By Austin Lindner | Echo
During the day, the Hodson Dining Commons bustles, filled with the clattering of plates, grumbling of stomachs and chattering of college students. But once dinner hours end and the last of the student stragglers shuffle back to their dorms, the DC turns into a much different place-one filled with unanswered questions and curious treasures.
As the student-led DC cleanup crew begins to weave through the chairs, wiping tables and picking up garbage to reset the dining area for the next meal, they sometimes find more than crumpled napkins and spilled rice.
These are the tales of the DC after dark.
"A banana fashioned into the likeness of a bird. And a nest of hair."
Those are the strangest things crew member junior Lauren Bergman has encountered since she started working in the DC her freshman year.
According to Bergman, students on campus also appear to be going missing, since unaccounted-for outfits have also been found in the seating area from time to time.
"Somebody left their pants in the DC the other day. Like, jeans, not even sweatpants," she said.
Junior Kelsey Scott, another member of the valiant crew, has also stumbled across mysteries.
"I've found lots of weird things- pictures drawn with salt, roughly 1,538 water bottles . . . a poem," Scott said. "It was heartbreakingly horrible. Such passion. So many grammatical errors."
Senior crew leader Zach Reiner has also encountered some surprises while working in the DC. One fateful night, he was wiping a table and discovered something under his hand that wasn't a table at all.
"I found a whole pack of birth control pills," Reiner said, emotionally shaken by the experience. "It made me feel pregnant."
The students of Taylor also have an odd talent for putting food in bizarre places, according to the crew.
"One time we found a cup full of liquid turned upside down on a table," offered crew member sophomore Hannah Boy, amazed at this defiance of gravity.
Crew member senior Shiloh Wilson found proof that some of the students on campus have acquired a more refined taste in cuisine.
"I remember once there were salt and pepper shakers filled with ketchup and mustard."
However, not all of the odd treasures found in the DC have been of a disturbing variety. In fact, some of them have been quite touching.
"One time I found a love letter under a chair in the DC. It wasn't very well written, but it seemed heartfelt and had a lot of drawings on it," said crew member junior Caroline Riofredo. "Sometimes I wonder what happened to those two star-crossed lovers . . . . I think that was the same night I found a rubber chicken. So that's a score."
The Dining Commons can be a great place for intentional community at mealtimes, as well as an ideal spot for students to bring their strange novelty items. The crew simply asks the residents of Taylor to remember to take them when they go home. If you don't, your trash might become yet another treasure for the cleanup crew to collect.
