Big John

In September 1983, I was a freshman in my first day in the dormitory.  We had a meeting of the Hall which was about 16 of us young men and our "Dorm Counselor" Andy who was an upperclassman selected to reside in the dorm as a mentor to the freshman.  This was a desirable position as it provided free room and board in exchange for this freshman mentoring.  We looked up to him as a senior.

In that first meeting, he told us, "You're going to meet Big John, who is the custodian on the hall.  Don't mess with Big John."  He warned us of his temper.  Said he used to weight a lot - hence the Big John name.  No last name was provided - or needed.

Big John was probably about 40 years old.  He was about 5'9", 200 pounds maybe.  He was a black man, bearded, and usually wore tinted classes and a a trucker cap, and sometime an old Army fatigue shirt.  John talked about being in Vietnam.  Now this was the days of movies like the Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now, and veterans were not considered as heroic as today.  So (in a sign of those times) I would ask him to talk about Vietnam perhaps not always in a serious manner.  In hindsight I don't think I had ever really know another Vietnam vet at that time.  Certainly not a black vet.

Big John would usually finish his work by early afternoon would often be watching TV in our TV room at the end of the hall.  I do recall sitting with him and engaging in some conversation.

Being warned at the beginning, I never did anything to get on his bad side.  The memories that others have is that seeing the hall overflowing with trash (pizza boxes, beer bottles, messy bathrooms) from a long hard weekend after he had not worked on Sat or Sunday would set him off and he would throw around the metal trash cans and curse loudly to show his displeasure.

I only lived in that dorm (Graham Lees Room 150) for a year.  I don't think I saw Big John around too much after then.   I expect he worked for the university for a long time, as the custodians were older men then.    I also heard that Big John had worked as a waiter at a fraternity house (Phi Delta Theta) in the 1960s as a young man.  He put in many years of service for W&L students.

Interestingly other of the staff jobs (e.g the building and grounds) were all white men.  In the snack bar we called the Co-Op, all the people that worked there were black women.  We got to recognize them as well.

A sordid history of the university was that it owned slaves in the 1820s to the 1840s.  Perhaps some of the university's black employees were descendants from those enslaved people.  There is a monument to the people now - perhaps these thoughts might allow more research into the lives of those people who have made Washington and Lee University what is it.