Greek Sing Evokes Old Memories, Makes New Ones

This weekend was Greek Sing. It was also Mom's Day for most sororities. I'm very good with moms; I tried to use this to get a free lunch on Sunday. After church, I said loudly, "I am HUNGRY AND POOR!" This got me no where.

One of my best friends, Ryan Siebenmorgen (Sieb), was in Greek Sing. His fraternity, Farmhouse, was paired up with Kappa Kappa Gamma. I stood in the back and watched him sing. He's an excellent dancer, too. Their theme was "The Beatles," and they used the music to tell a love story. He was the lead. The Kappas put their best vocalist opposite him; a few times I heard moms in the audience say, "Oh no - he's going to drop her!" but no, he'll pull her out of whatever dip she was in. He loves stuff like that. He's brash in a way that highway men were two hundred years ago.

When Sieb and I were in high school, we entered the talent show our junior year. This was the same year one of our classmates, a very nice girl named Megan, was diagnosed with cancer. The proceeds of the talent show went to the surgery of a homeless dog who broke its leg. Student Council didn't have a very wide scope.

At the time, Sieb and I played football. We were both offensive linemen, and we were good at it. That's the way everyone knew us. So we dressed up in very tight, inappropriate clothes and did an interpretive dance to a Bonnie Tyler song in front of the student body. You might say, "This has been a common fraternity pledge mission since an older member dared that Chinese boy to stand in front of the tanks at Tiananmen Square."

The difference was we practiced for days. We danced well. We even brought a girl out of the crowd and performed a complicated lift. But we didn't even place.

Our offensive line coach was Coach Yoakum. He still teaches American history there. I got a text message from one of my mentor kids a few weeks ago. He said that Coach Yoakum had told a story about how two of his gay linemen dressed like forest fairies and behaved obscenely in front of a school assembly. The kid asked if that was me. I said yes; Coach Yoakum always identified Sieb and I as "the gay brothers." It was the best he could do, given three years.

(Even better - my cousin is a senior at FHS, where I went to school. He told me last week that in his photo journalism class, the teacher was giving a slide show of examples of good photographs, and one of was Sieb and I mid-air. He said the entire class knew who we were, though the teacher didn't. She was new.)

At intermission Friday night, the Alpha Phi Alphas began stepping in the aisles. BYX didn't compete in Greek Sing; since we're not in IFC, we're not allowed. Jealous from watching the shows, I grabbed a few fraternity brothers and started a step train headed directly for the A Phi A's. When we passed them in the middle, I tried to give my most aggressive throw to show that we were competing. They were just confused. Not confusion - pity, maybe?

Sieb told me afterwards that he tried to join the A Phi A line. A large black woman pulled him out by his collar and slapped him, saying, "Never join a black person's step line!" Sieb was paralyzed; he said he didn't know. Hearing this, the woman softened and patted Sieb on the head, saying, "Oh honey, I just assumed you'd know better."