Gordy and the hard-boiled eggs.
Back in the late sixties there were several movies that we had just had to attend. One of
these was "Cool Hand Luke." It was a movie starring Paul Newman as a down and out drifter.
He got drunk one night and cut the tops off a large number of parking meters. He was caught
and sentenced to spend time in a typical southern prison camp. You know the kind where all the
guards wore mirrored sun glasses and carried shot guns.
To get to the important part of the movie there was a scene where Luke bets the other
inmates that he can eat 50 hard-boiled eggs in one hour. In the movie he was able to eat all fifty.
Gordy was a wealthy kid attending college just to have a good time. He had then a new
1967 Camaro. One day he decided to take the expensive headers off the car and put on duel
exhausts because he was "tired of the sound of the headers."
One day not long after a bunch of us had seen the movie "Cool Hand Luke" Gordy was in
the kitchen boiling a bunch of eggs. He probably had about a dozen eggs in the pan. Just before
he was about ready to sit down to eat them, Nalder came in and said "You can't eat all those
eggs!"
Gordy replied "Not only can I eat these eggs but I can eat two dozen more."
Nalder said "I'll bet you $20 that you can't."
Well that was all that needed to be said. A bet was on throughout the fraternity house.
Most of the brothers believed Gordy could not eat that many eggs. It was agreed that Friday
Gordy would eat three dozen eggs in one hour.
When Friday afternoon was finally here about twenty of the brothers gathered in the
living room in anticipation of this great event. The eggs were boiled and the stage was set.
Gordy came down the stairs dressed in a powder blue bath robe dancing around like a prize
fighter before a boxing match. He had chosen Mac to be his second, the plan was that Mac would
peel the eggs and encourage Gordy on to victory.
When the contest began Gordy was sitting on the floor eating eggs as fast as he could. I
thought that maybe I had been wrong and perhaps he could really win the bet. The first dozen or
so eggs when down real fast, then things really slowed down. After about two dozen eggs Gordy
started to look a little strange. He was really laboring to get each egg down. His eyes started to
glaze over and perspiration appeared on his face. Mac kept saying "You can do it Gordy, keep
chewing."
Everyone was cheering, laughing and yelling encouragement simultaneously. But the
eating was going slower and slower. Gordy had consumed 32 eggs with just four more to go.
Then the show really started. Gordy's eyes rolled back into his head and he started regurgitating
the eggs back up. Luckily there was a big old wash pan that had been used to hold eggs and their
shells right in front of Gordy.
Now the pukey eggs did not come up in spirts but in one steady stream of yellow, runny,
and disgusting slurry. The pan was beginning to fill but it fortunately was big enough to hold it
all.
Of course that didn't matter because about 80% of the brothers had run to a window so
that they would not up chuck on the living room carpet. Once Gordy had finished his
performance he just laid there on the floor moaning. Between moans he swore that he would
never eat another hard-boiled egg in his life. I have not seen Gordy for over thirty years but I'll
bet he has kept his oath.
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