HERDING MEN

This past weekend in Waterville, Maine, nearly 100 male singers gathered at Colby College for a spectacular and memorable A Capella Concert. Over the past 75 years, they had all been members of the renowned Colby 8, the premier singing group at the college. They ranged in age from 19 (the current Colby 8 group) to guys in their 90s.

The younger groups performed wearing casual navy blue sweater-tops, khakis and Nike sneakers. They jogged energetically to the front of Lorimer Chapel, then belted out songs (including Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah”), and added knee-bending hip-hopping finger-snapping choreography to their sprightly musical presentations. 

The “founding guys,” (AKA: the geezer group) who sang in the 1950s when the Dead Sea still showed signs of life, sported gentlemanly navy blue blazers, pale blue button-down shirts (more on that later), khakis and leather loafers. Oh yes, you might have spotted a walker or two, maybe a cane, and for sure numerous hearing aids. 

Mr. Wonderful, who’d been invited to join the Colby 8 his freshman year in 1956, was a baritone in this oldest group. Thankfully, they did NOT add choreography to their gig. (During their rendition of “Lizzie Borden,” one wife whispered with a giggle, “We’d need a fork lift to pick these guys up if they start doing squats.”)

Organizational planning for this memorable weekend began months ago when the first of approximately 822 emails arrived in Bob’s inbox. (I honestly think D-Day entailed less strategy.) These emails covered every topic from which songs they would sing — “Mood Indigo” or “Little Girl Blue” or “Maybe You’ll Be There” or “I Got Rhythm” or “Someone to Watch Over Me” — to their attire for the night of the concert. 

You think women are fussy about their dress for certain occasions?  (My motto: “I could give up shopping but I’m not a quitter.”) The emails arrived near-hourly, debating whether to wear button-down or regular collar shirts, and should those shirts be pale blue or light blue or medium blue, and with a tie or an open neck? (The palaver proved worth it — our guys looked great.)

Because many of the groups had not sung together in decades, practice sessions started Friday afternoon and continued all day Saturday. (I might add, it was Masters Saturday, but these guys saw little golf.) Armed with reams of song sheets and pages of instructions, they bounced back and forth on a special shuttle that took them from the Hampton Inn to Mayflower Hill, the center of campus. Occasionally, it was a bit like herding cats, getting them all going in the same direction.

I doubt Billy Joel devoted as many hours preparing for his recent gig at Madison Square Garden as these seasoned senior singers did, especially when they learned that a new verse had been added to the Alma Mater which happened to be their closing number. “Say what?"

The concert was held in the nearly 100-year-old Lorimer Chapel, an icon of Georgian Revival architecture. The “founding guys” were the first group to perform and they finished to cheers, bravos and a standing O. But amidst the smiles and high-fives, they all knew it was a bitter-sweet moment — probably the last concert for the guys who had started this melodious singing group — the  Colby 8 — back in the 1950s. Sic transit gloria.

“Hail, Colby, Hail! Hail, Colby, Hail!

To thee we lift our hearts and homage pay;

Our Alma Mater, hail the Blue and Gray!”