The Phantom Sponge
When I talk to prospective students it’s kind of fun to hear what sort of rumors they might have head about Evergreen. I know our school has some odd rumors, some amusing and some just horrifying. But about 99% of the rumors I hear from prospies (prospective students) are just that; only rumors. A few years ago I took a program called “Looking Backward” and my seminar teacher decided it was about time he laid some of these rumors to sleep. My faculty teacher had been at Evergreen since the very first year of the college. In fact, he remembers watching the library building being built on his first day of work.
This one particular day he sat my class of 20 students down and we had the opportunity to ask him about rumors we heard and he told us whether they were true or not. Most were not even close to the truth. He explained that a since Evergreen is such a unique college people on the outside have a hard time understanding how Evergreen works exactly. So when something happens on campus it can be blown out of proportion a great deal.
For example, I guess back in the 70s a woman had a seeing eye dog with her in the library building and the dog ended up pooping somewhere in there. No big deal, dogs sometimes can’t hold it. But I guess 5 years after this incident Evergreen faculty and students were being asked from friends and family if it was true that the library was actually a zoo and pets could roam free and they could pee and poop on the carpets.
One true rumor that my teacher told us about is one of my favorite stories I have ever heard about Evergreen, and so I want to share it with you. Apparently back in the 80s there was someone known as the Phantom Sponge. He had a phone number, and if you were throwing a party on campus and there was a still of some sort, a man dressed in all black with a giant sponge attached to his front would come in and clean up the party foul. It happened for four years, until this mystery cleaner graduated.
I would love to see someone start that back up, and come dressed as a giant sponge to help clean up parties. What a clever idea!
So there you have it, folks. Not very many Evergreen rumors you hear are not true, but that one most definitely happened.