03-11-2006, 06:02 AM
reminds me of my college roomate, Scott (no last name, he's kind of famous in geek circles now).
It was his Freshman year at Engineering school. We shared a 'suite' of rooms- one common room, 6 closet sized bedrooms with their own doors.
After a week we noticed that Scott stank. And didn't bathe. And didn't wash anything. He was about 6'2 and weighed maybe 120 or so. He was a classic geek- high water black polyester pants, white socks, weird plaid short sleeve shirt, pocket protector, and slept with is personal computer (Apple I.. this was 1979).
So we asked him to shower and offered to help him with his laundry. He declined.
We gave him two more days and offered again. He declined.
We went to the store and bout two large scrub brushes, a box of Spic and Span floor cleaner, a towel, a cake of deodorant soap and some industrial strength shampoo (Prell). We called him into the common area, and told him that he had two choices. He could take the towel, soap, and Prell into the shower and take a shower right now, or we would drag him in there, strip him down, and wash him with the scrub brushes and the Spic and Span.
He whined. He complained, He tried to escape into his room. But in the end he went and took a shower. When he was done, we sent him back in and told him to wash his damn hair too. Then we sprayed his room with Lysol, and opened up the rest of the suite to air it out.
This went on for about 4 months until he started bathing regularly. I gave him a winter coat because he didn't own one (Cleveland in the Wintet !), and he was always sick. When we met his Mom at winter break, we discovered, to our horror, that she looked like a female version of him, and stank too.
I tried to explain the corpa sano mensa sano concept, but I don't think she got it.
By the end of the school year he had cleaned up his act, washed his clothes, and washed himself at least three times a week. He still didn't communicate well with humans, but ended up getting a girlfriend (which really amazed all of us).
It was his Freshman year at Engineering school. We shared a 'suite' of rooms- one common room, 6 closet sized bedrooms with their own doors.
After a week we noticed that Scott stank. And didn't bathe. And didn't wash anything. He was about 6'2 and weighed maybe 120 or so. He was a classic geek- high water black polyester pants, white socks, weird plaid short sleeve shirt, pocket protector, and slept with is personal computer (Apple I.. this was 1979).
So we asked him to shower and offered to help him with his laundry. He declined.
We gave him two more days and offered again. He declined.
We went to the store and bout two large scrub brushes, a box of Spic and Span floor cleaner, a towel, a cake of deodorant soap and some industrial strength shampoo (Prell). We called him into the common area, and told him that he had two choices. He could take the towel, soap, and Prell into the shower and take a shower right now, or we would drag him in there, strip him down, and wash him with the scrub brushes and the Spic and Span.
He whined. He complained, He tried to escape into his room. But in the end he went and took a shower. When he was done, we sent him back in and told him to wash his damn hair too. Then we sprayed his room with Lysol, and opened up the rest of the suite to air it out.
This went on for about 4 months until he started bathing regularly. I gave him a winter coat because he didn't own one (Cleveland in the Wintet !), and he was always sick. When we met his Mom at winter break, we discovered, to our horror, that she looked like a female version of him, and stank too.
I tried to explain the corpa sano mensa sano concept, but I don't think she got it.
By the end of the school year he had cleaned up his act, washed his clothes, and washed himself at least three times a week. He still didn't communicate well with humans, but ended up getting a girlfriend (which really amazed all of us).