Author Archives: Benjamin Ma

Saxes vs. Brass Horn Polishing

Main Piece

In the Southern Methodist University (SMU) band, there is an ongoing rivalry between the Sax section and the Brass section. There is a particular tradition, or game, that occurs every year at the annual “Horn Polishing” event, which occurs at the conclusion of the football season.

After the Horn Polishing, a senior in the Brass section will give a spoon (or other small metal object) inside a Crown Royal purple bag to a junior in the Brass. It is the job of the Saxes to obtain this item. According to AB, the Saxes have never succeeded, which is why he doesn’t know exactly what the item is. The ceremonial handoff occurs in secret in the Band Hall.

Usually, the Saxes attempt to get the item from the Brass junior after the hand-off by securing the exits of the Band Hall. However, other Brass members will tackle the Saxes in order to prevent them from stopping the item carrier. AB tells me about the last time this hand-off happened:

“The carrier was Cathy, a very quick and small woman in Brass. She ran out of the band hall like a bullet. A car was waiting for her and zoomed away when she got inside. Meanwhile, other Brass members were tackling the Saxes so we couldn’t stop her.”

AB also tells me that his sophomore year, the Saxes also had a car waiting to chase the Brass getaway car, and a car chase ensued, which almost ended in a car accident. Because of this incident, the band director asked them to dispense with the tradition. However, the student leaders of the band liked the tradition, so they didn’t get rid of it – just “toned it down a little.”

Informant background

AB is a university student at Southern Methodist University (Dallas), originally from the California Bay Area. He is a member of the SMU band.

Performance context

AB described this to me during a phone call when I asked him to tell me about SMU traditions, rituals, and rumors.

Analysis

Rivalries between sections seem to be a common theme among most school bands, but this particular tradition is a way for the two sections to physically put their rivalry to bear. From AB’s description, while ostensibly strategy could be involved in the Saxes’ gambit to get the item from the Brass, every year it seems to turn into a primarily physical tackling event: an intriguing parallel to the end of the football season, which is celebrated just prior to this ritual.

The SMU Tunnel System

Main Piece

At Southern Methodist University (SMU), there is a rumor that there is an extensive tunnel system underground beneath the campus. In official building plans, there are some air vents that go between the buildings, but people say that there is much more actually there than indicated on the plans. Allegedly, during World War II, the tunnel system was built as an evacuation and shelter zone.

AB says that “the joke is, if you ask an old professor about it, they’ll wink at you.” He also says, “Some people who want to push the envelope a little bit, who are really into this stuff, claim that they have a catacomb… and the catacomb contains famous SMU people… like Robert Heyer, the first president of SMU, is buried underneath Dallas Hall.”

There is a student tradition at SMU of going to the Meadow School of the Arts (which is an old, not-well-maintained building), and going down to the basement, where “you can get lost easily.” From there, “If you open the wrong door, you can find a chasm; if you know the plan, you can find the chasm.” AB’s friend C claims to have brought climbing equipment to this chasm and rappelled down the chasm. C says there were marks of people having been there before, but it was sealed off at the bottom.

Informant background

AB is a university student at Southern Methodist University (Dallas), originally from the California Bay Area. He is a member of the SMU band.

Performance context

AB described this to me during a phone call when I asked him to tell me about SMU traditions, rituals, and rumors.

Analysis

These kind of secret-passages-and-tunnels rumors seem to be very popular among teenagers and early-20-somethings. The appeal is shown through the idea of the “legend quest,” of going out and trying to see if the rumors are true or not. The fact that AB has heard of many friends and acquaintances trying to explore the tunnels is evidence of this ongoing legend quest at SMU.

The SMU Beanie

Main Piece

The “beanie” is a peculiar bit of Southern Methodist University (SMU) material lore that is “like a baseball cap, but it’s been shortened and it intentionally fits badly.” AB tells me about the beanie’s history at SMU:

The whole university’s freshman class, circa 1930s, used to wear them as a signifier that they were freshmen. They were required to wear them at all times when outside, and recommended to do so while inside. Over time, they were less and less used and enforced until it became just the football team and the band that kept the tradition (this was around the 1980s). By the 2000s, only the band was still enforcing the beanie tradition.

Nowadays, the band makes freshmen wear their beanies just at ceremonies, such as Homecoming. However, while not required to wear their beanies at all times, the freshmen are expected to carry it at all times: if an upperclassman asks them where their beanie is, and they don’t have it, they have to sing the Beanie Song:

  1. “Oh where, oh where has my beanie gone?
  2. Oh where, oh where could it be?
  3. With its big-ass blue bill and its diamond M on the back
  4. Oh where, oh where could it be?”

This song carries the tune of Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

Informant background

AB is a university student at Southern Methodist University (Dallas), originally from the California Bay Area. He is a member of the SMU band.

Performance context

AB described this to me during a phone call when I asked him to tell me about SMU traditions, rituals, and rumors.

Analysis

The beanie tradition seems to be a good example of an initiation ritual (or, in other terms, “hazing”) that serves to humiliate the new members so that they have to go through what all the other upper-classmen have been through, to officially be a part of the group. Also, it is notable that the tradition started with the entire school, but dwindled down to just the band over time, who are charged with carrying school spirit.

Murder on the Island

Main Piece

When JJ was growing up in Massachusetts, he used to go to a fishing camp that would take a day trip to a tiny island off the coast of New Hampshire. Every year, they would tell a “true story” about an abandoned red house on the island:

“A family used to live in that red house, with a wife and husband, and their maid. The husband made his living fishing from the island. The husband and wife would sleep upstairs, while the maid was downstairs. Once, the wife’s sister came to visit, and slept downstairs with the maid. There had been some longstanding conflict between the husband and the wife’s sister, since she hadn’t wanted her sister to marry him.

The maid woke up in the middle of the night to a scream. She found the wife’s sister dead in her room. She ran upstairs and woke up the husband and wife: “You sister’s dead! You have to get out of here!” The maid goes back down to check on the sister. The husband tries to help his wife escape through the second story window, but as soon as her head is out, her head got chopped off by an axe! Then the husband is freaking out. He runs downstairs and finds that the maid is dead, next to the wife’s sister.

He hops in his rowboat and starts trying to row to shore, but it’s the middle of the night, and it’s miles to shore. He starts rowing, he’s falling asleep, his hands are getting tired, he’s starting to let go of the oars. It’s winter so it’s freezing cold. He dips his hands into the water to freeze his hands to the oars. It works and he finally arrives to a city in New England, and goes to a hotel. He’s covered in blood trying to tell them what happened. His hands are completely frostbitten. They arrest him on the spot. He got convicted and sent to jail. Up until his death he denied it and said there was someone else on the island.

On his deathbed he admitted to murdering everyone.

Or so they say he confessed…”

Informant background

JJ is a student at the University of Southern California. He is from Newburyport, MA.

Performance context

This story was told during a folklore collection event that I set up with a diversity of members from the USC men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. We were in a classic folklore collection setting: sharing drinks around a campfire, in a free flowing conversation.

Analysis

JJ’s story, along with every scary story I collected for this project, professes to be a “true story.” While the plausibility of this is in question, the effect of even the plausibility of this story having happened causes an extra layer of fear and fascination for the story—especially since the story is almost always told while the listeners are actually at the site.

The Beanie Dip

Main Piece

The Beanie Dip is an Southern Methodist University (SMU) band initiation ritual which revolves around the use of the Beanie, a traditional band hat.

The Beanie Dip takes place just after Band Camp, which occurs in late summer before the Fall semester begins. The Sophomores are recognized and initiated into the Band (“the freshmen aren’t because they haven’t finished playing one season yet, which consists of both football and basketball” –AB). The whole freshman class is guided by 2 seniors on a route from the freshman hall to the main campus fountain at midnight. The sophomores are escorting and policing the freshmen. The escort arrangement consists of 4 lines: the inner 2 lines are freshmen, with the sophomores flanking in two lines on the outside. On this walk, the seniors tell stories about the history of the university. The freshmen are strictly prohibited from speaking.

Once the group arrives at the fountain, the fountain is ringed by juniors and seniors in a circle. When the sophomores arrive, they become the closest circle to the fountain, while the freshmen are the furthest circle, merely observing. One senior is standing in the fountain and gives a short speech. The sophomores are then told to take their beanies out, submerge their beanie fully in the water, and then dunk that water over their head. AB calls this part “signifying a birth or entry into the band.” After this, the sophomores are congratulated by the juniors and seniors.

Informant background

AB is a university student at Southern Methodist University (Dallas), originally from the California Bay Area. He is a member of the SMU band.

Performance context

AB described this to me during a phone call when I asked him to tell me about SMU traditions, rituals, and rumors.

Analysis

The Beanie Dip is the threshold ceremony (i.e. the initiation ritual) that signifies the sophomores’ official entrance into being a fully-fledged band member. Interestingly, the use of pouring water from a fountain over the head strongly mimics the Christian tradition of baptism, and AB even used the word “birth” when describing how this ritual is the start of a person’s official band career.