Anyone that has even been in Asmara knows that we were always trying to find new ways to amuse ourselves. Someone devised a game whereby a player would go up to someone and try to get that person to look at the players hand which had the thumb and index finger touching to form the OK sign. The hand had to be held below the players' waist and if the other person looked, the player got a free hit (usually a blow to the shoulder).

After having been suckered into looking more times than I would have liked I had an idea. One of the guys had just gotten a promotion and handed out cigars. I took the cigar box, cut a hole in the bottom, and inserted my thumb and index finger to make the circle. When I offered a cigar to my victim, the box was held below my waist in accordance to the rules. This ingenious idea allowed me to get even with several guys that had managed to sucker me in the preceding days.

Bill Lewright had seen me pull the trick on a couple of guys and then came up with his own idea. There was a guy that worked in the bowling alley (tract C) that was very twitchy and did not like anything that had to do with homosexuality. If you pinched his butt or winked, he would have a fit. So what does Lewright do? He goes up to the guy sitting at his desk and offers him a promotion cigar, only he had stuck his dick through the hole in the box. When the guy reached for it and realized what was going on, he flipped.

(Editor's note: The OK game, which I remember well, was probably devised by Mark Shay (C Trick '67-'68) who was responsible for many a bruised shoulder including my own.)