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Rachel Banes
Section 1113-39
Dr. Degnan
25 September
Just Chicken Wire and Pomp
Oklahoma State has one of the largest homecoming celebrations and is well known
through out the country. It can be described but only a cowboy can truly know how it feels to live
it and thrive off the energy it brings to Stillwater. People come for the football game but
homecoming would be nothing without the house decks and Walk Around. Being a part of the
Greek community lets you experience the tremendous amount of time and effort that gets poured
into these masterpieces. The people looking in from the outside see beautiful pictures painted
across the lawns, but the men and women in these organizations only know the process and how
it feels to finish a task this enormous. Not only do you get to be a part of something that is
anticipated by many people but, you get to build a bond with people you never could have seen
coming.
Being a freshman, the experience of being a part of homecoming is unlike anything else.
It is a steady rush of trying to balance homecoming and school work. Pomping is when you get
two 1 inch by 1 inch squares of flammable proof tissue paper and crumple it around the eraser of
a pencil and stick it through one single hole of chicken wire. You begin to pomp the very first
week of school and are thrown into this sea of confusion head on. We walk into a room with
chicken wire strung up against large wooden posts from wall to wall. There are at least fifty
boxes full of squares of pomp that are sitting on a front table with a variety of colors ranging
from neutral colors all the way to bright vivid colors. Typical yellow school pencils cover the

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room and gallon-sized buckets full of glue are sporadically placed around the room. There are
literally thousands of these holes on one screen that is laid out. We know where to put the pomp
because there is a piece of paper that has numbers on it that coordinates with a color and has a
certain place it goes. This process can be tedious and a bit annoying at times. We do this for
twelve hours every week starting from the first week of school up until the night before Walk
Around. Walk Around is when the Greek community will walk around and look at all the decks
together and this is the day the get judged. It is judgment day for our hard work and efforts. Walk
Around is the day we prepare for all year. It becomes frustrating the closer we get to
homecoming because we do not know the design of our house deck until the week of
homecoming. We are awaiting the reveal of the mysterious designs we have been pomping and
all the hard work we have put into this creation.
Its a long process that Katie Cox, senior Alpha Chi Omega, explains it to be one of the
most consuming parts of being in a sorority. She then continues to explain that it is also one of
the most rewarding experiences that she could ever be a part of. She states that Being able to be
around your favorite people all the time makes you appreciate them more and all while that is
happening you get to work hard towards something that is rewarding to look at the finished
product. She said that when she came in as a freshman, they were required to do twenty-four
hours a week and it was so tough to balance school and homework. Katie said it was getting to
the point where it was pomping over schoolwork. But since then the director of Panhellenic, our
head director of all sorority affairs, has reduced the hours of homecoming decorating nationwide
to twelve hours a week. Katie continued to talk about her freshmen year they that placed in
homecoming. Placing in homecoming is a big deal and she further explained that being apart of
something that did so well makes her proud of the work she put in. Katie said But even if we

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had not placed I would still feel accomplished with my work because I was able to be a part of
the grand showcase of Alpha Chi.
Although there is much hard work involved with creating this house deck, Erin Sewell,
junior homecoming director, explains her experiences as a one of the head figures of the house
deck creation for her second consecutive year. It is honestly one of the most stressful positions I
could have taken on but it is by far one of the best experiences I could ever have taken on. Erin
tells that she had an unusual love for homecoming and has been to at least fifteen homecomings
in her life. Her grandparents took her every year and every year she went, she grew fonder of the
celebration. Each one she went to she knew she wanted to be a part of it one day when she went
off to college. Now here I am working one of the most stressful positions ever and I love it
more then anything. But why does she love it? She later explained that it is not just the
masterpiece that gets strung across the welded fixtures, although when she was younger that was
the only reason, but it is the satisfaction she gets from Walk Around.
Walk Around is the big day. Its the day that every pairing of a fraternity and sorority
house gets to showcase what they have been working on for many weeks in advanced. You can
feel the ecstatic energy in the air. There is a sea of people that swallows the street and its flows
all through out the Greek communities housing. There are various types of people everywhere
ranging from college students to families even the alumni that come back for the homecoming
festivities. There are large amounts of fraternity boys and sorority girls looking at their finished
products. It is the day that the Greek community will have been preparing for months in advance.
I have never experienced this feeling of accomplishment yet but a senior Alpha Chi has had three
years of this celebration. Hannah Bureger explains the feeling of placing as a giant wave of
excitement at first. She explained that watching everyone celebrate and seeing the sense of

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accomplishment that was being worn on her fellow members faces was winning to her. It is not
just about winning. Not only had it has made me realize how much closer I have become with
my pledge class but got to be a part of something that my whole chapter was apart of. She
continues to explain that walk around is the best day of homecoming because people come from
everywhere to see what you have brought to the table. Hannah also loves the friendly
competition that is happening between the houses. She says It is not to the point where it
becomes segregated but it is just fun to have the bragging rights on campus. She continues on
about during her first year when she experiencing everything, it is extremely overwhelming and
sometimes you forget to enjoy yourself. Hannah felt that once you go through it your sophomore
year you know what to expect exactly and how things run so it is more enjoyable to experience.
She said that each year she gets to be apart of this ordeal she has had more fun doing it each year.
It is an experience that she explains that cannot be missed out on. Hannah said that even if you
are not involved in the Greek Community, it is still something a college student should at least
experience once. Aside from the Walk Around and pomping for hours upon hours, you learn
how to work with your sisters and grow closer, says Hannah.
Personally being able to go through this journey has been amazing and rewarding.
Rewarding in a way that I get to learn from my sisters and get close to them at the same time. It
may seem odd to a person that has not been in my situation. Closer to the end of the many
months invested in this journey, you begin to appreciate the amount of work that goes into these
creations. It becomes so finger numbingly boring at times you just want to give up. If you give
up, you are not only being selfish but letting down everyone that has put in the time and effort. It
gives you a drive that you typically would not have and teaches you to become a team player.
This experience is worth every moment because not only do we get to be a part of something

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huge to Oklahoma State but also we get to meet our lifelong friends. It is something that you get
to have with them for the rest of your life. Being able to look at all the amazing decks that
everyone has been working on and having people gawk at the sight of every ones creations is
fun. If you are on the outside looking in, it may seem a bit strange that so much can come out of
just sticking paper in chicken wire.