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Some grudges age beautifully.
Dad never forgot one fraternity vote, then history came calling.
See how he finally returned the favor.
My father’s decade’s-deferred petty revenge
As indicated, this is not my act of petty revenge, but my father’s. When he was in college, he was in a small fraternity (20 or so members).
At the start of his senior year, he ran to be the fraternity president. He knew that every vote would be critical and thought he had secured the necessary support.
However, at the last minute, one of the guys who had “promised, promised, promised” that he would vote for my dad changed his mind and voted for the other candidate, who won by a single vote.
The guy didn’t see this coming.
Fast forward some 35 years, and my father is sitting on the board of trustees of the college, which has narrowed down the selection of a new president to 3 candidates, one of whom is … yes, that same vote-changing fraternity brother from 35 years before.
This time, there are only 5 voters, and that guy knows certain the current/outgoing president will vote for him as well as his long-time fraternity brother friend, so he only focuses his lobbying efforts on the other three trustees.
My father poisoned the well so sufficiently that the vote was 3-2 against. The applicant was stunned, and all my father said to him was, “Sorry, but no one is promised, promised, promised a win.”
Wow! That revenge must’ve felt so good all those years later.
Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit relate to this father’s situation.
This person was not impressed.
For this reader, a congrats is in order.
It must’ve felt pretty good indeed.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a sister who let her brother maintain a shared car for years, and doesn’t want to start doing it herself now that he has his own car.
Here’s someone who wants to have coffee with the dad.
Decades after losing a fraternity election by one vote, Dad found the same former brother applying to lead their college.
This time, he helped sink the man’s candidacy and echoed the exact promise language that had burned him years earlier.
Revenge is apparently a dish best served after three and a half decades.