More please!

Hijack: Patsy Ramsey was an Alpha Xi Delta. Remember, the media is the one that has painted her in the "crazy pagent mother light". There are plenty of other crazy pagent mothers who span all glos and non-greeks as well. But also remember that the woman lost her child and died last year from cancer.

Ok, done with the hijack...now get on with the story!

sorority chapters at our respective schools
 

when our mother attended the same univeristy that my sister was going to attend... it was primarily a "commuter school." they had a visionary president about thrity years ago who completely changed that school and turned it into a very classy and exclusive private university. it was terribly expensive and much smaller than the large state university i was to attend. her school also had a large number of out of state students.

since we have skiied forever... i am going to name the chapters at our respective universities after some of our favorite ski resorts. those who ski will definitely catch the differences in the ski resorts... and the names are specifically chosen for that reason... albeit not "panhellenically correct!"

the six sororities at my sister's school were:
ASPEN
DEER VALLEY
KEYSTONE
SANTE FE
SUN VALLEY, and
RED RIVER

my sister knew several members of ASPEN, DEER VALLEY and KEYSTONE. like me, she had to start cheer practice during the summer session and begin learninig all of the cheers, movements and the dynamics of the style of cheerleading at her university. most of the cheerleaders were in fraternities and sororities, so in addition to her friends who were in those three sororites... she met several other members during the summer. she had a great summer and the squad at her university did not do as many complicated routines as the squad at my university did (ie: she was not going to be thrown into the air twenty feet... praying to be caught!!!)

the eleven sororities at my university were:
VAIL
DEER VALLEY
ASPEN
KEYSTONE
SANTE FE
PARK CITY
LAKE LOUISE
RED RIVER
TELLURIDE
BRECKENRIDGE, and
TAOS

i knew many members of several chapters at the school where i would attend from high school and other area high schools. i had close friends in VAIL, DEER VALLEY, ASPEN, KEYSTONE and SANTE FE. we had both been to several parties and events our senior year in high school... therefore i was quite familiar with the campus and many of the sororities. further, just as with my sister... cheer started in earnest during summer school. we were enrolled and worked and trained really hard during the summer session and beyond. being one of only two freshman cheerleaders... i had a great deal of work learning the rountines, the cheers... and then i had to learn to trust, really trust... while i was being thrown like a "rag doll" into the air about twenty feet by very muscular guys... whom i continuously prayed would catch me, catch me... we always had a spotter... but it is still terrifying when you first start with that much intensity. most of the cheerleaders were in fraternities and sororities, so i got to know several members from a few different chapters. it was a long, hard summer comprised of long hard days physically pushing ourselves beyond our limits.

we both worked so hard that summer... we were very grateful that our mother had already begun working on our respective recruitments when we were infants. she had managed to secure several wonderful and highly connected recommendations to the "acceptable sororities" in her opinion. we could not have possibly been fully ready for recruitment had it not been for her organization and her drive (compulsion!) of course... it was "rush" to her... and we would "pledge"... so we had several terms that we had to delete from our individual vocabularies. we did have a week to finish our wardrobes. luckily... since we were attending different schools... we could choose several dresses that were similar and not look like "twin pnms" who had not ever separated themselves. the thought of going through recruitment at the same school dressed exactly alike... totally haunted both of us... for obvious reasons.

and... if i lose this post another time... i am going to quit and just tell you what happened! ugh! ugh!

cheers!

patsy ramsey...
 

i truly meant no disrespect for patsy ramsey. i cannot imagine a more horrible scenario to have happened to anyone. she just "personifies" the pagent mothers... which was the point i was trying to make. some people love pagents... to each their own. our own mother pushed both of us and demanded so much of us. she had certain standards and we had no choice but to meet them as well as her social agenda.

patsy ramsey was vilified, tried and convicted in the public press. one has to remember this was a lady who lost her beautiful little daughter in a horrible death and never escaped being the "subject" of that death. i truly felt sorry for her... what a horrid ordeal... and then to die of cancer at such a young age. i truly feel she is someone alpha xi can be proud that wore their beautiful quill.

these "retro" threads always seem to "derail" themselves into some totally different subject... i suppose that child beauty pagents and patsy ramsey will be the focus of our recruitments.

again, the comment was meant with no disrespect.

cheers!

I can't wait for the next post...
 

If you posted all of it at once, I wouldn't be disappointed. Please don't stop writing.

Oh the old compulsive mother, you really don't understand that they're just trying to help you until you're looking at everything from a different perspective. I'm sure having a twin sister subconsciously doubled all the pressure you felt! Please write more soon!

I love this thread! There were two sets of identical twins in my pledge class as well as a set (who, incidentally, dressed alike...I know...kinda weird!) in the senior pledge class that year. One set in my group were high school cheerleaders who had won the National Championships for High School Cheerleading and been UCA cheerleaders. I hadn't thought of all of them in years!

Keep posting! I love this story!

seemingly, our recruitments were among the longest and most drawn out...
 

with only six sororities... one would have thought that sydney's recruitment would have been shorter. no. they had their "pnm orientation" on a wednesday and then recruitment began on thursday. their bid day was on tuesday. so, sydney... and our !!mother!! would know what house she joined on tuesday. our schedules were strikenly similar.... except mine did not begin until the saturday after she started on wednesday. bid day for me was not until the following saturday... almost 5 full days after sydney would hopefully receive her bid. talk about the pressure on me! there is a reason i say that...

sydney loved her "pnm oreintation"... the sororites planned it and their rho chis really gave them a wonderful prelude to the week that followed. thursday and friday they all went to all six houses. saturday was four party day... and then they had sunday off, which to me is cruel! monday was prefs and then bid day on tuesday.

mine started with a "pnm orientation" and what seemingly felt like an endless series of "lectures" on the saturday... the rho chis each telling what not to do... over and over and over. i thought about sydney and knew that she was at four party day. we did not officially start recruitment until monday... all eleven houses in one day. then the same thing again on tuesday. they felt it better that we see all of the houses twice before the cuts began. all i remember was that it was horribly hot, it was august and we had a very "dressy" recruitment... so it was full make-up, hair done, hose and heels for what seemed to be forever for two days. by the end of tuesday evening i though i had died and would have gladly let the "guys" (cheerleaders) throw me in the air at least thirty feet... than to ever have to do that again! wednesday the cuts began as we had eight party day, thursday was four party day, friday were prefs and bid day was finally on saturday. that still has to be the longest week of my life!

i realized... that due to the nature of our mother and the fact that sydney would be fully finished by wednesday... that they would all come down to my recruitment at some point. were it left to our mother... they would have all been there on wednesday. i knew that when they all showed up... sydney would be there and that would totally confuse everyone who did not know us... and i most definitely did not want to dress alike... so we had to coordinate outfits to make sure when she did arrive we did not ruin my recruitment. suddenly... out of the blue... there would be two of me running around... and totally offending people because when everyone would see sydney at my university they would think it was me... and she had no clue who any of them were. i realized the potential for total disaster that held. i begged all of them not to come... please. our mother would not hear of it, period.

instead of waiting until later in this story i will let you know another of the unique twists in our recruitments. when i said all... i really meant to emphasize that... all. we come from a long line of greeks on both sides of our family... luckily my father's family was not as intense as our mother's. even though our mother and our grandmother had thoroughly "schooled us" on what to expect and what was expected of us... i really do not think that i fully understood what they were talking about until eight party day... sydney found out on four party day and when we spoke she tried to give me a dose of reality. no. for one of the few times in our lives i really did not believe her. no...

cheers!

awk...awk...more more more!

This is like waiting for Book 7 of Harry Potter!

i almost forgot...
 

i am sorry... i almost forgot my worst nightmare. what if sydney showed up wearing her new letters... right in the middle of my recruitment?!? oh my...

and... everyone who knew us would know which sorority that she had already joined... which would mean that the sororities would know which one she chose. oh no...

the possibilities just got worse the more i thought about it. how on earth would i ever explain that? i was suddenly in a panic... i had never even thought about that. what if they all showed up wearing their badges for pref or something like that?!? oh no...

cheers!

LOL - that was the first thing I thought, when I read that your sister's R would be completed before yours and would probably come to visit!

Keep it up - there are a LOT of twins in my family, but none of them went Greek (to my knowledge).

i can't wait to hear what your sis discovered on 4 party day and you on 8 party day.

I'm an identical twin and I don't think I could have said it better myself. I always hate when people ask me what it's like to be a twin because I don't know any different.

And, like you all, it was just me and my sister. I always had an instant best friend no matter where I was.