When the notion of putting the chapter on the web first came up none of us had any idea just what we were getting ourselves into. We thought we'd have it up in three months. More than a year later, we launched the site. But it didn't turn out quite as we expected. The thing seen to take on a life of its own. The few pages we planned grew into several and the complexity of publishing on the web made the task take longer than anticipated.
While a history of the chapter was among those few pages planned from the beginning, I put it off until the end because "more important" pages required my attention. After all, how hard could it be to write the history of the chapter. We were formed in December of 1982. We were chartered by the national fraternity in November of 1983. We moved into our house in August of 1991 and bought it in April of 1994. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of history to tell.
Then I started scanning old photos and other documents to illustrate the page. As I looked through the scrapbooks, I realized there was far more to our history than just major dates. There were stories to be told, stories about the first Beach Weekend, about Waikiki in New Orleans East, about hosting Conclave in 1987, about our first house on Calhoun Street. There are stories about weddings and formals, about retreats and road trips. Those stories truly make up the history of our chapter and while I may know most them, I won't go on forever. So, rather than publish a few photos and dates, I've set myself the task of collecting these stories, setting them down in writing, and publishing them in this venue over the next year (or two, or three. . .).
I can tell the stories I know, but, rather than rely on my own faulty memory, I've included on this site a way for Louisiana Gamma alumni (or anyone with a Louisiana Gamma story) to submit those tales they feel should be included in our history. Whether published or not, this collection of stories will be an important resource in the future of our chapter. They set the tone for our continued existence at Loyola.
While the stories will be laid out more or less in chronological order, I've elected group them in chapters. The final chapter will never be written for though I may not be here to continue to tell the stories, someone, I hope, will take up the cause and run with it. Let us never forget the past for it is what shapes our future.
I hope you enjoy the stories herein told.
William S. L. Hydrick
November, 1997
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