Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 3, 1995 TAG: 9501030001
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
In East Ambler Johnston Hall, beyond the yellow caution tape, Mike Haley sits at a desk piled with CDs, papers, dishes and a wayward dirty sock.
Behind him, a street sign that somehow fell into his hands cautions "No Dumping." Were that the law of this dorm room, just larger than a prison cell, Haley would be serving seven to 10.
"It could be worse," says Haley, eyeing the mess that Milton Bradley Co., the largest manufacturer of games and puzzles in the world, has declared Virginia's biggest pigsty. And indeed, it has been.
Haley, 18 and an engineering major, did laundry once between the end of August, when school started, and Thanksgiving.
He has never washed his sheets. "I take a shower before bed," he says. "They're clean."
The dishes were once piled so high that his roommate's girlfriend couldn't stand it anymore; she cleaned them herself.
The television remote got lost in here someplace.
So did the keys to a small safe, containing loan checks for Peter Tripi, who shares this palace. (The keys were found three weeks later on Haley's cluttered desk.)
"I don't really need the desk," says Haley, who does all of his work on a computer.
"Yes he does," says Tripi, also 18. "That's where he keeps all his garbage."
Back home, in Warrenton, they call Haley "Mr. Clean."
Not after the bald guy, though Haley, who has hair (albeit close-cropped), shares a pierced ear in common with the floor-cleaning giant.
"It's because back home, every time we'd call and ask him to go out, he'd say, 'I've gotta clean my room.' He wasn't supposed to go out until his room was clean,'" says Tripi, who's known Haley since the fourth grade.
At Tech folks call Haley "Sideburns" because there are just too darn many Mikes living in Ambler Johnston. But his reputation perseveres, as dorm residents poke their heads in now and again to say: "Just look at this place."
This room, with its thrift-shop chair and posters of scantily clad women (standard college fare) was quite clean once - likely before these two moved in.
And my side, Tripi adds, "isn't that bad."
Haley earned his state title after reading about a Milton Bradley contest in "Link," a magazine distributed in campus dorms. He took a Polaroid of his mess, wrote a short essay on his sloppy history, and sent them in. A couple of months later, he received a letter congratulating him on his win. He's not sure what his prize is because (surprise!) he can't find that piece of paper anymore.
And so, Michael Haley, let me tell you what you've won: A Pass the Pigs game, a favorite among college students everywhere; T-shirts, national uniform of college freshmen like yourself; and assorted other products from Milton Bradley.
Sadly for you but happily for your parents, you were not chosen as the biggest pig in the United States. That award went to seven young women in Ohio.
But here in Virginia, Michael Haley, it is you we're saluting.
Now, some words from your parents:
"What always amazes me is that he can actually operate in that kind of clutter," says Jeanne Haley, Mike's mom.
Mike's brother Jason, 16, feels vindicated, she says. The two shared a room growing up and Jason "aways said the mess was really Mike's."
"We used to close his bedroom door to keep it separated from the rest of the house," says Jim Haley, Mike's dad, who mentions repeatedly that his son is a soccer referee and an Eagle Scout.
Jeanne Haley, too, is trying to put a little spin on her son's moment of glory. "I think I'll just focus on Mike being very creative," she says.
by CNB