May 1, 2010

  • **The tales contained herein are recalled in a most frivolous nature, taking delight to a point of frivolous self-consciousness (one might say). All events are true, though their details and perspective are confirmed at only the most subjective level, I might suppose.

    In order to impose on the cavern walls of ancient time and memory these limited events of delectation, I take upon myself now the work of transcribing the events which Williams Secular Community engaged upon at Stone Hill so they will not leave my brain so shortly after the event occurred. During the course of the regular hours for college students, many laughs were had along with a bonding transcending the inner connections of the average student club or even that of common friendship so that many joyful, Godless times were had (as well as uncoördinated, multi-tempo, and off-key singing with no abandon to the night sky).

    Having conceived of nature-involved events for the WSC (Williams Secular Community) in order to more appreciate nature and foster more community sometime last year, the WSC called out for recruitment to a camping trip upon Stone Hill. A fire, s'mores, and singing (regardless if anyone could find a guitar) was to take place. How could any refuse?

    Taking up the call, Greg, April, Nick, Jonathan (myself), Margaret, Antal, and Kim decided to venture forth into this night in the wilderness (or the mostly treeless, pasture-like area just outside the wilderness; it's really exactly the same thing, when you think about it).

    Meeting in Baxter Hall to gather forces, the group convened, decked with sleeping bags/pads, a pillow, tarps, and the joys of chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows. From there, they headed out on their journey.

    Missing one of their members (he purported to be sick, a dubious claim that the group just could not accept), they descended upon the stony buildings of Greylock Quad to make plea to his better sources of reason. However, they found his room apparently vacant (or he was hiding and pretending to be gone) so the group graciously signed with their signatures to the sign on his door for a non-pressuring ultimatum that he must join the festivities (except for the apparent confusion of Kim, who wrote "Yeah, idk...").

    It was then to Stone Hill!

    The group made their way to their destination, engaging in the casual chitchat of a most prestigious nature (delighting in personal tales recounting the glory of surviving sleep deprivation and the successful victory in the foray of a written paper, current events on campus, opinions about certain art courses and the way that art majors and non-majors function in that, just how willing the drivers of the area were willing to obey the law that cars must stop for pedestrians that late at night, as well as returning to the ever familiar computer science (which actually occurred at an all-time low for the group, during that walk)).

    As they reached the hill, the talking dwindled as they made their ascent (I imagine the suddenly very audible and measured breathing might be some indication to a reason why, but I wouldn't personally begin to know).

    And then, at least, they had reached it! Quite excited, the group staked out the place to make a fire and began searching for wood to burn. At this point, the continued references to personal sticks and wood only got light chuckles from portions of the group at sporadic times.

    Having gathered their firewood, Nick took great care to assemble the sticks into the shape of a circular pyramid. Soon, a wonderful fire had been started and the marshmallows were broken out. Naturally, a discussion arose (it's the nature of the group, really) about how much to cook marshmallows. The range consisted from lightly browned to Kim who seemed to enjoy the clearly audible crunching noise that was made when a bite was made into the marshmallow.

    As this treat of the gods (that most of the group doesn't believe in) was devoured, it was discovered that Symphony Hershey bars were also present, which a member of the group informed could only properly be described as "really gourmet shit". It was then decided that the group must one day approach the dining services in Paresky during a mealtime and let them know that the current menu options were not up to par and so could they up the ante and bring out their gourmet shit.

    At this time, or somewhat a bit before, Kim informed the group that she must then take this moment to leave. Greatly saddened, the group bid her farewell.

    Then after, the neighboring group decided to go streaking. This valiant attempt was rendered moot due to the fact that the night made seeing anything beyond the fire virtually impossible. One of the streakers, however, was kind enough to take this into consideration and decided to leap over the flame of the fire whilst being naked. As they rescinded back to their camp, Nick said goodbye to one of the people he recognized.

    By this time (whether this was aided by the appearance of the streakers is up for question), the number of wood and stick references had increased with prolonged laughing, taking not of which woods were still or wet. Finally, perilously breaking the silence, Margaret jumped to the heart of the matter and uttered the word penis for the rest of the group.

    Directly talking about the issue now liberated to onto the table, the group (nostalgic as ever) decided to partake in the penis game. Bringing joy and mirth (with a very brief wonder as to what the other two groups might be thinking of the members' past times), the fire had (sadly) begun to dwindle.

    Thus began the continued task throughout the night to keep the fire burning despite its suicidal wishes.

    Having had their fun of s'mores, the group decided it really needed to sing. However, there were no musical instruments of any kind, other than their beautiful and angelic voices. Well, acoustic guitars be damned, they were going to do it.

    Accurately describing their generation, they kicked it off with "The Campfire Song Song" and then "The F. U. N. Song". This quickly became a need for singing the Pokémon theme song (the original, of course) in loud, impassioned, and monolithic voices, a feat they only closely replicated again with Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl".

    This quickly descended into a slew of songs that were sung, not all of which were coherent. Necessary ones included "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, "Piano Man" by Billy Joel, the chorus of "Living On a Prayer" by Bon Jovi, and "Teenage Wasteland" by The Who.

    Just due to its fitting nature, "Losing My Religion" by R. E. M. was also played. A quick pole of the group quickly found that many there hadn't lost religion, seeing as they didn't have it originally to begin with. Mistakenly, I was included in that group to which I corrected, saying, "I had, for a time," to which Greg responded, "Well, we're working on that," (one of my favorite lines of the night, I must say).

    Greg also officially made himself my hero for life by suggesting we sing Bruce Springsteen. Few others knew the words, I think, but I enjoyed the chance to confidently belt a song in a group for once.

    Also, at some point the idea was brought up to gangster rap "The F. U. N. Song" – how or why is beyond me, though.

    Having rejoiced greatly thus far in group singing at the expense of sleeping groups and woodland creatures, the group put on a song that inspired them to sway together as a group. This evolved into an idea for a group hug and April was involuntarily thrust into the middle of a giant group bear hug.

    After tiring the vocal cords, the group resolved to just listen to the music, dancing together (best dance party on campus, you know) and rocking out. This inspired Margaret to spin, which the rest of the group promptly joined. Dizzy and feeling like kids again (because all the other previous activities just didn't quite solidly do that yet), they decided to spin in pairs. Once again with group ideas, they attempted to spin as a group, holding hands; this bad idea one just has to do anyway for the sake of experience provoked laughing and giggling exclamations of strain as the circle hung on to each other's hands to prevent falling apart.

    Having fallen on top of each other, the next idea was born – lying on one another's stomachs in a circle. Having accomplished this feat, the group laid there on top of each other staring up at the stars while listening to The Beatles.

    After an hour and a half of thoroughly breaking down physical boundaries amongst the group, they resolved that maybe sleep might be a somewhat wise decision (despite the opinion of the ever nocturnal Antal).

    Taking to the sleeping bags, they decided to once again get in a circular formation and lie on one another's bellies. However, as exhaustion finally (at 4 or 5 something in the morning) came upon them, they realized it wouldn't work quite so well. So they gathered around the pillow that I had brought and communally shared it (the looking-into-eventually-starting-your-own-private-commune for the group will be started tomorrow).

    As the morning came, they sighed contently with their experience as they prepared to finally descend Stone Hill.

    And with that, I must leave you all – Comp. Sci. BBQ is calling me.