File under Reason No. 654 I love this school:
Impromptu arch sings!
At around 11 p.m. last night, a group of distinguished looking men clustered in Blair Arch and began doling out classics like “Tigertone Blues,” “Danny Boy,” and “I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends.” They sang to no one, save themselves. Eventually, one student stopped, then two, then a crowd. Whispering ensued: What was going on? Just who were these men?
Answer: The Nassoons, circa 1975-81.
They had flown in from around the world, including Minnesota, Tokyo, and Moscow, to reunite with some of their closet friends from college.
“That guy — see, over there,” Bob Peskin ’78 pointed, “he was kind of a space cadet in college. We joke that he’s from Mars.”
Peskin and his friends had gathered as part of the larger Nassoons reunion taking place this weekend. Founded in 1941, the Nassoons host shows on campus every five years, and this year, over 200 alums are expected for the huge (and free!) 70th anniversary show scheduled for Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., in Taplin Auditorium.
“You should come! If you stay the whole time, you can see how the songs have changed from generation to generation,” Peskin said. Many of the alums no longer sing nor dance, he added, so while all groups meet up to rehearse their scales and jazz squares on Friday, the best part of the show is watching which groups have their act together, and which ones don’t.
So how is his class doing? Take a look yourself:
Thanks to Lauren Zumbach ’13 for the video.
One Comment
Glad you enjoyed hearing us sing, and writing it up for this blog, Shirley! The Saturday singing for one another and our families/friends was wonderful–all the decade groups sounded great, and the alums were delighted to hear the current Nassoon undergrads. Hard to describe how moving it was for all of us to be in the company of Nassoons from the classes of 1942 (in the person of one of our eight original members, Jack Huyler ’42) to 2014.
The spirit of the weekend is captured in the lyrics of one of our most beloved numbers, “1905 Reunion Song,” which we all sang together Saturday:
Drawn by allegiance the years cannot sever,
Sons of fair Princeton return to their shrine:
Youth and old age in a common endeavor,
Proudly to serve her, to walk in her line.
We turn once more to scenes we love: the walks, the ivied walls,
The seniors singing on the steps, the elms, the cloistered halls.
We call the roll, some men have gone; our hearts are touched with pain.
This makes us cherish all the more the friends who still remain.
But more than trees and songs and walls, has Princeton for her men.
She casts her spell upon our hearts, and we are young again.
May sound corny to others, but the older we get, the more we value the deep and abiding bonds created during our brief years as student singers in the Nassoons. May you and all Princeton undergrads have the opportunity to forge such lasting relationships with one another.