The conversations recorded here took place almost verbatim. They were taken down by two visitors to the Providence festivities, who partook of the proffered refreshments only in the sections indicated.

Spring Weekend 1958 arrives today, as an anticipatory campus heads for the river, and rivers and rivers of refreshments flow and flow. The campus will be crowded today, deserted tomorrow, and who will care? The education of a full life will be learned and absorbed, to be savoured. By George, It's Spring! Brown Daily Herald, April 25, 1958.

The first event is the Interfraternity Sing. Forty percent of Brown's undergraduates belong to fraternities. The 17 houses on campus have been rehearsing for weeks, and urging the brothers to participate, so that they can take the crown away from Alpha Delta Phi, which has held it for a while.

On the steps to the entrance of Wilson Hall a fraternity is lined up, rehearsing for the great event.

"All right now you guys: no wiggling or waving. Chest in. Breathe."

The director moves up and down the line of black-suited, horizontal-striped-tied men. "Hey you there stop shivering. Chest in. No wiggling, damnit. No waving."

"Who d'ya think is going to win this year?"

"I don't know. The guy down the hall told me last night he thinks Phi Psi may have a chance. But he's a Phi Psi pledge, so you can't be sure. They're really hot to win it, though."

"D'you know anybody else in Phi Psi?"

"Just him. I don't know too many guys in fraternities."

"Oh, yes...That's right. You're an independent."

Yes, this is true. This doesn't mean too much freshman year, because a man can still live in the same dorm with his friends who have gone fraternity, and there's nothing really different about his life except a feeling that he should have rushed, or perhaps some bitterness because he was not bid.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the annual Interfraternity Sing, sponsored by the Interfraternity Council. This is a prime example of the co-operation and brotherhood that is the essence of the fraternity spirit at Brown. We shall first hear from Phi Kappa Psi."

The speech finds support from a few scattered members of the crowd, who move closer together to avoid the spitefulness of the elm tree.

"This Is my country; Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba; Land of my birth; Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba...."