Toast Song

docholliday1925 · #1 10-02-2007, 12:39 PM

well, we need to get back to telling the whole history of the fraternity, and why it was formed. I am a man who is always looking for new information and is seeking new ideas to help better my chapter while in school.

Senusret I · #2 10-02-2007, 12:47 PM

Well here's a used edition of the now out-of-print APO history book.

Other than the inconsistencies in the story of the founding, what other "traditions" have we lost?

naraht · #3 10-02-2007, 08:47 PM

Are you refering to my concern (for which I tried to get the Story behind the founding changed) about the fact that FRH didn't actually leave the United States until after the Armistace(sp?) was signed? I've done a great deal more research on that. It seems the United States didn't actually sign the peace treaty that ended World War I for everyone else. The war didn't end for the United States until some specific congressional action in 1920. For the purposes of American Law, he was deployed to the North Sea during World War I, it had just ended for everyone over in Europe. He would be considered a War veteran however by American Law.

Senusret I · #4 10-02-2007, 08:51 PM

No, that's not what I'm talking about.

The Story of the Founding has actually been edited at least once in a way that I feel is significant. Me and Virtuous Woman discussed this once a few years back... I will see if I have an old Pledge Manual on my hard drive to jog my memory.

naraht · #5 10-02-2007, 08:52 PM

Well the Toast Song wasn't present at the founding, the first verse wasn't composed until 1931, the second verse was added in 1964.

The fraternity has changed the following things since founding: The crest, the pledge pin, the title of almost all of our officers (Frank Reed Horton was first elected as Supreme Grand Master), our "type" of fraternity (we weren't Alpha Phi Omega, National Service Fraternity, until 1935), our membership requirements, the number of people necessary to start a chapter, whether the local Boy Scout Council has to approve new chapters and many other things...

naraht · #6 10-02-2007, 09:00 PM

At work I have scan of the Torch and Trefoil that first had the story behind the founding in it (1963?), I'll see if I can find that and compare...

KAPital PHINUst · #7 10-03-2007, 04:20 PM

There are quite a few inconsistencies in Alpha Phi Omega, one of which is yes, the Story of the Founding. Over the years the wording has been altered to become more "politically correct", something I have always disagreed with.

Another little known fact about APO is that it was originally a Scouting-based fraternity with more byzantine/Masonic-esque elements (the original officer titles kinda leaned more toward that you would see in a "social" fraternities). I was told that the original initiation ritual was one that was totally different from the one we all know of.

APO did not officially become a "Service fraternity" until around 1940.

As for the Toast Song, I am somewhat disturbed that the music to our song is a generic-based tune. I was kinda shocked seeing the movie "The Tuskeegee Airmen" and hearing the air cadets sing a WWII fight song to the tune of our toast song.

I say if the Toast Song has to be changed, change the music, not the lyrics. Make the music to a melody/harmony that we can own the copyright to. While I know the song has tradition, we can never truly say that the song is our own. Just my opinion.

naraht · #8 10-03-2007, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KAPital PHINUst

There are quite a few inconsistencies in Alpha Phi Omega, one of which is yes, the Story of the Founding. Over the years the wording has been altered to become more "politically correct", something I have always disagreed with.

Another little known fact about APO is that it was originally a Scouting-based fraternity with more byzantine/Masonic-esque elements (the original officer titles kinda leaned more toward that you would see in a "social" fraternities). I was told that the original initiation ritual was one that was totally different from the one we all know of.

APO did not officially become a "Service fraternity" until around 1940.

As for the Toast Song, I am somewhat disturbed that the music to our song is a generic-based tune. I was kinda shocked seeing the movie "The Tuskeegee Airmen" and hearing the air cadets sing a WWII fight song to the tune of our toast song.

I say if the Toast Song has to be changed, change the music, not the lyrics. Make the music to a melody/harmony that we can own the copyright to. While I know the song has tradition, we can never truly say that the song is our own. Just my opinion.

I still want to check the story of the founding for changes, I believe that it has changed, but don't remember any changes to it at the conventions I attended.

The Mason-esqe elements were more or less removed during the 1930s, during HRBartle's first term. I doubt those would ever come back... As for the changes to the Ritual, I know there were some significant changes in the 1930s to the ritual, my guess is that alot of what changed was removal of Masonic Elements... I'd *love* to see our original ritual.

The official change to Service Fraternity was at the 1934 convention.

I agree that it is wierd to hear other lyrics to the tune of the toast song, but the ultimate wierdness is hearing the Drinking song that Francis Scott Key ended up putting the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner to.

naraht · #9 02-19-2008, 06:23 PM

[QUOTE=KAPital PHINUst;1532844]There are quite a few inconsistencies in Alpha Phi Omega, one of which is yes, the Story of the Founding. Over the years the wording has been altered to become more "politically correct", something I have always disagreed with.

(Yes, I know this is an old thread. But I finally had had access to the Torch and Trefoil image at the same time I was thinking about it.)

I compared the Story Behind the Founding as published in the October 1966 Torch & Trefoil (which is the one describing Frank Reed Horton's Funeral) with the one in the Current (2007-2008) Pledge Manual. I found about 20-25 changes, but none of their, IMO, represent a move toward political correctness.

The most significant of the changes are the deletion of section headings. They were "Post War Activity", "Influence of Scouting", "Organization Steps" and "A Phi O established" and were before the lines "After the War...", "The summer of my Junior...", "As a senior..." and "The Lafayette College faculty..." respectively. The sentence which ended "to worship on their own Sabbath in their own way" is now "to worship on his Sabbath in his own way". "Fourteen undergrads" was changed to "Fourteen undergraduates".

Other than that, all changes are even more minor falling into either the change of capitalization of the initial letter of the word, like Ensign or division, alteration of hyphens (court martial and bylaws for example) or commas. Also, originally, a new paragraph started after "magnetic mines".

Thought you all might find this interesting.