One of the joys of having children attend your alma mater, is seeing them participate in traditions that you remember fondly from your own college days.
A couple weeks ago was what we at Abilene Christian University call Sing Song Weekend. This is a unique annual event that has been around since 1957. Sing Song is an a cappella singing competition in which students prepare rewritten medleys of popular songs that are performed with costumes, sets, and choreography that relate to their chosen theme. Each year, a top act is chosen from each of the three divisions: Men’s Social Clubs, Women’s Social Clubs, and Classes.
(The Bananas were the best of the bunch, of course.)
My husband and I performed in Sing Song when we were students, and my daughter participated during her freshmen year. Now it was my son’s turn. I found an old yearbook photo from 1992, the year my class (juniors) went bananas. My husband’s class (seniors) went prehistoric with Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Wes still has his Fred Flintstone costume. He loves to drag it out at Halloween. I wish I had had the foresight to keep my banana. Ha! My roommate and I helped sew dozens of those yellow costumes. I’m still finding yellow felt fuzz in my machine decades later. I found an old copy of a video of our performance from 1992 and tried to capture a screen shot (very pixelated) when I found myself in the bunch. This is from the part of the show after we had “peeled” (notice the exposed white interior) and where we “split” so the Chaquita vaquero could wrangle the “bad banana.” The gorilla was our director. Yes – Sing Song is a pun-lover’s delight!
Every year, the music takes snippets from recognizable popular tunes and changes the words to create funny parodies that reflect on life at ACU. For example, one of the songs my son’s group used was “Playing with the Queen of Hearts.” And the title “Do You Wnat to Play a Card Game?” came from, you guessed it – Frozen’s “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”
We had fun with the card puns, telling Wyatt he looked good in his “suit” and how he and his friend were definitely in the right “club.”
I’ve circled Wyatt in the back row of the full group when they were on stage. That’s my handsome hubby playing the proud papa after the show was over. Wyatt’s group ended up in 3rd place overall for their division. Yay
What unique traditions do you remember fondly from your school days?
If anyone wants to watch my son’s group performance to see what it’s like, you can watch it here. It’s a little under 4 minutes.
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Karen: I love this post!! I graduated from and work at Harding University. Our version of “Sing Song” is Spring Sing. I participated in Spring Sing when I was in college, and I have made hundreds and hundreds of Spring Sing costumes through the years for different clubs.
A few years ago, I made “chicken” costumes that used orange feather boas … I occasionally still find an orange feather lurking in a corner. 🙂 Hopefully my daughter will come to Harding in a few years and get to experience Spring Sing also.
I love reading your books … it’s good to make a “connection”. 🙂
Thanks for making me smile so early in the morning! 🙂
Lora, my Harding sister! So great to connect with you. I’ve heard great things about Spring Sing. One of my close friends is a Harding grad and she LOVED her time there. Those chicken costumes must have been hilarious. I never cease to be amazed by the creativity of college students. Ha!
What a fun competition!
I can see why you have such fond memories of this activity.
It was such a fun time, and a good way to meet people that I wouldn’t normally interact with.
We had something similar at Baylor called Sing. However, in the case of Sing, we had music and danced all around the stage. Such fun memories. 🙂
That sounds fun, Becky!
My dad and I share the same alma mater; it’s located north of Boston. The campus size had changed over the years since his graduation. He was in the sciences; I was the liberal arts. I enjoyed my time there and would like to return for a class reunion. During the academic year, there was a Sunday evening Mass for us students in the collegiate chapel. (There are priests who work at the college and live at a house owned by the college off campus)
A local parish uses the chapel for Christmas and Easter Masses to accommodate overflow.
I bet those Mass ceremonies were special. What a wonderful tradition!
This is straight up adorable! I love this tradition. I was a commuter student, so I sadly don’t have a cool story like this. But I really love your story, and that you get to share this with your kids. How fun!
Thanks, Nicole. It does make for fun memories.