Kevin Robbins: COLLEGE STATION — Long tables draped with maroon linens held the portraits of the dead. Other photographs were displayed Tuesday at G. Rollie White Coliseum, including images depicting the progression of the Texas A&M University sacrament known as Bonfire: cut, stack, burn. One section of pictures portrayed the events of Nov. 18, 1999.
But John Comstock was drawn to the portraits in the black frames. He gazed at the eyes looking back.
“Hi, John.”
Comstock turned.
“Darrin Allen. I found you in the stack.”
Comstock searched the man for signs. The eyes. They were blue. Did Comstock recognize those eyes from that morning in 1999? Maybe he did.
People change in 10 years. Comstock was a dark-haired and mischievous 19-year-old freshman who liked being around people — at parties, on campus, at Bonfire — in November of that year. He still had his left leg. His right arm worked. So did his right foot. He could walk and swing an axe. At stack he wore a bandana under a black military surplus helmet — Aggies call them “pots” — indicating his residence at Moses Hall.
The last time Comstock used his pot was back then, when the 90-year-old tradition of burning six tiers of timber before the annual football game with Texas also changed forever.
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