The Plebe's Petting Zoo and other fun stories

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runningtide

5-Year Member
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Jul 13, 2011
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While talking to our new Plebes sunday (Tim and Alex) and the Sponsor Meet and Greet, Alex mentioned that the detailers had a nickname for the Bancroft T court formations......called "The Petting Zoo" . The yard is usually host to a lot of tourist during the summer, and they love to take pictures and "get in close" to the Plebes during formation and while they are marching through T court.
With all the USNA alumni on this forum..., it might be fun to post some of your favorite slang or goofy traditions. :shake:
 
yep...not a new term...it's been called that since I was there...we always joked about putting up signs that say "Don't feed the mids"

I do recall one year while walking to class and passing a group of tourist a little girl yelled to her mom "hey look Mom, it's a girl one!"
 
USNA'02 said:
yep...not a new term...it's been called that since I was there...we always joked about putting up signs that say "Don't feed the mids"

I do recall one year while walking to class and passing a group of tourist a little girl yelled to her mom "hey look Mom, it's a girl one!"
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Heh. I got that kind of thing once, too. A boy about 9 or 10 stopped in front of me and said, "How come your hat looks so funny?" (I am not a fan of the combination cover, either.)

Is "red beach" still in use? That was the court behind Memorial Hall where you marched tours if you had them.

Oh, also: IHTFP does NOT stand for, "I hope there's a Friday parade!" :smile:
 
I remember detailers calling it the petting zoo. We use the term fish bowl alot, but it truly feels like that when you swim in Lejeune and they bring the tourists through there and you are drowning during class. "Its a girl one" is heard alot from adults and children all the time. For those who have seen mids do tours that generally creates alot of tourist interest, especially because we exagerate the movements so much and everyone wonders why we are marching. Red beach was under renovation when I was a mid so we did our tours in t-court which created even more tourist attention.
 
Some tourists seem to like to be photographed w/ uniformed Mid's in DTA. My (former) Mid is 6'7", and twice when he was in DTA w/ roommates, Asian tourists waved his friends aside, telling their companions, "Getta picture w/ the big one!"

I think they got rare photos of my son laughing in uniform.
 
The phrase I remember the most from my former Mid is "Mando Fun" for events like marching to the football games in a pouring rain and other mandatory events that were for Mids moral.

The asians who stopped my mid on the yard or even in the steet "look there's a girl one" aways cracked her up as they posed with her for a picture. Durring her plebe year she felt like a rock star and guess she had her picture taken about 2000 times durring her 4 years.
 
My Mid "a girl one" was on her way to a mandatory formation when she was asked by a group of Chinese tourists for a picture with some of them. She made the mistake of answering someone in Chinese. Holy crap! A girl one and she speaks Chinese!!! All the cameras came out and she had to be rescued by company mates to make formation.:biggrin:
 
What time is the evening formation? I understand the mid day one is 12:05pm.
Is there a morning formation? Thanks in advance
 
Serious question: do tourist in general not realize there are both men and women at the academies?
 
navy2016 said:
Serious question: do tourist in general not realize there are both men and women at the academies?
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Apparently they don't, considering the number of "It's a girl cadet!" comments I got walking around DTA in uniform plebe/youngster year.
 
Going back many years... a group of tourists somehow got into Michelson Hall during ac year; they cleared the first deck of caps and hats that were hanging on the hooks outside the classrooms.

During one of our first swimming classes during Plebe Summer, Coach Lenz selected one of my classmates to demonstrate a new stroke. At the time we all were standing along the swimming pool at the entry of McDonough Hall. Panic set in when the plebe began taking off his whiteworks revealing the fact that he wasn't wearing anything under it. There were tourists at the rail on the upper deck observing the class. About the only time I ever saw Lenz panic.
 
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