He is old, he has been here since the beginning, and he is always watching
Hi, I’m The Brick. Borne from the walls of the current Carillon office’s predecessor, and I’ve witnessed everything: late nights writing, editing, and frantically pulling together issue after issue of the Carillon, pizza parties that were not necessarily deserved, the staff coming back with trinkets for the shelves instead of finished stories, and, of course, students working hard to follow the Anti-Regurgitation rule after their first CHIT.
The news kids in the office wanted to interview me for an article and frankly it was about time someone did that. The craziness I witness in this office on a day-to-day basis is worth writing about. As hard as it was to make time for it, I was able to talk to them.
However, not to anyone’s surprise and much like their predecessors, these kids aren’t the best at time management. So here I am, putting together an article about my own interview. Kids these days, I tell you!
Anyhow, as I mentioned before, my name is The Brick and the new kids in the office call me Mr. Brick. You can find me sitting in the right corner of the editor-in-chief’s (EIC) desk. It’s a great vantage point to witness everything and make no mistake, I remember everything I see. The view of the couches can sometimes be obscured by the clutter on this EIC’s desk but the sounds travel and I miss nothing.
The beginning of the beginning
My home now was not my home in the beginning. I used to be a regular brick in the walls of the previous Carillon office which was located between the Campion College and the Physical Education Centre in the now demolished Old Student Union Building (SUB). I remember being a young brick in the walls of the SUB doing what regular young bricks did back then: holding the structural integrity of the building together with my friends. Ah, the good old days!
It was not long after the building was constructed that the room where I resided was assigned to be the office of the students’ newspaper. The kids later named the paper the Carillon after a vote from the student body. I was happy they didn’t name it the Cricket! When the SUB was demolished and their office moved to the Dr. William’s Riddell Centre, the kids salvaged me and gave me a new home in the new office.
Kids at the Carillon
Bunch of good-hearted rowdy kids the Carillon’s team has always been! As the work on the first issue began I started hearing more and more conversations in the office about left-winged politics and about student rights and advocacy which was reflected in their publications. My memories are clear of the years when the paper was labelled as “a red paper.” I used to be concerned that the kids in the office would land themselves in a pickle, but I was proud that they chose to make their voices heard regardless.
I witnessed the anger for injustice and the drive for making a difference. The young voices that carried determination and resilience mixed with the mirth and hope of youth. The layout nights when none of the kids would go home or sleep. The exam weeks when they would work extra hard but not compromise the quality of the publication. The laughter, the sobs, the stress, the celebrations, the heartbreaks, the camaraderie, I have seen it all. Even after spending some 60 years in this office and watching a number of new members join and leave the Carillon, I still see the same zeal and drive for justice and advocacy. It has made each day of my long-life worth living. I would not want to be a brick in any other office.
Bunch of good-hearted rowdy kids the Carillon’s team has always been.” – Mr. Brick
The Carillon Hotel Inspection Tour
One of my fondest memories is of the times when in the 1960s and 70s, a group of determined University of Regina (UofR) students working for the Carillon created a tradition that they called the Carillon Hotel Inspection Tour (CHIT). The rules were clear, and the task was daunting, but the tradition came to last a surprising number of years.
The CHIT was a beer-a-thon sponsored by the Carillon. Contestants ran a pre-planned route between the classic downtown pubs consuming large amounts of beer. The kids had to drink 16 glasses of beer which were divided amongst the different pubs. Contestants had to pay $3.50 and have proper identification to enter.
Under the watchful eyes of the judges, the one who consumed the most amount of beer while also following the rules won the competition and the prize money. They made the rules simple enough to follow when one is sober but not so simple when drunk. Breaking the rules led to immediate disqualification. Throwing up, failure to finish a glass, failure to follow the route, exceeding the time limit of one and a half hours to complete the inspection, and breaking a glass led to disqualification.
The Carillon members would come back from a CHIT and oh dear, the stories were wild every single time. I remember the university tried to shut it down, but those kids were determined, and the CHIT ran for a number of years before it stopped despite the university’s efforts to put an end to it.
The CHIT now lives solely in my memories and the Carillon archives and perhaps also in the memories of those who got to be a part of the tradition.
Over the years
Many people have come and gone. Layouts changed from back-and-white to colored pages. Content changed from political critique to political critique paired with a solutions-based approach. Despite the changing times, the motivations of whoever works in this office remains the same: to advocate for the students at the University of Regina and hold the ones in power accountable.
I am Mr. Brick, I am here, and I am always watching. I can confidently say these are a bunch of hard-working kids trying to make a difference. May I get to spend many more years at the Carillon.
