Meditations on "The Beanie"

When I came to OBU (Oklahoma Baptist University) for my freshman year, I was given a beanie. Every freshman got one and you wore it all of Welcome Week. Well, the high school I teach at now had a beanie day and I wore my OBU beanie. It was funny, because teens now call knit caps beanies. In fact, they didn't even know what a beanie was besides a knit cap. I explained the OBU beanie and some of them balked at the fact that freshman had to wear a beanie. This got me thinking about the why of the beanie. Why did we wear beanies? And here's what I realized:

1) The beanie identified us freshman for one another. It was easy to tell who the freshman were and thus easy for us to encourage one another as we embarked with nervousness on our first year of college.

2) As a direct result of the above, it created in us a unity. Being identified together made us come together as a class.

3) Most importantly, it identified us as one with the community of OBU at large. At the end of Welcome Week, we all donned our beanies, took "the Walk" to the steps of Raley Chapel and stood there looking out at the upper classmen who had gathered. They had come to hear us sing the school anthem and shout the school chant. They came because they did this, too. They didn't gather to mock us, they gathered to share with us. In taking these actions, we were no longer individuals come to OBU; we were a part of OBU. When I stood watching these freshman after my own freshman year, I was proud and excited to see the new faces. Because this was community.

There was and still is value in the beanie. It's a tradition that hasn't died yet at OBU and I am so glad. I never want it to die. Teens today may not know what a beanie from the past is, but that doesn't mean its value has diminished in the least bit.

A Future Bison