A disruption of the status quo

On the snowy morning of February 5, 1996, bleary eyed students at Harrisonburg, Virginia's James Madison University trudged into their main dining facility, Gibbons Hall - a cylindrical shaped edifice lacking the sharp corners of the surrounding buildings and thus giving off an otherwise innocuous presence.  Tables and chairs lined the outermost circumference of the structure, and as you worked your way towards the center you reached the serving areas, followed by the kitchen.  Like all mornings, breakfast was served cafeteria style in the form of heaping quantities of yellow eggs, grits, Lucky Charms, and gallons of thick chocolate milk dispensed from rubbery plastic tubing. 

However, this particular morning, something was different.  Actually, 3 things were different.

1.  Jeannie Drummond, a part-time chef on duty that day since 6am, was not wearing her apron.  Under normal circumstances this was not something anyone would have noticed.  Except on this morning, Charlie Earnest was the on-site manager.  Charlie had been reprimanded twice in the past week by his superior, Mr. Lyons, for not tucking in his shirt.  In response to Mr. Lyons' bullying, Charlie took his anger out on his employees.  When Jeannie appeared with a tray of cream-of-wheat and no apron, he immediately went off on Jeannie asking her where she left her apron.  She would not say.  She could not say.  She was in shock.  Jeannie Drummond swayed backwards, dropped the tray of scalding cream-of-wheat, and fainted on the spot.  When she was revived she could not remember anything that happened that morning, only that she drove into work, put her apron on, and went into the restroom to wash her hands.

2.  At approximately 7:52am, the lights in Gibbons Hall flickered several times, causing freshman Joe Steiner to accidentally spill waffle mix on his shirt.  Upon entering the restroom to clean it off, the power went off completely and he was left standing for a good 30 seconds in the dark.  As he became adjusted to the dark, he noticed a greenish glow coming from the air vent in the ceiling.  Before he could go any closer, the lights came back on and Joe left the restroom - not quite sure of what he saw.

3.  The unofficial JMU chapter of SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), which consisted at the time of geology major Alan Fairlawn and his roommate George Craig, woke up in their 4th floor room in Wampler Hall and noticed that the seismograph they constructed from used car parts had registered a small earthquake sometime during the night.  Because of the amateur crudeness of their machine, it wasn't uncommon for the machine to register a 6.0 on the Richter scale whenever the Marching Royal Dukes passed by outside, but the night had been particularly quiet. 

A little too quiet....