A Song of Chapel Sing: On Freshman Homecoming 2011
Homecoming weekend. It’s exciting, it’s stressful, and like just about everything at Wabash, it’s teeming with tradition. For Alumni and many upperclassmen, Homecoming weekend lasts about 72 hours, from Chapel Sing to whenever the victory celebrations cease Saturday night (more likely Sunday morning). For us freshmen however, preparation for some aspects of Homecoming began weeks in advance. It all began with Chapel Sing. We Independents were approached by some older Independents who were asking for volunteers to participate in Chapel Sing. Eighteen of us volunteered to represent our fellow Independents and committed to attending mandatory practices. Why? Who knows? Some of us came because we were bored and thought it sounded like it might be fun. Some of us came because we felt ashamed not to. Many of us came because as Wabash Men, we knew it was the right thing to do.
As two first generation Wabash guys from Nebraska and Wisconsin, we didn’t really know how big a deal Chapel Sing was and what it was really like. We wouldn’t really know that until we walked off the mall six weeks later. But over those six weeks, we eighteen Independents practiced behind Sparks from 9:00 to 10:00 PM, five nights a week. It started off slowly as we learned the song, but it eventually progressed into marches and mock Chapel Sing line-ups, complete with the non-stop singing, red cards, screaming, and cigar smoke. It was tough, but at those tense moments when you had three guys all screaming in your face about their latest romantic encounter with your mother, three things kept you going: One, your zeal for Wabash (Of course!). Two, your fellow G.D.I.s. Three, the knowledge that some poor, sad sack pledge had it five times worse than you…and at 6 A.M.
Finally, the day of Chapel Sing arrived, and it couldn’t have been a more perfect day. It was sunny and the temperature was neither too hot nor too cold. After our respective tutorial classes, we met behind Sparks one last time. The older guys were all there to wish us luck. We put our hands together and, at the count of three, yelled “GDI!” Rudy, our spunky and animated leader, led us out onto the mall single-file. It was great seeing all of those people, students, faculty, and members of the community out there cheering everyone on. It was also nerve-wracking. We could feel the sweat running down our sides and our legs out of pure nervousness. Many of us knew members of the Sphinx Club and knew that they were nice guys, but on that morning, they seemed more like tigers in red and white stripes, ready to pounce on us black-and-white-clad sheep.
When Tyler Wade got up on his ladder and commenced the Sing, the resulting sound was more reminiscent of a dying animal than “Old Wabash”. Some groups immediately started off fast while others started more slowly. It didn’t take long for each of us to set our own pace. The entire time, we were just praying that we wouldn’t draw attention to ourselves. Staying focused was another struggle. Some of us got lucky and made it through, but the Sphinx Club members seem to have an innate ability to smell fear, and once they were able to find a target, they were damn good at messing you up.
When we finally got the okay to stop singing, it was one of the greatest senses of relief we had ever known. It was over. Once we were able to breathe at a normal rate and swallow our saliva in the typical fashion, it was even better. There was no more yelling. No more red cards. No more nightly practices. We were finished. We independents did a respectable job at the end of the day. We had one guy who couldn’t make it because he had a bad cold, so we had 17 guys, and we counted three Ws. Your humble authors were fortunate, and neither of us got Ws, but some of our good friends weren’t so lucky. Still, the Independent upperclassmen told us how proud they were of us regardless of whether or not we got a W.
Chapel Sing was only the beginning, however, and almost immediately we started our preparations for painting the bench and building our float. During the past several weeks, we had gone around all of the independent living units asking for donations to fund paint and float materials, and by Thursday night, we had most of the materials that we needed. So we split up into two groups, one to paint, and one to start on the float. Almost all of the guys who participated in Chapel Sing helped with the bench and float, but the cool thing was that countless other independents also showed up, and without their help on Thursday and Friday nights, we wouldn’t have been able to get done in time.
Painting the bench went well for the most part. We did a simple red and white color scheme with the phrase “GDI Till I Die” on the front. Over the next couple of days, we would get numerous positive comments, especially from fraternity guys, on how cool and creative our slogan and paint job was. The only mishap during the night was a funny coincidence. Who would have thought that on the same night the Independents were painting the senior bench, there would be a break out from the local insane asylum, and that those escaped patients would pelt eggs and balloons at us, all while exposing themselves? No serious harm was done, however. The escaped mental patients had pathetic aim.
The following night, we shifted our focus to our float, banner, and fire chant. For our chant, we decided on a rendition of Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow.” We dubbed it “White and Scarlet,” and it became an instant hit at fire chant. When we performed our chant, donning patriotic paraphernalia and bearing an American flag, everyone cheered us on, shouting encouraging things like, “What an awesome chant!” and “Go independents, you guys rock!” The event was really what ended up defining Wabash life for everyone on campus: camaraderie, respect, and good, old-fashioned fun. It was a rewarding experience.
For our float, we built medieval stockades which included Kenyon fans (purple clothing stuffed with copies of The Bachelor) in them and a giant 18-feet-tall “Executioner Wally,” which, thanks to a collaborative effort, we free-hand drew, painted, cut out, and constructed over the course of the night. Dozens of freshman independents descended on Martindale to help us out. The older guys were also there supervising us. Then the language interns came to hang out. Apparently, they heard about how cool our fire chant was. It was a lot of fun, not only seeing our project come together, but also to see everyone having a great time listening to music, eating pizza, and hanging out.
A few guys had to pull all-nighters, but we finally got our float done in time to be judged Saturday morning. Our banner was also done, but we had to make one more last-minute run to Walmart to buy some things for our homecoming queen. Upon heading down to the local Walmart for what was likely the twenty-seventh time, we (and Seton Goddard’s Visa card) were welcomed with open arms by the cordial host of greeters. Few things are as exciting as a hearty Crawfordsville “Welcome to Walmart!” When we arrived at the stadium before halftime, the fraternities’ banners and queens impressed us. Some of them had put a lot more time and effort into their banners. FIJI’s was particularly impressive. Our banner was based on the Don’t Tread on Me flag, except our snake was red and was devouring a lord. As the two designers of the banner, and as members of the Wabash Conservative Union, we thought it was pretty clever. If any future generations of freshmen read this, we would like to bequeath some advice to them concerning homecoming queens. A) When picking between a football player and a swimmer for your homecoming queen, pick the swimmer. B) It’s never a good idea for your queen to flash the judges, especially when there are feminists among them.
Overall, homecoming was great to be a part of. Floats and football games are a staple of most college homecomings; however, the great thing about Wabash College is that we take something like homecoming and add our own traditions to it. Chapel Sing, painting the Senior Bench and the homecoming “queen” contest are all unique to Wabash. Wabash Men have a passion for tradition. We don’t walk under the arch for fear of terrible things to come, we succumb to participation in Chapel Sing, and we pull all-nighters painting the Senior Bench, all in the name of one thing: Wabash tradition. Dean Raters reminded us after Chapel Sing that up until just a few years ago, Independents didn’t participate in Chapel Sing and that he was proud to see Independents volunteering to participate. He said that, “Chapel Sing is not a Fraternity thing. It’s not even a Sphinx Club thing. It’s a Wabash thing.” Now, it’s understood that a little friendly rivalry is healthy and that a little heckling never killed anyone, but even though we compete during homecoming as Independents or as Betas or as FIJIs, we should remember that we are Wabash men first and foremost and that these great traditions belong to all of us.
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