I think I've told this story, but we had a "semi-frills" rush in the 80s, meaning that the actual dollars spent were limited, but people were allowed to receive token gifts (a flower, a hand-made booklet, etc) and we were allowed to go nuts with the decorating as long as it was done with very little money.

The thing was, at the last pref party, you could SEE where the girls had been by the "token" gifts they were carrying.

Our sorority was the "safety" sorority for a lot of girls - we lost a lot of our rush crushes to the Chi O's and Thetas, who were considered "top tier". It was the very last preference party of what is one of the longest rushes in the country (at least in the number of parties - we had either 16 or 19 sororities at the time and 4 rounds of parties, no photos and no resumes). I was last-minute co-rush chairman (the elected chair dropped out of school for the term) and also the only calligrapher, so I was beyond exhausted and cranky. The girl sitting across from me was cute as a button, sitting ramrod straight, poised and perfect. (We, on the other hand were known as the more relaxed "fun" girls). She was clutching a book whose cover I couldn't see, and a yellow carnation tied up with Chi O yellow-and-white ribbons.

"I am SO torn about which sorority to choose."

I looked her in the eyes, shook my head, and said, sarcastically "Don't kid yourself. You know exactly where you want to go."

Later, I felt bad for having been so rude to her, but it had been a LONG rush.

On bid day, this same person came running into the suite (each sorority went out and collected it's PNMs, rather than have a big campus get-together like they do now). She ran right up to me, and gave me a big hug.

"I honestly didn't know what I was going to do until you said 'You know exactly where you want to go'!!!!! I wanted to go ASA but my friends were telling me to go ChiO. Thank you so much!!!"

Okay then.

But she did become our President, so there's that.

Speaking of favors
 

When I went thru, Alpha Sigma Tau gave out notepads with their name (written out) and mascot on them.

After rush, I crossed out the "Tau" on all the pages and wrote "Alpha."

I promise this wasn't as snarky as it sounds. :p

I love this. Glad it worked out!

But it's totally weird....

Since the girls are now advised (by we here at GC) to carry bottles of water in their recruitment tote bags, they might not even be getting water or ice at their Ice Water Teas ... ;)

Hey, it was a perfectly good notepad that I wasn't about to waste. Plus their mascot was cute :-)

I will not miss the skits....for every one that was funny, informational, and well done there were 20 that had no theme but involved lots of singing and boody shaking dancing for no reason...

I am old...

Oh those boys! They had our yard dances down pat. They also perched themselves on their porch roof with numbered poster board and rated the rushees as they descended to the sidewalk. Great if you are deemed a 7 or up, not so good if they did not appreciate your less obvious attributes.

I echo much of the same shared here when it comes to frills. The first two years or so I was on "the other side" of recruitment we also had "Open Houses" too, which elaborate decorations and separate themes were put up the night before Open House...and we had matching outfits for Open Houses as well. We utilized our back yard and downstairs study as much as possible for Open Houses. One was a casino theme and another was a general college theme. Then to decorate the house and get ready after Open Houses were always a chore.

Dyeable shoes to match the jewel-toned dresses were an absolute and we were 100% matching from head to toe each day.

Ice sculpture and "champagne" (pink punch) fountain for preference and we had a whole theme set around "Coca Cola" and was the only chapter to serve Coke on tour day, which was called "Coke Day" in the house.

Big banners to hang and outside decor to make sure looked just right. Preference was so awesome with each house bathed in some kind of candle light. Tri Delts had a candle ceremony around a wishing well and a balloon to let go with a wish; DGs would set their anchor in front of their house on fire (it was really neat); Pi Phis did kind of a wishing ceremony with burning a piece of paper...it may have been arrow shaped...we did a "fireside" and on the hill right across the house we would spell out our letters in luminaria. Of course it was the bursting with soft songs for each house and tears galore! So hard for the Rho Chis to not cry at their own houses if they happened to have to take a group there for preference ;)

The PKA house was one of our neighbors...I will never forget sophomore rush coming out of the house for our first preference round, in our big preference dresses and candle light ablaze and all of a sudden in their courtyard you could hear the loud whir of their lawnmower. LOL!! Memories.

Our first party was tour (we had suites at my school then) and actives wore a "Sunday" dress. We had matching outfits (red Sailor suits!) for the "coke" (yes, everyone served little bottle cokes and we had to be sure no one took the napkin with them) first party. Got to wear cocktail dresses for theme (big elaborate skit and decorations) and matching long dress for Pref. This was the late 70s / early 80s so the Pref fabric was some synthetic material -- hot in the South and there was lots of static electricity involved! The sailor suits were long sleeved and heavy cotton, way too hot for August in a room stuffed with people. I'm so envious when I hear about T-shirts and shorts!