You Know You're in Berkeley When... (Part 5)

You get booked by a traffic warden who cruises around in something that looks like the lovechild of a golf cart and one of those 3-wheeled minivans:


They seem to have something for handing out fines here. Actually I guess that's the same everywhere you go.

You also know you're in Berkeley...when you see the AXE getting paraded around:


I guess you're wondering what the hell is so special about this axe (which you can just make it out on the plaque right there). OK so here's a bit of Cal folklore for you - actually it's a true story, although I bet a bit of Chinese whispers has distorted some of the facts.

So there's a massive rivalry between Cal (Berkeley) and Stanford. It all started back in the 1890's. One of the dorms in Stanford had this axe forged, and it was to be presented to the 'King' of that particular dorm - someone elected by his/her peers every year. Eventually the axe became much bigger than that, and Stanford believed it to be her good luck charm. The axe was brought to every sporting competition by superstition. However, when it came time for the football game versus Cal, the good fortune of the axe was broken as Cal smashed Stanford 24-6 (something like that).

The Stanford students cursed the axe and abandoned it at the stadium at the end of the game, only for the Cal students, who raped and pillaged the Stanford section, to steal as a trophy. However, the Stanford students immediately regretted abandoning the axe, and set about trying to get it back. By this time a massive brawl had started between the Cal and Stanford students. Not unlike the famous origins of the marathon, the axe was passed via a number of Cal students until it finally fell into the hands of Cal's fastest distance runner. He was charged with the responsibility of smuggling the axe back to Berkeley from the Stadium. Back then the games were played in San Francisco - so he had to catch the ferry (no BART or cars back then) back to Eastbay where the campus was.

He took the axe, and sprinted out of the stadium. The Stanford students had alerted the police, so he was a hunted man. He took a quick pit-stop in Chinatown (no shit) where he ducked into a Chinese butcher and asked the kind butcher to hack off the handle of the axe. He then sprinted off with the axe head concealed in his jacket and made it to the ferry. But it seemed he was too late - the police were searching everyone getting on board.

Then, in the corner of his eye he spots an old flame, an ex-girlfriend, the one that got-away, what ever you want to call her. He sashayed up to her and linked arms. You see, back then it was common etiquette that women could not be body searched. Accordingly, if you were linked arms with a women, by association, you too would not be searched. And so our hero get's on board the ferry with the axe head and manages to make it safely back to Berkeley.

Several years later, the Axe came to be presented to the winner of the annual 'Big' Cal vs Stanford football game, and has been ever since.

We won this year. Hell yeah! Must have been all the witch doctor/wood burning shit we did the night before: