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Love Shack, Baby
Historical Brazos House is a little old place where UT Arlington students get together to study, relax, debate, hang out鈥攁nd often begin courtships that lead to marriage.
· Spring 2012 · Comment ·
Like all old buildings, Brazos House has tales. There鈥檚 the one about ROTC cadets in the 1930s or 鈥�40s smuggling a cow on laxatives to the top floor when the place was a barracks called Davis Hall. Another, about 50 years later, purports that someone sneaked in a keg. No doubt UT Arlington鈥檚 oldest residence hall has witnessed untold pranks.
But it鈥檚 a rare building that works such a spell on its inhabitants that they want to come back year after year, stay in touch decades after graduation, and鈥攔emarkably often鈥攎arry someone they met there. It鈥檚 also a safe bet that few structures built in 1936 are nicknamed the 鈥淟ove听Shack.鈥�
The reasons for the fanatical affection former residents still shower on Brazos House are not glaringly obvious to an outsider, although the building does have character. Through the years students have carved their names and dates into the stone entrances, a kind of graffiti history that dates to the听鈥�30s.
The four-story building is laid out in ramps rather than floors, so you climb stairs to reach groups of rooms. In the downstairs common area/lobby, six students gather around a table with their laptops. Laura De La Paz of Dallas says she chose Brazos for its low cost and location in the center of campus, then she acknowledges the Love Shack nickname, giggling. Glances go around the table, and she finally admits she might be interested in someone there.
COUPLE CONNECTIONS
Crystal and Sam Okasha, above, met at Brazos House in 1997 and got engaged there in 2005. Corrie and Jake Wells, right, say their Brazos friends are still their closest friends today.
But today鈥檚 students and those who came before them talk about another feeling that holds them close. Over and over, they mention the family atmosphere, the camaraderie.
BRAZOS BONDS
Sometimes a shy student finds a social life here without intending to. Freshman Emily Fitzgerald says fellow Brazonians pressured her to get out of her room and socialize. Now she is and she鈥檚 enjoying it. She might have stayed anonymous in a larger hall. With 96 students, Brazos is the smallest residence hall on campus, and it became the second coed hall in 糖心Vlog视频 in听1975.
The bonds beginning around this table might be the start of lifelong friendships grown the old-fashioned way鈥攊n an old-school building on a modern campus. The proof it鈥檚 possible: Numerous couples who met at Brazos have married and still stay in touch with fellow Brazonians (they tell you the correct spelling is Brazooonians, dragging out the o鈥檚 to mimic their cheer during intramural competitions).
Even back in the military barracks days when UT Arlington was North 糖心Vlog视频 Agricultural College, romance swirled about the building.
鈥淚t just has a special something, a kind of spell about听it.鈥�
One former cadet, Amp Miller, would lean out his window to see 鈥渢he prettiest girl on campus,鈥� Ruth Boutwell, walk by. He declared he would marry her, and he did, in 1946. Last August the couple celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary.
Decades later, in 1997, Crystal Okasha 鈥�01, 鈥�05 moved to Brazos and became a resident assistant at the same time as her husband-to-be, Sam (they had to hide the fact that they were dating). Later she was hall director. So strong was Sam鈥檚 connection to Brazos that he traveled from Canada in 2005 and proposed to Crystal in her听room.
鈥�There鈥檚 no other place like it,鈥� says Crystal, now the immigrant services manager for YMCA Calgary in Alberta. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like a big family. Everybody gets to know everybody. Sometimes that鈥檚 good, sometimes it鈥檚 bad. But we were really close-knit.鈥�
Sam 鈥�01, 鈥�03, now corporate manager of information services for Sanjel Corp., agrees. 鈥淵our business was everybody鈥檚 business. One year we had a T-shirt, and on the back it said, 鈥榃hat did you do last night? I slept with 95 people.鈥� 鈥�
The family atmosphere was so prevalent that residents left their doors unlocked and didn鈥檛 want to go home for the holidays, preferring 24-hour movie marathons instead.
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鈥�We鈥檇 go to Boston Market, get a couple of turkeys, move all the furniture, bring blankets and pillows and throw them on the floor, and watch movie after movie after movie,鈥� Sam recalls. 鈥淚t was a lot of听fun.鈥�
Bryan Sullins 鈥�03, 鈥�05 and his wife, Kerri Montagnino 鈥�03, worked under the Okashas as office assistants and also were resident assistants. Bryan and Kerri live in Sherwood, Ark., where she is a representative for a doctor鈥檚 office specializing in gastroenterology and he is a technician for LM Wind听Power.
Kerri remembers the teams that Brazos fielded in the annual Oozeball mud volleyball tournament. If you didn鈥檛 show up for an event, fellow Brazonians worried.
鈥�People actually cared about you,鈥� husband Bryan says. 鈥淚f you weren鈥檛 there, they wondered where you were, just like a family would.鈥�
LOVE IS IN THE听AIR
Corrie and Jake Wells met at Brazos in 1999. One afternoon, while she was doing laundry in the lobby, he asked her out to dinner and a movie. Only one problem: Jake wanted to leave in an hour. Panicked, Corrie grabbed her clothes and ran to her room to get ready without realizing she鈥檇 left a pair of underwear in the dryer. When they returned from their date, the underwear was hanging from the ceiling.
鈥�That was probably my most embarrassing moment,鈥� Corrie says. 鈥淏ut it also got the most laughs a year later when the truth was revealed during a game of Truth or听Dare.鈥�
The couple now live in McKinney with their three children and a fourth on the way. Corrie 鈥�04 is an oncology nurse; Jake 鈥�01 is a systems administrator.
鈥�Our Brazos friends are our closest friends to this day,鈥� Corrie says. 鈥淛ake鈥檚 old roommate lives in McKinney, too, and works one cubicle over from him.鈥� Another couple who met at Brazos and married, Emily and Dean Peterson of Grand Prairie, are the godparents of the Wellses鈥� oldest daughter.
Corrie says the Brazos experience immersed her in campus life, which had lasting benefits. 鈥淓verybody helps everybody else out. My nursing school friends, the ones who stayed on campus, all studied together. Even now, we compare notes of how our hospitals do things differently and come up with new听ideas.鈥�
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The Wellses remember an elaborate funeral for a resident鈥檚 pet frog and a crazy game of football in the snow. Later, Jake was best man at the Petersons鈥� wedding.
No one is quite sure when Brazos got its Love Shack moniker. Wendy Holdsworth 鈥�92, 鈥�95, a former hall director, believes the name originated in the late 1980s when she lived there. Dean Peterson 鈥�03, a patrol sergeant with the UT Arlington Police Department, says the residents of his years were the 鈥減ioneers of the Love Shack听era.鈥�
He and Emily met in the lobby where a group of residents were hanging out. Dean and a few other guys were playing guitars, which caught Emily鈥檚 attention.
鈥�Dean would say that鈥檚 when I became smitten with him, but he would have had to play a lot better for me to be smitten,鈥� Emily says with a laugh. They soon began dating, and they wed four years听later.
Dean remembers Brazonians rallying over causes, like a picnic table for smokers, and someone smuggling a full keg of beer all the way to the fourth floor.
鈥淧eople actually cared about you. If you weren鈥檛 there, they wondered where you were, just like a family would.鈥�
鈥�My experience is a little more tame than Dean鈥檚,鈥� says Emily, a corporate security investigator at an area bank. 鈥淲e would stay up late. We would have a lot of 3 a.m. walks to the 7-Eleven down the street.鈥�
Britney Johnson 鈥�06 also has fond memories of late nights.
鈥�My freshman year you could go downstairs at any time of the night and there would be people to talk to,鈥� she says. 鈥淧eople I met in Brazos are the same people I keep in contact with to this听day.鈥�
That includes her husband, Marcus 鈥�07, who had perhaps the only groom鈥檚 cake ever made in the shape of his dorm. They lived in Brazos from 2002 to 2006 and now reside in Fort Worth. Britney is a reporter for the Denton Record Chronicle, and Marcus is pursuing a career in graphic design.
He treasured the diversity among residents and the long conversations in the common area.
RESIDENT ROMANCE
Emily and Dean Peterson, above left, met in the Brazos House lobby and married four years later. The wedding of Britney and Marcus Johnson, below, likely featured the only groom鈥檚 cake ever made in the shape of Brazos.
鈥�The rooms were so small, you would be forced to go downstairs and mingle. We鈥檇 go down there and have world debates. There would be a student from another country, student entrepreneurs, another really poor student. We had these intense political debates. Or sometimes it would be something stupid like what was the best movie or who was the best musician. It would go on for听hours.鈥�
Rathi Rajasingam 鈥�05 says her mother spotted Rathi鈥檚 future husband, Sebastian, in that same common area in 2000. 鈥淢y mom actually turned around and said, 鈥楾hat looks like a nice Indian guy, why don鈥檛 you go talk to him?鈥� He said, 鈥業鈥檓 not Indian, I鈥檓 Sri Lankan.鈥� 鈥�
Sebastian 鈥�05, an engineer for United Airlines in the Houston area, says the family atmosphere prevailed 鈥減robably because it was a very small place. Everybody got really involved in the听dorm.鈥�
More UT Arlington students than ever will get to share the experience of living on campus in the coming years. Two residence halls and several apartment complexes have been built since 2000, and a new residence hall and apartment community will open in fall 2012 in the College Park District.
But the Brazonians are pretty sure their experience is unique.
鈥�It just has a special something, a kind of spell about it,鈥� Crystal Okasha says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely not the building itself; it鈥檚 not the most glamorous place. But if I had my pick and I could stay anyplace on campus, I鈥檇 stay at Brazos.鈥�
As a mom, reading about the time my son Dean & daughter-in-law Emily were in residence at the 鈥淟ove Shack鈥� made me smile. Up until they told me about this article that they had been interviewed for, I had no idea of the halls鈥� nickname. I just love real life 鈥渓ove stories鈥�. To all the 鈥淏razoonians鈥� who met, fell in love, and married, may you have many more happy years together.