This is kind of what my first reaction was! Putting your letters on a cooler that invariably is for alcohol or, in some cases, has alcohol logos or bottles painted on it? I would be burned at the stake. Even if it's a part of your school's/conference's culture, I'm sure there has to be some whistleblowing going on somewhere.

You can buy paint, or you can buy more alcohol to put in the cooler. Duh. No brainer.

I think they're kinda neat, but if one was ever made for me, the girl wouldn't know what to put seeing as I don't drink or wear 'frat' brands of clothing.

Some of those were really creative and nicely done, but what happens when a dude receives a cooler that is just fugly or embarrassing? Does he leave it at home or try to hide it?

The new pledges in my son's house recently received these from their pledge moms. I understand why a girl would make this for a boyfriend or even a fraternity formal date, but I don't get why an upperclassman girl would take the time for a freshman that she is not involved with romantically. Is the phrase pledge mom new terminology for what we called little sisters back in my day?

Never heard them called that. We called them big sister/little brother and big brother/little sister, even though it was verboten.

I don't think so. If it's the same terminology as on my campus, the "pledge mom" was someone who is close with the pledge's big brother, asked by the big brother to informally look out for the pledge. Usually, there's a pledge mom night, where the pledges meet their "moms", and the moms give them gifts with their letters on it. I believe I got all of my pledge sons basketball-style shorts with my letters on them, and shot glasses with their own letters on it.

The entire arrangement is HIGHLY frowned-upon by virtually all of the national groups.

No doubt to the questionable status of these pledge moms.

It's one thing to buy these items as you described although I am surprised you were allowed to put your letters on things given to non members. Back in our day beyond the little sisters, we had Keymen and Theta had Kitemen, but they wore the baseball jerseys with the word Kappa or Theta written with the baseball font, not our letters. In any case, it's not as time-consuming to buy things as to make things and these coolers look as if they take a tremendous amount of time and money.

These Remington me so much of the "party cups" we made in college. We decorated big insulated mugs for ourselves and our dates for every formal, crawfish boil, Road Rally, etc. They were often quite intricate. By the end of four years, I had a gazillion of them.