Fraternizing and Harmonizing

Fraternity traditions fall into a category of their own. It would take far more than a mere magazine article to list even a fraction of the rituals and customs that govern (if that's not too tame a word) fraternity life. Not to mention that a good many fraternity rites are secret.

One former fraternity tradition deserves mention here, though, if only because it was so public, so popular, and so much a part of the texture of campus life: singing on the Path. For many years, following their meetings on Tuesday night, the fraternity men would march down Middle Path from Bexley Hall south to the dorms, four abreast, arms linked, singing their groups' songs. At one time, all of the fraternities had songbooks provided by their national organizations, with arrangements of the songs in four-part harmony.

Many alumni, and older Gambier residents as well, have fond memories of those evenings. Onlookers would pause to listen. Some would join in and march along. Faculty children drifting off to sleep would catch strains of song that rose to their windows. According to Thomas Boardman Greenslade's history of Kenyon, "Visitors would sometimes make it a point to come to Gambier on Tuesday evenings just to listen."The book also notes the tradition of singing songs after dining, with a major sing taking place on Sundays after the noon meal. (See "Of Pranks and Songs and Sodden Peep Nights" on page 64, by Douglas W. Downey '51, for more on the Peirce Hall Sunday sing and other traditions.)

The weekly sing along Middle Path was still going strong in the mid-1960s. By the early seventies, it had disappeared. Perhaps the arrival of women hastened this change in campus culture. More likely, the singing ceased because youth culture itself changed.

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