BTB
Burton 3rd Bombers
Updated 29 April 2024, respondents page updated 28 April (click here).
A reunion of many residents of Burton Third from the first DTYD was held in conjunction with the 55th annual DTYD on April 12-15, 2024. The current Bombers are an awesome assemblage of youngsters. Several of them were even interested in meeting us old farts to get a glimpse of what they might be like 55 years hence. (Hey, in 2035 we will be 33rd times 2 years out.) Mavvy and Esme, the current floor co-chairpersons were both extremely helpful and quite delightful.
We are all in agreement that we should not wait another 55 years before the next reunion, but the issues of when and where need to be discussed to arrive at a more convenient time than Boston on the typically chilly day when income taxes are due.
Rick H. suggests that we need a Floor History site / newsletter to which anyone can contribute. I've created a Google Doc for that purpose and sent links to Ed, Rich and Rick. Anyone interested should ask me for that link.
To keep this page brief, a list of respondents has been moved to respondents page (click here) - including 26 people who came from classes 1967, '69, '70, '71, '72, '73, '76, 1993 and 2025. The schedule, hotel and alumni ID information is on another page (click here).
The dearly departed page notes fallen Bombers (click here)
Larry W. '69 submitted his memories for a memories page (click here). More are added as they become available. Hint, please send yours.
At DTYD 2024, Joel Gottfried presented an absorbing PowerPoint show wherein he explained that a Patriots Day Party was held in 1969. Invitations were mailed out to many political cognoscenti of the time, like Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, Gen. Curtis Lemay (the "mad bomber" according to Joel), Ronald Regan, etc. The rejection letters were posted and Joel showed them in his PowerPoint. Ed Moore explained that they used Hans Polzer's stereo and record collection to record the dance tapes used at that party and at the first DTYD, a year later, when both he and Ed Moore turned 21 and yearned to drink until they dropped (hence DTYD). My (Ron Beatty) first DTYD was in 1970, the year they gave us the OK to do anything to the floor except damage structural walls.
There is massive disagreement as to the origin of the name Bombers. Joel is inclined to credit Rick Heldt, who says that the name just kinda popped up in a discussion about naming the floor intermural teams.
Does the DTYD tradition still require LSC movies and a hockey game? NO, but we mised Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind on April 12. We would need EMTs and an ambulance for a hockey game at our ages. (No one has bewailed absence of hockey.)
However, current floor tradition is for the seniors to give a "hockey award" to each freshmen.
I'm happy to correspond and answer any questions. Ron Beatty, contact me at: rsbeatty@gmail.com
Photo is my wife and me at our wedding in 2011 - about 30 MIT alumni were in attendance..
I found other web sites with fun descriptions of Burton 3rd Bombers as follow:
https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/the-burton-third-bombers/ Very good descriptions, many photos and dated 2020.
https://bc.mit.edu/floors/burton-3rd Great photos dated 2019
https://www.instagram.com/burton3rdbombers/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2200013959/ requires a Facebook log in
https://www.quora.com/Student-Life-Undergraduate-Experience-at-MIT-Who-are-the-Burton-3rd-Bombers Quora has many questions as answered by "knowledgeable" people, often first hand descriptions. Some of these are interesting, others inane.
https://sites.google.com/site/rsbeatty/burton3rd This one is my old site with many incidents reported by the perpetrators
https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/dtyd-weekend/ And this one is another by Ankita D. '23 describing her DTYD Liv in 2023.
