A tribute to "Ole Betsy" and "Crack Baby"

Was surfing on Lifehacker the other day when I found this Do-It-Yourself guide...which is a total copycat of our very own project 4 years ago: "Ole Betsy" and "Crack baby".



Here's how the story goes:

Around the fall of 2005, Theta Tau (by the way check it out, totally AWESOME new website redesign. great job guys!) was just getting off the ground. As with how most great ideas tend to arise, it was the brainchild of Rob, Tozzo, and me one night where we may or may not have been under the influence of alcohol (funny enough, there's a similar story behind the founding of Wokai). I should also add that serendipitously, Neha too was also coming up with this idea at the same time. So the four of us met up and set out to establish Penn's first professional engineering fraternity. By spring 2006, we had grown to 9 total members, and...to be honest, didn't really know what to do. We were all enthusiastic and excited to be a part of something new, but those first steps were the hardest to come by. In an attempt to get our name out, we threw together a Paper Airplane Contest (which in retrospect, could hardly be called a success); however, what we really needed was a legitimate project to get our hands dirty and result something we could call our own.

It was during one of our weekly board meetings when somebody (I can't for the life of me remember who...but it was probably Kuong or Jeremy) threw out the hairbrained idea of building a grill...from a keg. Looking back, I have no idea why I thought this sounded like an incredibly awesome idea (or how this would even benefit Theta Tau), but we chatted about it and all grew really excited by this. After doing some research, Kuong found out that there was no way we could cut through a keg, and so suggested that we find a 55-galloon drum instead. We sat down and drew together the initial schematics of this grill, as well as put together a list of necessary supplies and tools. Micah did the math and calculated that all of the pieces would come out to ~$200. I gave the go-ahead, and we set forth!

By some stroke of chance Kuong found a 55-gallon drum on e-bay. To this day, I still have no idea who (besides really bored engineers apparently) would want to buy a drum on e-bay. I still remember when Kuong called me up that day it arrived. It went something like this:

"Hey dude, the drum's here. I'm gonna need your help to pick it up from the mail room."
"Oh man, I'm a little busy right now, can you handle it yourself"
"...dude. its a 55-gallon drum."
"Oh right, I'll be down in a sec"

Now for gathering the parts. Seigler went home to grab his Sawzall as well as his car. We swung by Home Depot and picked up all of the necessary pieces. Then on one epic Saturday, the 9 of us spent an incredible 15 straight hours in the machine shop to throw it all together.

It was quite a ridiculous day. The morning was spent putting together the drum, nailing in the guide rails for the lid and the rack, and putting together the handle. This part of the grill was beautiful, and so we appropriately called it: "Ole Betsy". By the night, however, we were so exhausted and confused...and this was definitely conveyed in the eyesore of a stand that was produced. The funniest memory of the night was at the end of the day when we were so tired and delirious that between the 6 of us left, none of us could hit in the damn last nail! We all tried and missed, and by the end, the nail was bent in every which way...it was absurd. And so in honor of this misunderstood creation of ours, we called it: "Crack Baby".



This grill was only ever used at most 3 times in its lifetime, and was far from convenient. It was way too big to be carried anywhere (or stored for that matter). Also because it was so large, it required at least half a bag of charcoal to cook anything (although impressively you could cook up to 15 or so hamburgers at a time), as well as a good 6 hours for it to cool down afterwards. In a strictly cost/benefit sense, it definitely was not worth the investment.

Looking back, however, I think we all grew so much from this project. For starters, it was the first significant step that we took together as an organization. I'm not talking about just the ~$200 we invested, but instead also the time and the energy that we all spent to turn this idea into a reality. There were times throughout the day when we were thinking "how on earth is this going to actually work?" And yet we persisted and remained creative, and the result showed. Realistically, we needed these baby steps and these little challenges to overcome before we could throw ourselves and commit fully to our goal of establishing a fraternity...because once we started recruiting new members and growing, there was no turning back. This project, if anything, was a trial for most of the challenges to come.

Secondly, being a rag-tag group of friends and friends-of-friends, this endeavor was the first instance that all of us spent a significant amount of time working together. We were able to grow together and learn much more about one another, thus establishing the foundations of brotherhood that now serve as the crux of our organization. I know that I personally took to heart this lesson in the years ahead and kept this in mind when the organization continued to grow.

So here's to Ole Betsy and Crack Baby, certainly a remarkable and defining experience for us and Theta Tau.