Pecan City Hash House Harriers
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Virgins, History, Traditions

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Who are the Pecan City Hash House Harriers (PCH3)?

Hop's Birthday Cake!
Pecan City H3 Hash Father, Hops of DCH3

Welcome friend, to the ancient, dishonorable and slightly demented brotherhood of the Hash. The Pecan City Hash House Harriers are part of the worldwide family of hashing groups, running across seven continents and drinking somewhere near you. Hashing itself is more of a recreation than a sport. The first thing any aspiring hasher should understand is that hashing is NOT COMPETITIVE repeat NOT COMPETITIVE repeat NOT COMPETITIVE.

 

At the appointed time, a trail leader, or hare lays a trail, using flour, occasionally with bits of shredded paper mixed in, and chalk. The trail is (usually) cleverly designed so that the fastest of the group of hounds will be so confused that they will finish at the same time as the slowest. The course* of the run is a gentle jog up through forests, neighborhoods, rivers, creeks and streams, mud, slues, undergrowth (while bent over double), swamps, sewer pipes and other shiggy - broken into short stretches by breaks in the trail - known as checks.

 

*Note: "No Trespassing" signs are generally taken as an invitation to the hare.

 

The purpose is to wear out the fit, fast bastards at the front (they find the continuation of the trail) while us normal mortals catch up, recover our breath, vomit, have a piss, and then On On!

 

At the end of the trail - and often at a point midway - you will find beer (as well as water and non-alcoholic beverages). This gives the Hash a chance to socialize, lift a glass and put this whole running thing in its proper perspective: it's the best way to get more beer. The only thing you have to watch is that the other greedy bastards will finish the beer if you're too slow, so don't under-do it either! We'll count up the survivors and then salute the hash with a circle of down-downs. To perform a proper down-down, you put a cup (filled with a beverage of choice, often beer) to your lips and, when the signal is given, drink it all --- because what doesn't go in you, goes on you.

Hashing is so simple and it has withstood the test of time. Sound a little too strange to be true? Today, there are hashes all over the world, complete with regional and worldwide conventions. And, of course, beer. You could travel all over the world and find a hash or just check out the web sites on the links page, which contain more hash information than is really necessary.

Old School Hashing

What is Hashing?
 
Let's get one thing out of the way first - hashing isn’t about drugs; but beer and alcohol, that's another story! Here is some quick info on the hash.

The Hash House Harriers as we know it today was founded in Malaya (now Malaysia) in 1938 by Albert Stephen Ignatius Gispert (commonly referred to simply as "G"), an English chartered accountant. The philosophy of the original Hash House Harriers from the 1938 charter and what many Hash House Harriers still follow is:
  • To promote physical fitness among our members
  • To get rid of weekend hangovers
  • To acquire a good thirst and to satisfy it in beer
  • To persuade the older members that they are not as old as they feel

"HASHING is a state of mind...

...a friendship of kindred spirits joined together for the sole purpose of reliving their childhood or fraternity days, releasing the tensions of everyday life, and generally, acting the fool amongst others who will not judge you or measure you by anything more than your sense of humor. College professors or students, colonels or privates, managers or assembly line workers, doctors or plumbers... all are gathered together without concern for social status or education. They are gathered for the sport and the camaraderie and take on a new personality, for they are now...

...HASHERS"

The only prerequisite to hashing is that you have a sense of humor!

What do I need to know before I run my first hash?

What to Wear: Wear clothing that you will be comfortable running in. Bring dry clothing and shoes to change into after the run - just in case. 

 

Major No-Nos: This list includes – but is not limited to: new shoes (you will drink from them), competitiveness, using the word “race” or wearing anything related (shirts, numbers, etc), whining, stealing (but borrowing is OK), rain (the RA will be held responsible for bad weather), tax collectors, discrimination, using the word “rules” (there are no rules in hashing), refusing a down down, or fighting. You will be punished for any of these heinous violations! (see The Circle)

 

Beer: cold.

 

Food: usually munchies, at times burgers or something substantial.

 

Cost: $5 pay-per-run

 

Communications: This website, naturally. But you can always join the Yahoo Group for updates.

 

Sign-in: At the appointed time, the On Sec will sign hashers (the pack) into the official Hash Register. It costs $5 to hash with us. It's not much, but it goes a long way and covers the beer, flour, snacks, and other essentials.

 

Chalk talk: Someone (the Hare Raiser or the RA) will give the Chalk Talk, an explanation of the symbols used to mark the trail. While PCH3 has standard markings, it's always best to check with the Hares for any additional marks may have used.

 

The trail: Go run the trail. There should be a beer check on trail to allow people to rehydrate. The trail will vary in length – depending on how energetic the hare(s) is. 

 

On-in: Come on home! If you complete the trail, you'll find anything you brought with you (dry shirt, change of shoes, etc.) at the ending place (which will usually NOT be the starting place: the so-called A to B run). Relax for a few minutes, socialize, have a beer and get ready for...

 

The Circle: the hash ritual. Here's the general format:

  • Down-down by the hares
  • Introduction of virgins - first time hashers
  • Introduction of visitors
  • Punishment of the FRB, AEC, and SCB
  • Sinners and Violators - screw your friends and let us all laugh at them for the stupid things they've done... especially on trail
  • Namings (see below)
  • Announcements - Like future hashes, hares, stuff for sale
  • Entertainment by the FRB, AEC, and SCB
  • Swing Low. Learn the words and you can look like a real hasher wherever you go, all over the world.

Hash names: Upholding hash traditions, PCH3 gives hash names when someone does something so noteworthy, so exceptional, so ridiculously silly that it should be memorialized. We should come to a name by a guided consensus, with input by the pack and mis-management. Hash names, ideally, should be clever and related to the hash. As a general rule, if the named doesn't like her name, you've done good. And don't ever think that you get to name yourself!

History of the Hash House Harriers

Click here for a Time Line History of the Original Hash House Harriers

The Original "Hash House"
The Original "Hash House," Kuala Lumpur, circa 1938

Hash House was the nickname, given for its institution food, to the Selangor Club Chambers where resided a number of bachelors and others separated from their wives (long separations being an inevitable facet of colonial life at the time). The idea of Harriers chasing paper was not new to Malaya, as there had been such clubs in Kuala Lumpur and Johore Baru which became extinct about 1934, and there was a Malacca club and the Kinta Harriers in Ipoh in existence at the time (there were also the Shanghai and Kuching clubs who had it on horseback). So the Hash House Harriers was not a new idea, but was a new show with a completely novel name.

 

The principal Dramatis Personae were: A S Gispert ("G"), Cecil Lee, "Horse" Thomson, "Torch" Bennett and later, Philip Wickens, and a fairly small supporting cast.

 

Members on the books probably only rarely got over 50 right up to 1966, and were very much less sometimes (directly after World War II, after Malayan Independence in 1957, and again in the second half of 1965) and the Hash an endangered species.

 

Our story really starts on a day in 1937/38 when Gispert was transferred from Singapore to Malacca, and there joined a club called the Springgit Harriers, who had a rather gentle weekly run basically following Hash rules, and who are believed to have been formed in 1935. Some months later, Torch Bennett visited him and came as a guest on a few runs. Gispert moved to Kuala Lumpur, and after a great deal of discussion, given the credit for being the one who actually got the thing off the ground. Torch Bennett technically missed being a founder member because he was then on leave, but on his return he introduced the first necessary minimum organization - a bank account and a balance sheet. More important he seems with Philip Wickens, who joined in 1939, to have helped keep the thing going - immediately postwar.

A.S.I. "G" Gispert
A.S.I. "G" Gispert (1903-1942)

The first runs incidentally, were on Fridays not Mondays, as Monday was parade night for the Selangor Volunteers to which many of the members belonged. Sadly, Gispert had only a short time with his extraordinary creation, being killed in the fighting on Singapore island in 1942. Exactly what happened to him is somewhat obscure, but according to the Regimental History, he was in a position somewhere short of 200 yards up the old dairy farm road in Bukit Timah at 4.00 a.m. one morning when an enemy patrol took him by surprise. Officially he is still just "missing". The others by comparison are still very much with us and the Kuala Lumpur Hash House Harriers is still in touch with them all.

 

Cecil Lee's direct association lasted, with only two short breaks (the war and another three-year period, right through to his retirement in 1961. He now lives near Leatherhead, Surrey. Torch Bennet retired in the late 1950s to Durban, South Africa. Horse Thomson moved to Ipoh around 1951 and now runs his own sugar estate in the Philippines. Philip Wickens was transferred to Singapore around 1958 and now works in London from where he occasionally visits Kuala Lumpur.

 

The founding members were all British, although Gispert was actually Spanish or Portuguese, his parents having migrated to London some time before he was born. Extraordinarily both he and Bennett were accountants, as were Paul Barnard and Jack Bridewell who have made a significant contribution to our history of recent years. Some Hash psychiatrist should investigate whether accountancy leads to extreme forms of escapism. If it does it could have serious impact on the Jacaranda Hash financial situation.

 

The club duly celebrated its 100th run on 15 August 1941, but only 17 runs later was forced into temporary hibernation by the arrival of the Japanese. Post World War II, it was nearly 12 months before the survivors reassembled. Torch Bennett put in a claim for the lost Hash mugs, a tin bath and two old bags on the fund set up with the proceeds from confiscated Japanese properly and run No. 1 was a trot around the race course in August 1946. Subsequent to the 1000th postwar run, the 117 official prewar runs were added back into the total. With the advent of the Emergency in 1948, the Hash was automatically in bad official odour, as their activities were generally illegal in terms of the curfew imposed on most of the areas surrounding Kuala Lumpur, and in the years 1948/51, they maintained a precarious existence at best. The turn around came with the famous bandit incident at Cheras.

 

This has been widely misreported, but what actually happened was somewhere around where the Lady Templer Hospital is now, in an area that was then rubber and blukar, the Hares on the darkening and rainy evening came across some men wrapped in ground sheets sleeping on the ground. The following pack found the bandits on their feet but somehow in the general confusion nobody got hurt. One member ran to Cheras Police Station and raised the alarm; the army laid ambushes on tracks leading out of the area and first thing the following morning bagged three bandits trying the break out. One of them was found to have a substantial price on his head and the bounty was shared among the non-government employees on the run (government servants were not allowed to participate in such rewards).  

The Original Hash

The second Hash Chapter was founded in Singapore in 1962, followed by Kuching in 1963, Brunel, Kota Kinabalu, Penang and Ipoh in 1964, and Perth was the first outside Singapore and Malaysia in 1967. Even by the time of the Kuala Lumpur 1500th run in 1973, the total was only 35, so the subsequent explosion has been really spectacular. The present official International List totals 223 clubs in 50 different countries and all continents, except Antarctica.

 

The first attempt at an Interhash get-together was the Kuala Lumpur 1000th postwar run in 1966, and the first spectacular, the 1500th in 1973 when the attendance was something over 300. Malaysian meets now regularly attract 400/500, but Interhash 78 in Hong Kong topped that by a fair margin. An Interhash 80 is credited with 1242.

DISCLAIMER
 
This website is the result of numerous hours of copyright violations, plagiarism and drunken ramblings. It should not be taken literally. It was developed to provide guidelines to new and old members, to inform you of our next hash, and to let you know a little bit about us. The Pecan City Hash reminds everyone that: If you get hurt as a result of anything posted here, it's your own damn fault and we were out of the country at the time! With the legal stuff out of the way, peruse, enjoy and ON ON.