Erving Goffman's concept of the gathering: the co-presence of two or more individuals in a common location in space and time. Research has shown that most gathering members assemble, remain and ultimately disperse together with one or more companions. "Singles" assemble and act alone but may intermittently interact with other "singles: or "withs" and occasionally join others in more inclusive forms of collective action. In this article, the author talks about gatherings as patchworks and reports the works of sociologists that hold much promise for the replacement of "crowd psychology" with a sociologically informed social psychology of what individuals do alone and with others in temporary gatherings.