Submitted by: Russell Ambrose

Description:
Over the years many of us have wondered about the words of our “Hello Gyro” song. It is sung often at Clubs, Districts and International. Several years ago some research was done to try and put in writing the original meaning of the words. Some of the long time Gyros who were sons of Gyro members put together the following meanings. As you know gyro was founded by three college buddies, two of whom were fraternity brothers, resulting in the first two lines, “Hello Gyro, you're a friend of mine.” The third line, “With your hand in your pocket,” tells us that members of this organization do not have a hand out asking for something but rather dig deep to offer assistance to fellow members. We do not use our Fraternity for personal business gains. At the time the fraternity was established (1912) the clothing style almost always included a vest. Since wristwatches were not very common, pocket watches were swagged to the other side where a small knife or some other item kept it in place. The “key” from your fraternity was worn in the center of this chain, thus the line “And your little chain and locket.” The first group of gyros met in the Alley Bar in Cleveland explaining the last line of the song, “And he lives down in our alley.” Unfortunately, the Alley Bar no longer exists so a nostalgic trip to our roots is not possible.