Omega Mu Voices

Stories, as we all know, are the life of Omega Mu, and they keep alive our Omega Mu spirit each time we see each other, and there is nothing wrong with feeling nostalgic and then saying to yourself: “Did I really say and do these interesting things while living in the house; did all those events occur in the RAM. Did I really look like that during my years in The Castle?” And the beautiful thing is that these events did occur decade-through-decade. Hard to believe but true, and our binding stories were framed within the distinctive walls of The Castle. Stories, poems, biographical reflections all provide a clear, significant lens in appreciating our long history; second, they provide a broad generational spectrum of our brotherhood. That is the power of authentic storytelling. We lived these stories, day-in-and-day-out, and they endure in our memory. That is significant, and my hope is that for years to come brothers will read these stories that occurred within our historic fraternal brotherhood. To read them is to hear what was stated at our fraternal beginning: “Enjoyment, sociability, and the best interest of its members through life.” Our Omega Mu stories do not let go. It you have written stories and emailed them to me, thank you. We all found a home, a sense of belonging, within the beautiful walls of The Castle. It was liberating and uplifting to not be in a dorm room for four years at the University of Maine, and we created a collective experience that we all smile at with gratitude to this day. If you intend to write something, I thank you in advance. Your stories are important!
 
Fraternally,

Chip Chapman, 1982
​
Perge!

Wayne Robbins
Omega Mu, 1965
Fall of 1962: I was one of 20 pledges trying to make sense of all the things that were Omega Mu and brotherhood. One brother stood out to me as he was a returnee after several gap years. Doug Johns reentered as a junior at age 26, I think, as a psychology-art major. He was from New Jersey but had spent several years testing Mercury outboards in Florida. He drove to Orono in a tricked out 1954 Chevy convertible that he had put in a ’57 Chevy V-8 and a four-speed floor shift. The paint job was 17 coats of candy-apple red paint. In it he had everything he owned which was not much. To help finance his stay he became the kitchen steward and claimed the small storeroom in the basement across from the pantry closet for a store where he sold snacks, smokes and soda. Oh, yes, he had a supply of rubbers but they were not a big seller. 

Wayne Robbins

Doug Johns

Since he didn’t really know any of the brothers, a fellow zobie became good friends with him. Leon even supplied matched lumber to redo the storeroom. Leon’s father had owned the big lumber company in Fort Kent. He was a jack of all trades who could carpenter, work on autos, design projects wheel and deal with the best of them. As an artist, he would draw a Fiji man in different configuration on tee shirts and sweatshirts for parties and other events for 50 cents or a dollar. He designed and built homecoming displays on the lawn like the one made from cow bones and a big paper mache Fiji man eight feet tall and a stew pot.

In the spring Doug another guy and I purchased scuba-diving equipment and taught ourselves how to dive on weekends at Bar Harbor. Even with wet suits the April water was so cold we couldn’t feel the mouth pieces and hands became painful beyond endurance after just a few minutes. Because of Doug’s idea we could make money capturing marine specimens, he ended up spending the summer with my folks and me trying to scrounge a summer’s wage out of the ocean. The specimen operation did not pan out so we did everything from raking sea moss, bailing out fishing boats at the factory wharf in Sebasco, to trying to sell driftwood on route one. He finally took a job in construction and I became a painter in a factory in Bath. 

The fall of 1963 brought some problems. Social pro made rushing a very difficult process. No parties in the house and many of us were too young to hit the local watering holes; we had little to offer except good food. We had a new cook that just happened to be a woman who kind of adopted us. She would make 12 loaves of bread at a time and had pot with a pound of melted butter on the back of the grill with a little paint pastry brush in it. When you painted the hot bread with the butter it would run down your fingers. We all gained a couple of pounds that first semester.

Marshal Stern ran for campus mayor as Hugh Hefner and there were scantily clad bunnies scampering around the house and campus. The campaign was loads of fun, and he was an excellent mayor. Get the rabbit habit was the motto that resounded all over campus. The next year we helped Bob Harrison run as Snuffy Smith but just didn’t have the right stuff. 

Charles E. Chapman
Omega Mu, 1982
Symphonie Fantastique

There can be
No truncation or
Substitution of the
Fraternal import of
 
Jughead and
Brinch, our
“Admirable
Scriptures of stone 

Jughead

Brinch

Spike

​On stone” in
Anchoring
Durability and
Directness in
 
Omega Mu
Because they
Were a rich,
Irrepressible
 
Fraternal chord
That was
Experiential,
Hard-edged-
 
Direct, mot-
Ivating, cajoling,
Tormenting,
And, in 

Spiritually liberating
Because they had
No issues with
 
The niceties of
Formality and
Propriety within
The hurly-burly of
 
Omega Mu
House life
From going to
Apocalypse Now

In military uniform,
Detonating smoke
Canisters to create
Apocalypse Now in the

​Basement, always
On the lookout
For slackers not
Doing their house

​Jobs; giving
Quarter to no one
With their dense
Mixture of stony 

Grace of will in being
Philosophically
Honest and                         
True to their
 
Fraternal convictions
In never
Being passive
Verbs, neutered
 
Nouns, in the
Emotional
Chromaticism of
Omega Mu
 
Life without
Marks B
Flat or A
Minor,
 
Bringing
Strength and
Happiness to
Our brotherhood
 
With their
Steely insights
And wit in
Creating hilarious,
 
Emotional
Whirlpools of
Fire and tumult,
Time upon

Time, with
No diminishment
Of fraternal spirit,
That grew
 
Kaleidoscopically
Rich in raising eyes,
Inducing fear and
Trembling and dropping
 
Jaws with incredulity
And joy in
Our life that
Was never monotonous
 
With them, and
Once, in
A disquieting,
Forceful
 
Confrontation,
Distinct and memorable,
Brinch, a singularly
Distinct brother,
 
In a spontaneous
Moment, his
Eyes-in- and
Out of view, and
 
His sense of
Emotional
Logic and
Balance
 
Impaired, played
The anointing
Finger of the
Almighty,

​When
His eyes,
Smoldering
Not too quietly,
 
Fastened upon
Etienne with
Indignity
Because of his
 
Name, a
Casus
Belli in
Brinch’s 

​Bent
Fraternal
Mind that
Night when,
 
With
An enraged
Operatic
Aria of
 
Words, just
Words, mind
You, but
Transformative,

​Emotive
Words that
Transmuted
The name
 
Etienne and
Gave birth to
Spike without
Any outspoken
 
Resistance from
Etienne and created
A stone-set story
Within our Omega Mu
 
“Symphonie Fantastique”
Brotherhood about the
Night, when the stars
Aligned, and received
 
His nom de plume,
Spike, a name
Befitting the abiding
Grace of the man today.
 
Natural and instinctive,
All three
Brothers’ are
Exceptional and
 
Distinctive in unparalleled
Fraternal Depth and
Breadth to our
Omega Mu
 
Brotherhood today:
Jughead,
Brinch, and
Spike, 

Chip Chapman
Omega Mu, 1982
Are you going with me 

Our QTV
Brothers
Did alright
In 1874,
 
And
Our first
Omega Mu Brothers
Did the same in 1899
 
In taking
Hold of the plow to
Begin and sustain
Our
 
Fraternal brotherhood
With an attitude of
Confidence and
Visionary wisdom
 
Because
It is natural to want
To create lasting
Memories
 
That are life-
Long and life-
Affirming
Because
 
We do not subscribe
To a finite,
Generational
Conception of
 
Brotherhood,
But to expectant
Hope that
What started in
 
1874
Will continue to
Grow in its
Attractiveness to
 
All those who will
Follow us
Because we look ahead
With the same
 
Changeless faith
As the original seven in
Believing that
Brotherhood is a
 
Generationally
Sustained gift,
Without any
Punctuation,
 
For life,
And not
Merely a finite
Gift of our
 
College days
Alone, and
We remain
A fine
 
Testament to
The historic
Symmetry of
Commitment
 
Of the QTV
Seven and the
“Immortal Six”
Today
 
One unequivocal
Cadence of
Fraternal excellence
At the University of Maine,
 
As we
Unerringly continue
To do when we
All
 
Answer in the
Affirmative when asked:
Are you going with me
 
Now?
 
Because in
Our historic
Fraternal succession
We have never put
 
Off into the future
To do the
Tangible
Good
 
That
Needs to
Be done right
Now
 
To assure our
Fraternal
Future for
Another 120 years.
 
“Are you going with me?”
 
Alert and tireless,
As we embrace
And honor our
Rich historic
 
Heritage and
The architectural
Dignity of
Our
 
Unique
Fraternal home,
The Castle,
Now,
 
In order for
Our unique
And significant
Fraternal experience
 
To continue, the
Gift that was
Given to all
Of us,
 
A proud
Truth.
May it
Continue
 
To be so,
A matchless
Testament to our
Perseverance and
 
Determination in
The rich,
Long tradition
Of Phi Gamma Delta.

Chip Chapman
Omega Mu, 1982
 
Honey Bees

​An orchard-
Bound semi
Near Lord
 
Byron’s Apiary
Loaded with
Crated 

​Honeybees
To do some
Pollinating in
 
The Civil
War scented
Catoctin 

​Mountains, caused
Consideration of the
Apium-
 
Nature of
An Omega Mu
Brother from
 
Brewer, Maine
Because
His nature is
 
A
Cross-pollination
Of family and
 
Apiary because
There
Is no gnashing
 
And musing upon
The hackneyed
Binary trope:
 
“To be
Or not
To be.”

But to
Be, and
Be for
 
Each
Other
As one.
 
In
Changeless
Commitment to
 
That
Temporal art of
Honey Bees:
 
Honey.
Through the
Symmetrical
 
Enterprise of
Bee and
Beekeeper,
In their soundless,
 
Yet sound-full
Transfiguring
Actions to
Beget and sustain
 
Life with
Purposeful
Coherence and
Dependability
 
For their labor:
Swan’s Honey

​Which,
In Nuanced
Character,
 
Swany
Readily shows
In his cheery,
 
Supple smile
And eyebright
Smiling eyes
 
That have not
Submitted to the
Gravity of
 
Years.
Reflecting the
Earthy familial
 
Grace of
His Father and
Mother,
 
A singular,
Celebratory testament
To ponder
 
As they stayed-the-
Course
In their serendipitous
 
Journey with
Their children and
Their bees.
 
In dignifying life
In how they lived
In inculcating
 
A  special
Charism of vitality in
their four
 
Children
To  “Keep true,
And never be
 
Ashamed of
Doing right.
Decide what
 
You
Think is right, and
Stick to it”
 
In order to
Persevere in
Their singular
 
Flight because
“What is essential
Is invisible to the

​Eye” because
“The heart has
Reasons which
 
Reason
Knows nothing of.”
Just as
 
Honey bees
Are honey
Bees from
 
Their quirky
Navigational
Bee
 
Dance to
Communicate
To their 

​Bee brethren
A spatially orienting
Panoramic bee-
 
Line vision of flight
To reach pollen rich
Floral offerings in
 
Which to
Linger and powder
In to render 

​Pollen into
Honey in the combed
Crucible of their
 
Hermitage
Hive; their
Covenantal
 
Offering,
Celebrating the
Underscoring
 
Grace of life.
In how character
Unfolds with individual
 
And
Communal gestating
Pollen
 
That
Pollinates slowly,
Broadly,
 
 
Deeply a
Singular and united
Vision,
 
Collective awareness,
And
Collective cooperation,
 
Individual effort
And
Individual integrity,
 
Collective responsibility
And
Collective ritual,
 
Individual fidelity
And
Individual faith,
 
And
Collective
Hope
 
In the
“Orchard
Of
 
Perseverance.”

Steve Swan and Chip Chapman

Fraternally,
 
Chip Chapman, 1982
​
Perge!