Toga Party - 1978

Toga Party - 1978
          
         On my return from Boston I resume my so-called studies at the neighborhood Bergen Community Junior. The classes at Bergen are so easy, I never need to open a book. Tuesday afternoon, the first week of October, fate takes over.
         Ali and I are having lunch on the lawn outside the cafeteria. My Italian sub sandwich is half eaten when he says, "I'm gonna try out for Reader's Theatre after school. You're my ride home. Can you wait for me?"
         "Acting? For you?" I almost choke.
         "Come to Room 105. Tryouts won't take long." He pauses, adding, "You should try out too."
         "Acting is stupid."
         "Don't be a dick. Just be there."
         "You tryout and I'll meet you at Room 105. All right?" He's nuts.
         After my last class, I find Room 105 and hover outside the door, intending to wait in the hall. An attractive professor, barely older than me, opens the door, walks through it, and instantly pops her head back out.
         "Are you coming in or not?" she asks.
         "I'm waiting for my friend to finish his audition. This is where tryouts are, right?"
         "You're here now. You might as well wait in the classroom." She's holding the door open for me. I pick a seat in the back and watch students read lines off a page. Ali reads his piece and sits next to me. 
         "Did I miss anyone? Anyone else?" The Professor squints at me. "You're the only one who hasn't read. You're here now, so you might as well read." Didn't she use that line on me a minute ago? She drops a paper on my desk. I feel everyone staring at me.
         "All right. All right." I get up and act out, pretending I'm home goofing around with the guys. I finish and Ali and I drive home, happy to put the entire event out of our minds.
         Two days later on my way to English class I pass the drama Professor in the hall. "I'll see you at five. Same room." 
         "What did I do wrong?" I ask.
         "Check the bulletin board. You made the Reader's Theatre group. Catch you later." My start to object, but she's gone.
         I go looking for Ali. "Are you going to the Theatre Group?"
         "No. I didn't pass the audition. You did. You should join, I'll come and help."
         In Reader's Theatre, you use the script as a prop so you don't need to memorize the words. The script given me is Frank Zappa's 'I Am the Slime'. I love The Mothers of Invention and look forward to the first rehearsal.
         The whole thing would have been fun if the other actors didn't treat me like an outsider. With one exception. Two guys who do everything together intercept me in the bathroom. Rick and Ronnie ask me to join them after rehearsal at the local college bar.
         We share a pitcher of beer and peanuts. I eat the nuts nonstop, dropping shells on the floor. I'm pouring a second glass of beer when Rick asks, "Have you been to a Toga Party yet? Ever since the movie Animal House, everyone is having them."
         "A toga party like in the movie? People are doing that? That would be a blast." I haven't been to a party since school started. "I can throw one at my house. Will you both come?"
         That night, I put the Toga Party idea in front of the South Hackensack crew. Butchy is the first to commit. "Milt, that is so cool. The same as Belushi in the movie."
         "You mean you wear a sheet over your clothes?" Louie's not thrilled by the idea of wearing a dress.
         "No way, Louie." I answer. "You only wear the sheet. Or you can make a real Toga."
         "If you don't wear a Toga, you can't come." says Butchy. "Even tough guys like you, Louie."
         "If I gotta wear a toga, then everybody does." Louie is into it.
         "Let's do it this Saturday." Butchy love taps Louie on the chin. "We got nothing better to do. The whole gang can come."
         "We can jam in the basement."
         The guys pick up a quarter pound of grass, two kegs of beer, along with a couple bottles of Boone's Farm wine, and the party is on.
         Around 7:30, the first toga wearing people show up. It becomes a flood. By eight-thirty, 150 people are roaming the house and basement. Everyone is mellow, grooving to the music and hanging out.
         A little after nine, Ali pulls me from the basement. "I invited the entire wrestling team from Ridgefield Park and they want to come inside."
         "So let them. They're cool, right?"
         "They're not wearing Togas."
         "Can we give them sheets?"
         "There are no more sheets." Ali grabs my arm. "Will you come upstairs?"
         "Guys!" I'm on the front porch where six big guys are talking too loud and bumping into each other. Drunk. "Everybody has on a Toga. And I mean everybody. Run home and get a sheet or something. It's cool."
         "No way, man." He steps right up to me. "We're coming in. Chicks are in there and we want to party." I step back and hit a wall.
         "Milt. Is there a problem here?" It's Butchy and one by one Ross, David, Louie, Ali, Freddy and the rest of the guys shuffle through the door. The wrestlers recognize the South Hackensack guys.
         "No. No problem. We're just leaving." He turns around, leading the group away. "Toga parties aren't cool, anyway." Everybody goes back inside like nothing happened.
         After midnight, people begin to leave. Chris' girlfriend Carol chases me down. "Your two friends from school are having a problem upstairs." Now what?
         "What kind of problem?" I ask.
         "I think one of them drank too much and passed out."
         I trudge upstairs and catch Rick and Ronnie on the front stairs. Rick is holding Ronnie's head in his lap. "I warned him not to take all those pills. I told him something bad is gonna happen." 
         He's rocking Ronnie back and forth, tears pouring down his cheeks. The band quit playing and joined everyone now standing in the front hall, gawking.
         "Someone call an ambulance." Freddy says, looking around the room.
         "Looks like he OD'd. Get some ice cubes on him." Butchy looks to Carol for help.
         "We're too late." Rick cries out, shaking. "He's done for."
         "Stand him up and walk him." says someone.
         "Is he dead?" asks another.
         "Let me just spend a minute with him before they take him away." Rick rises to his feet. He's lifting Ronnie off the steps when both turn towards the group and take a bow.
         "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." Comes from the two stars.
         Stunned faces morph into smiles as one by one we realize what an impressive performance they gave us. We all hoot and clap for them. They bow deeply to their grateful audience.
The Toga Party is over.