The Memory of First Year Sing

 

    While digging through the archives this week, I stumbled upon the lyrics for ‘A Song of Farewell’ in the box labeled “The Chasers.” The paper on which the lyrics were written had yellowed with age, and appeared to have been transcribed by a typewriter. It only took a moment of glancing over the lyrics before I remembered them and their significance: ‘A Song of Farewell’ (now referred to as ‘Kokosing Farewell’) is traditionally performed at the First Year Sing, along with other Kenyon songs, such as ‘Philander Chase’ and ‘The Thrill,’ to name a few. In 1956, Kenyon’s president at the time, Frank Bailey, introduced the idea to the college, and after repeating itself annually, First Year Sing quickly became one of Kenyon College’s most beloved traditions. At the beginning of fall semester– at the start of a new school year– the first year students stand outside on the steps of Rosse and sing traditional Kenyon songs for the entire community. Despite its purpose to warmly welcome new students, it is customary for the upperclassmen to heckle the first years as they are singing. The tradition is ingrained into the fabric of Kenyon, and although I did not remember the tune of the song, I immediately was transported back in time, reminiscing about my First Year Sing almost four years ago.

    In Lyn Spillman and Brian Conway’s essay on ‘Texts, Bodies, and the Memory of Bloody Sunday,’ findings on collective memory and the body are utilized to expand the strong embodiment thesis. Though Spillman and Conway agree with Paul Connerton’s assertion that the body is a mechanism for collective memory, they suggest that it’s less about the construction or the defining of an event, but rather, a physical reaction or experience is what makes something memorable. Furthermore, competing interpretations of the event keep the memory relevant, exceeding any one individual’s experience of it. 

    When I came across the lyrics, two contrasting memories of First Year Sing came back to me. On the one hand, cognizant of my status as an upperclassman, I chuckled at the thought of “booing” the first years. But then, I had a visceral reaction to the memory of being a first year, and the humiliation of singing as the upperclassmen “booed” me. Every year, the first years process the latter memory, while the upperclassmen possess the former, and “individuals with the same incorporated memories would not seem to be important to collective memory, unless those memories were mutually symbolized.” (Spillman, Conway 2007: 95). Although the tradition stays the same, our interpretations change based on the way we embody that event in a given year, whether we are the first years or upperclassmen. However, the varying memories and interpretations of First Year Sing– depending on class year– preserve the event and memory of it. Spillman and Conway also suggest that a bodily experience is sufficient enough to recall a memory, and the bodily experience or visceral reaction triggers memory. My visceral reaction to the lyrics of ‘Kokosing Farewell’ was tinged with embarrassment, even though I am now an upperclassman, no longer on the receiving end of “boos” and heckling. In the case of First Year Sing, the bodily experience shifts as we get older, but the memory of being a terrified first year on the steps of Rosse Hall remains.

Spillman, Lyn, and Brian Conway. “Texts, Bodies, and the Memory of Bloody Sunday.” Symbolic Interaction, vol. 30, no. 1, 1 Nov. 2007, pp. 79–103.