Evening meals for the boarding students were always special. The clanging of the dinner bell (actually an iron circle) meant that soon you would be getting the best (hopefully - but not always) meal of the day.

Sundays were extra special. It was always the biggest and best meal of the week (again, hopefully), served by candlelight (some of the time), guys in shirts and ties, girls in dresses, and they served ice cream. This was the highlight of the week! But no chocolate syrup for the ice cream.

Getting caught making contraband during chapel was a serious offense, so the person(s) making it would have to be expendable. This is where I come into the story.

One of the upper classmen determined that to overcome this great tragedy, we would have to make our own (using powdered chocolate). And we would make it before supper. But right before supper on Sundays was chapel, so the syrup would have to be made during chapel.

There was a certain pecking order for boarders and the divisions ran by grade and dorm: seniors in Binsted, then juniors and sophomores in Weiser, freshmen (and after that you kind of got lumped together) in the Infirmary. I was in the last group. I was an extremely short (or so I felt) 7th grader.

One Sunday evening, on my way to chapel I was called over to the dreaded Weiser Hall. Actually, as I recall, I was grabbed by the arms on either side and carried into the dorm.

This was off limits territory for any underclassman, and the only time you were ever allowed inside was when you were having your head flushed in the toilet, you were given a cold shower, or your stomach pounded on with spoons. So naturally I was quite terrified and equally relieved when I found I was to be spared.

The game plan was simple: surround the two smallest guys with the upperclassmen and during the hymns they would sing extra loud and we would stir like crazy. The trick was to stop stirring when no one was singing.

And it worked! I'm sure Father Houghton was very gratified by our enthusiastic participation. The culmination of all this was some still rather lumpy chocolate syrup. The biggest treat for me, however, was being allowed to sit with the upperclassmen (but not the seniors!) during supper that night.

Mark