Chapter 36:

 

65 EAST CLEVELAND, R.I.P.

65 (and 67) East Cleveland, in September 2006Even if you had never stepped foot in the place, you KNEW the house. 65 East Cleveland was the right side (67 was the left) of the big house that sat right across from Herman's Meat Shoppe. It sported trademark green-striped awnings up until the mid-2000's, and eventually met its fate (was demolished) in September 2013.

 

Okay, let’s go back to Fall of '92: as I was moving into Sypherd to start my sophomore year, my neighbor from freshman year Dickinson C was moving into 65 East Cleveland. At the time I really didn't know much about East Cleveland, and NONE of us knew what would be the lasting legacy of 65, as that year it became the “Lacrosse House.”

 

65 East Cleveland epitomized what a college house was, especially at UD in the early '90s. Great parties, great cast of characters. You'd walk in there, the beer-soaked carpet smell would hit you, and you'd be like, “Okay. College.”

 

I hung out at 65 East Cleveland right through graduation in '95, and lived pretty much across the street from it my senior year, when I was in "The Mill" apartments; that brown block of townhouse sort of things, perpendicular to the street, facing the Bookateria…I was in number 4, with my roommates AB and Chuck. (As of 2013, The Mill is being massively renovated.)

 

One of my clearest memories of hanging out at 65 East Cleveland is actually one of the earliest (and tamer): watching the 1992 MTV VMAs, in the living room. This was the year when Grunge took over in full-force, and the awards were their most Lollapalooza-esque. The infamous close of the show was the Chili Peppers, “Give It Away,” with all the alt-people jumping around on stage…and Ice-T looking on approvingly, from the side. When the camera cut to him, I remember the cumulative reaction of the Lacrosse House living room, “What the fuck is Ice-T doing there?!”

 

Anyway, I was (somewhat amazingly) able to get anecdotes about the house, from UD alumni who'd lived there at four different times. Including of course, some of the guys from the Lacrosse era. The commentaries in this chapter are presented in reverse chronological order.

 

A quick primer though, if you didn't know the house's interior: there was a large attic which no one was supposed to live in…um, yeah, okay, right. And when you first walked into the house, there was bedroom to your right, and then a living room. The big change here, is that it used to basically be one big living room, but then was dry-walled in half, creating the first floor bedroom that faced the street. The rest, I'll leave up to the people who lived there…

 

 

Jennifer H, UD '05 lived in the house 2003 - 2004, and both Carly, UD '06 and Lauren, UD '06 lived there 2003 - 2006…

 

Lauren: A girl on the dance team lived at 67 so she talked to the landlord so that we could have first priority the next year, but we got 65 instead. 65 had the bigger downstairs bathroom, so we were happier anyway.

 

Jennifer: Alpha Phi girls lived there the year before us. I had definitely heard of it referred to as the “Lacrosse House.”

 

Carly: I think once our landlords took over, they didn’t let guys live there anymore.

 

Lauren: Once we moved in, it quickly went from the “Lacrosse House” to the “Dance House” --  most people involved with sports and a few others of course have known it as that…dance girls lived it in as of 2007.

 

Jennifer: The awnings got torn down the year I lived there…and were supposed to be replaced, but never were!

 

Lauren: We painted every room and made it sooooo pretty! But you couldn't blow-dry your hair without blowing a fuse, unless you were in the downstairs bathroom or in one outlet in the kitchen. So we were often all in the kitchen getting ready.

 

Carly: We had a lot of parties before we were all 21, and then it was more so late nights. Yeah, it got busted our sophomore year, there was so many people there and the cops searched our house. However, we only got a noise violation.

 

Jennifer: Sometimes it was hard getting sleep. I lived on the bottom floor and constantly heard drunk girls talking on their cell phones, or meathead boys trying to fight. Even on slow nights, there would be drunk freshmen stumbling down the street. It made it fun to just sit on the porch and watch all the action.

 

Lauren: It was definitely fun living on Cleveland, there was always something to do. Although if for some strange reason we didn’t go out, the noise outside was horrible. People would just come up and sit on our porch...weird, but we dealed.

 

Jennifer: During the spring and fall we had lots of barbecues in the backyard...so fun!  I only remember the cops stopping by a couple times. We had parties there about twice a month...but always had people over to pre-game. Unfortunately, I always passed out by 10 PM and slept through most of our parties. I can think of one party in particular when a bunch of football boys stole our keg. We thought they were being nice by replacing our empty keg when we saw them running down the street. Turns out football boys are so strong, they make full kegs look empty!

 

Carly: Yeah, East Cleveland definitely was a party street, those nights that we couldn’t go out for dance team were horrible because people were walking up and down that street at all hours of the night. People were yelling and screaming and being crazy. Also there was the cop cars going down the street every five minutes. It was a sight to see! Plus there was always a party either next to us or across the street.

 

I will never forget it, after three years of living there, there are so many memories. I considered it home by the time I graduated, and was very sad to leave. I definitely experienced many, many parties there, the big backyard was definitely a plus. I just loved living with the people I was with, they became the best friends ever, and that house was always a good time.

 

Jennifer: Oh, how I miss college!

 

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