Threading the Bushes

In Washington suburbs, the newest teen-age game is called "rolling." In Michigan, where the practice has been going on for years, it is known as "threading the bushes." Around Houston, it's called "wrapping." And in Salt Lake City and eastern Massachusetts, where the custom is even a trifle passe, it is known by the most descriptive title of all: "T.P.-ing."

By whatever name, the goal is the same: to sneak out in the dead of night and shroud the victim's house from chimney pot to privet hedge with yard upon yard of toilet paper, preferably the tinted or floral varieties. The antic is performed by boys or girls, but always in pairs or a group. As Sue Simms, 18, a senior at Silver Spring, Md.'s Montgomery Blair High School, points out, "You need someone on the other side of the tree in order to fling the dwindling roll back and forth." And there are rules as well as an art to it. Mary Karen Bowen, 16, of Bountiful, Utah, advises: "Make sure you don't break the roll, or it doesn't count." The results, particularly when it rains or snows immediately thereafter, add up to ells and ells of mess. But as one mother sighs, "It's less destructive than anything else the kids can do."

The motives for bedecking someone's house are as various as the names for it. Captains of losing football teams, unpopular girls and teachers take it as a sign of hate. Pretty and popular girls, on the other hand, consider it a compliment from a secret admirer. Often they are right. A Birmingham, Mich., high school boy puts it this way: "If a girl is outstanding, you kind of like to make her house outstanding." Q.E.D.

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