) My initial reaction to “Is that right?” was to wonder why Roger doubted what I had said. I was put off balance, and at first I did not know how to respond. I must have gath- ered myself, made some conversational noise, and left with a “See you later” or the like, but the fact remained that this trivial exchange was mildly discomfiting and had taken me out of what passed for my normal comfort zone. (Roger and I ultimately became fraternity brothers.)
Obviously, the foregoing is trivial, but it is in a way emblematic of what I was to confront before I became at ease in my decidedly new environment. As we went through orientation week and people loos- ened up a bit, whether through a shared emotion (fear) or a shared experience (a campfire, a meeting with the dorm advisors, or finding people to eat with), I came to learn more about the guys on the floor, in the dorm, and, in some cases, the other freshman dorms.
Short profiles of who some of them were and would be in my eyes might be helpful to at least show that they were not the familiar guys from Brooklyn:
• Ron Woodbury always claimed that he was an heir to the soap for- tune. Tall, blond, and handsome, he looked the part, and at first I believed him, but he was kidding. Ron, an incredibly likeable guy who also became a fraternity brother of mine, married his college sweetheart, Melissa Louisa Amanda Miranda Cynthia Jane Teal. (You’ll recall that my father did not have a middle name, because, as he said, his family could not afford to give him one.)
• Tom Teter was a high school football star who could punt a ball with a hang time comparable to that achievable by some pros. He
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