Worku says other alumni probably remember flooding the courtyard to form a skating rink during cold winters and "blow-out parties in the 10-man suite known across the Eastern seaboard."

Professor of the History of Science Emeritus Barbara G. Rosenkrantz '44, the house master from 1974 until 1979, recalls noisy parties that led neighbors to call her.

Since she disliked asking parties to stop, she "had a bright red bathrobe and just marched around in it. It had a chilling effect [on a party]; all I had to do was march through a room," she says.

Currier was known to have had particularly rowdy parties under the aegis of co-masters Gregory Nagy and Holly Davidson.

"Holly and I were innocent of some of the undergraduate customs," Nagy says. "I don't think we even knew what a keg was before we were House Masters."

Not only the traditions but also some of the unusual one-time events have helped to mold the Currier each resident remembers.

Herschbach recalls one such incident in which late one night several students asked if he had a "look at the seal."

"We went upstairs to a room packed with kids. One kid was a volunteer at the New England Aquarium," Herschbach says. "Sitting there in the bathtub was this baby seal. I don't know if you've ever seen a baby seal, but it has a thick, marvelously velvet coat and emits squeaks."