"Bimbo's Initiation" by Max Fleischer (1931)

This 1931 Max Fleischer cartoon captures the dangers and humiliations of "secret" initiations, which had reached epic and dangerous proportions during the later days of the "Roaring Twenties." It's amazing to me that initiations have not been banned in today's "politically correct" environment.

This is not to say that I have not been involved in an initiation, or two, during my life. Or, that I am against such practices. No one makes you partake of the rituals involved. And peer pressure is a lame excuse. Like the old carnival barker said, "To get your ticket- you pay the price." I am, after all, a "Loyal and Trusted Shellback" - a member in good standing of the "Ancient Order of the Deep".

Shellbacks are sailors who have crossed the Equator. Until the first time you have crossed that line separating the Northern and Southern hemispheres, you are a pollywog, a snipe, a lowly bottom dweller. The initiation takes a full day under the blazing equatorial sun. Those unwilling to participate in the ritual are allowed to sit the ceremony out in some other part of the ship, where they are unable to observe the festivities. There is no pressure to join, and no penalty for not doing so. (I believe that the iniation has actually been eliminated these days - and everyone just gets their card.)

I won't bore you with the details of the initiation, although I will tell you it involves copious amounts of garbage, which the initiate is forced to crawl through, being beaten with fire hoses as you walk a gauntlet of Shellbacks, crawling across the blazing metal of the main deck, kissing the Bosun's belly, and then being anointed with lube oil by the High Priest, who in our case was the ship's Chaplain. (Note the error on line 4, which shows me as having crossed the Equator at 39 degrees and 5 minutes "M" of longitude. The "M" should be a "W" for West longitude.)

The reward for all of this? Just a bit of pride at being found acceptable, along with the pleasure of having faced something which was made out to be much worse than it actually was, and come out laughing in the end. Kind of like this cartoon.