Remembering Skulktoberfest 1988

When my spouse hosted an Octoberfest celebration at the retirement residence she works at, the giant inflated mug of beer, German flags, and costume she was wearing, reminded me of another Octoberfest I attended, back in 1988.

This was at a residence of another type, a university student residence, and this Octoberfest was a new twist on an old and storied festival.

What is a hall event?
Lister Hall at the University of Alberta in Edmonton was a massive residence complex made up of three towers – Kelsey, Henday, and Mackenzie Halls. Each tower had a hall council, made up of a hall vice-president and the coordinators from each floor in the tower. Kelsey and Henday Halls had 10 floors, Mac had 11.

One of the rolls of the hall council was to plan and put on a hall event.

These hall events were steeped in tradition, each one held at about the same time each year.

Mac County Fair was right near the beginning of school in September, put on, you guessed it, by Mackenzie Hall. King Louis, put on by Kelsey Hall, was held near the end of January.

Henday Hall hosted Skulk, which was usually at the end of September.

In 1988, I was a floor coordinator on Fifth Kelsey when Bryan Common, the Henday Hall vice-presidenr, announced at a joint council meeting, that Skulk would be different that year. Joint council was made up of all 31 floor coordinators, three hall vice-presidents, a president and some managers.

“Get ready,” he said. “For Skultoberfest.”

The big unit
Hall events were not merely a festival of events, they were an actual competition. Each activity had points attached to it.

The 31 floors were divided into 10 units, with each unit made up of one floor each from Kelsey, Henday and Mackenzie Hall. Looking back, whoever designed that was brilliant, because it was a fantastic way to meet people from across the Lister complex.

The units were named and led by the host floor.

So, for Fifth Kelsey, we were in the Third Henday Unit, along with Tenth Mac.

Once the unit packages were handed out, which outlined the whole week, we walked over to Third Henday for our unit meeting.

The games were pretty much centred around drinking, including a beer chugging contest that used a plastic gravy boat. Much of it was already divided up when we got there too, so I am having a hard time remembering some of the events. Still, there is one that will live on in my memory forever.

Skit night
By far, the event I remember most is the skit night. The theme was “The Sound of Music”.

Everything had been settled at the unit meeting, except the skit. I met with the other coordinators, Peter Thomas of Third Henday, and Scott Empson, of 10th Mac. I am not sure how we came up with the idea we did.

Scott would dress up as essentially the Julie Andrews character, and start singing “A Few of My Favourite Things”. Then he would start flashing joints. Then Peter, me and two guys from his floor named John and Rob, dressed in suits and sun glasses would come in to the theme from “Peter Gunn”. We would dance some sort of weird polka, that involved chest bumping, then chase after Scott, arrest him and take him away.

We didn’t win, although we had by far the most unique, or at least most unorthodox, take on the “Sound of Music” theme. It turns out we were disqualified because we were only supposed to use the music from “The Sound of Music”.

Scott and I were not impressed.

Parting thoughts
Octoberfest reminded me of Skulktoberfest which reminded me of all those hall events. Those were some of the most memorable times I had back in my second and third years of university in particular.

It was a great chance to meet new people and have some fun.

The fact it was on a German theme makes it even better.