Memories, like the corners of my mind...misty, watercolored memories...of the way we were....

L O V E THIS!

This thread is so much fun for me to read. I had cousins in high school in the 70's who I looked up to, and seeing you talk about the fashion and the 70's attitude is really bringing some memories back. Come back and post more, quick! :p

This is such a fun read!

I'm still trying to remember what water buffalo sandals are, though, so I googled them. Is this what you wore with the Levi's?

http://base1.googlehosted.com/base_m...e7c3c4b4&hl=en

I was in elementary school and jr. high in the 70's, so didn't have a keen fashion sense at the time. :p

I went through rush in the fall of 1971. Peasant blouses, check. Baby oil mixed with iodine. Check. But I must admit wrapping albums w/ tin foil to reflect the sun is a new one-but had we known about it, I guarantee you, we would have done it. No tanning creams, no spray tans, no tanning salons-girl, we'd cut class to have a good tan for going out at night. Hot pants were the biggie for all of us going thru rush then. And you're right about no designer jeans, etc, giving you that "elite" style. I think it was more Villager skirts, dresses, and blouses. Oh, and jewelry.

The sororities did all dress alike, every night, from what I can remember. I know we all wore the same blue and white checked peasant dress for ice water teas night, and all wore the same black one-piece pantsuit w/ wide legs for pref. Big sets, food, etc. Oh, and for pref, all the sororities had them in alums' big houses in our college town. Other parties were at the houses.

Carry on, I'm loving this!

{mini-70's-fashion-and-beauty tangent}

How about squeezing fresh lemons into your hair before you laid out in the sun? My mother and cousins did that in the 70's... anyone else? :p

{/mini-70's-fashion-and-beauty tangent}


I'm gonna be pooped after trick-or-treating with the kids tonight, but I will find the energy to come back here and see if That_70s has added anything more... :)

Suddenly I feel so young... I was born in the 1970's. I'm kinda glad I missed the travesty that was 1970's "fashion". Although I do remember being the only girl in my kindergarten class who had short hair - long hair parted down the middle was all the rage, even for 5-year-olds, but my parents forced me to have a bowl cut. I looked like a boy. :(

Keep it coming!

I went through a bit later in the 70's - we wore alot of sundresses and cork wedge shoes with the straight hair parted down the middle. The short hair girls all sported Dorothy Hamill 'dos. I was more the Clairol Kindness Hot Roller kind of girl myself. The dressy outfits sometimes required white wedge sandals with the lovely accent of coffee colored panty hose - usually LEGG EGGS.

My sister took me shopping before RUSH and I do believe I had some fun outfits with vests and sparkly threads. I liked straight leg levis which made me more of a rebel than a trendsetter.

Anyone remember cap sleeve tees and overalls with matching bandana scarves tied on loop? Or was that just a backwards Nebraska thing? Jogging suits and terry cloth shorts were real popular too (not during rush!)

Can't wait to see how the rest of the show goes! (The "Girl of AOII" song keeps going through my mind...and "Remember")

That's EXACTLY what they were! I had no idea they still made them! :D

Set Four: Preference Night
That night it takes me about three hours to curl my hair with the help of lots of hair spray, hot rollers and a curling iron. Totally unprepared for this night, I decide to wear the dress I wore to my Christmas semi-formal. It’s a knee-length black halter dress with red and green gathered bodice. It has a matching jacket with a red and green sash tie waist. I feel very glamorous and sophisticated.

We meet with our RCs again to pick up our party schedules. Mine reads:

Jackie
Fez
Donna

WHAT? No Kelso? They dropped me? I’M A PRISSY PREP GIRL! Don’t they want all the Prissy Prep girls? And FEZ wants me back after my big blunder yesterday? I am really puzzled by this whole chain of events, but there’s no time to think. I have some parties to go to!

I knew it! Hot Rollers!

I need this wrapped up so I can go on with the rest of my life! :) I'm loving this thread. I was born in the early '70's so I guess I'm not as 'seasoned' as others on GC. I love all of the old greek lingo since that's what I had when I went through Rush!

Oh, you want some more Pref Night details? :D


Jackie – The sisters are all standing in rows on each side of the walkway in front of the house and singing. Liz takes me by the hand as I walk up and escorts me in. There’s an enormous ice sculpture of the sorority’s symbol in the foyer, and it has alternating flashing lights in their colors pointed at it. The rest of the room as well as the main room are dim and lit by candles. The walls are draped with fabric in their colors. There are flowers everywhere. The place smells a little like a mortuary (heh heh.) Everything is so elegant and beautiful, just like the girls here. They’re all wearing matching dresses in the sorority’s colors. I can already tell this is going to be a different experience from the previous parties. Everything seems so serious.

The ceremony is beautiful. They sing a song about their sisterhood and I am amazed at how beautiful their voices are. I had been in chorus from grammar school through high school, so this stuff really mattered to me. A few sisters read letters they’ve written about their experiences in the sorority, and how it has helped them through good times and bad. Afterwards, we have some dessert and Liz tells me how special it is to have me there. Then she reads me a letter that tells me that she’s known me since I was a girl and hopes that she can also be by my side as I become a woman in her sisterhood. This is heady stuff and not what I expected at all!

Liz hands me a personalized box, and inside it is something that would give away this group. She has me make a wish as I toss it into a fountain. Once I’ve done that, she tells me that she hopes my wish was the same as hers was and that I’d be back to get the item tomorrow. She gives me a big hug. I start to cry as we walk out the door together. My wish at that moment was to be a Jackie, and I was hoping that’s what she was wishing for as well. I clutch the pretty box in my hand, and hate to give it to the RC to hold when it comes time to go into the next house. (Yes, girls, we were allowed to accept gifts back in the stone age!) As we walk to the next house, I am certain I will pledge Jackie and there’s really no reason to go to any other party that night.

Fez– The girls are lined up along the walkway and singing softly. They are all holding lit candles (yes, girls, real live candles!), except for the ones who have been assigned a rushee for the night. “Mortuary girl” picks me up and leads me up the walkway that is lined by the candle holding sisters. I’ve got to say, this was a really beautiful way to start and really impressed me. The main room is full of huge vases filled with their flower, which also happens to be one of my favorites. The girls are all wearing the same sophisticated black dresses and jeweled lavaliers. Compared to them, I now feel a bit little girlish in my high school dress.

We have a little dessert and the plate has my name written in contrasting icing on it. I get a chance to talk to mortuary girl a bit more while eating, and then the lights go dim and more candles are lit. The ceremony starts right after that and is also solemn and beautiful. More seniors sharing what life there has meant to them and more songs, a little ritual and candlelight. Then my rusher hangs her lavalier around my neck for a few minutes and talks about how much it has meant to her to wear these letters. Right now she wants me to know what that could feel like. And I AM feeling it. I also admit that I feel pretty full of myself that the Fezs have picked me out of all the other girls they have dropped over the week. They must see something in me that I don’t know if I see in myself. But I’m also not quite convinced I can live up to their image. Part of me feels like an imposter, like if they really knew me, there would be no way I would have been invited to this party. Yet I DO NOT want her to remove the lavalier from my neck, and I realize I’m starting to cry. Ack! MORE CRYING! And I am not a crier! I, the girl who rushed as a lark and didn’t really care much about sorority life, COULD BE A FEZ!

At the end, she gave me a little bouquet of flowers and we did another wishing type activity. My rusher tells me she hopes my wish is the same as hers was. WHAT???!!! Does everyone do this? It throws me for a loop and I really begin to doubt the sincerity of this little exercise. I was so darned sure once I left Jackie ……… and now this. Now the idea of becoming a Fez is intoxicating.

I am soooo loving this. I can't put my laptop down!
This brings back some great memories.

I see you're online still....I'm hoping that means you're writing more!! I love this thread!!

Don't worry.
In 35 years, today's fashions will be a "travesty"! :p

[QUOTE=CougarGrad;1738406]{mini-70's-fashion-and-beauty tangent}

How about squeezing fresh lemons into your hair before you laid out in the sun? My mother and cousins did that in the 70's... anyone else? :p

{/mini-70's-fashion-and-beauty tangent}


Oh yeah! Loved the lemons and the baby oil and we used to sit out on our roof top " sunning ourselves" in our short beach chairs. We usually got attention from our next door neighbors the Chabad house.

i also remember one night when I lived upstairs a leg coming through my slighty open window. It was the Sigma Chis trying to do a panty raid. As I sunk my nails into the guys leg he let out a blood curdling scream. the rest of the guys ran away and left him to a house full of Gamma Phis who came running. BTW he did get invited to the next dance......;)

Oh, panty raids and squeezing lemon juice into our hair! The memories!

Donna – The outside of this house looks absolutely gorgeous, even if it is the same ugly color it has always been. There are tiny twinkling white lights in all of the trees, and large glass bowls in their colors are filled with floating candles and lining the walkway to the front door. There is a canopy draped across the front door and it is covered with a blanket of their flowers. The sides are decorated with dozens of little replicas of their symbol, and as I move closer I realize that each one has the name of a sister on it. I thought that was very touching and really made me feel like they had a bond. The sisters are all in matching black dresses and pearls. Again, I feel a little less than elegant!

Here, we start off with some dessert, an iced cookie in the shape of their symbol. They’re serving punch out of a fountain and I think it’s the coolest thing ever. My cookie has my name on it as well as the name of the girl preffing me, who went to Prissy Prep and was a year ahead of me. We’d been in several clubs together there, so I knew her rather well and really liked her. We have a great conversation about how we have so much in common and how comfortable I feel with everyone in the house. It really did feel like coming home when I walked in the door. But I’m not sure if that’s the best thing or not. Will I have a chance to grow and experience new things if I am with so many of the same people for the next four years? Or will this provide just the anchor I need in a giant sea of the unknown at this huge school?

The ceremony was another touching candlelight event. A Prissy Prep Senior I knew was one of the sisters who spoke about her Donna experience. Then another Prissy Prep alumna shared a beautiful poem. My rusher squeezed my hand tightly and smiled a genuinely warm smile at me. Afterwards, she presented me with a small gift in a handmade box that not only represented the sorority but was personalized with something that symbolized Prissy Prep as well. I was blown away by the thought that went into making it. (Yes, girls, for those who are counting, that makes two gifts plus flowers received during pref. How times have changed, huh?)

Once we come to the end of the party, guess what? ANOTHER WISH! Either all of these girls really really really want me or they are just trying to let me down easy and they say that to all the rushees! But right afterwards, just as we are walking out the door, my rusher whispers “You have always been a Donna. I hope you will make it official tonight.” I burst into tears (and I had been doing so well here!) because I knew exactly what she meant.

Can't wait to hear where you end up... my guess is Donna!

Too funny!!

Love your Story! We didn't get presents at my state college---:(

But, back to tanning issues, I am not sure the girls these days understand what we did to have a tan on at least our top half before formal. Where we wore our leftover prom dresses. Gunne Sax,, etc. I was telling someone the other day what it was like to lay out with the oil trying to catch some not so strong midwestern sun on a sunny day in April. 70 degrees was worth trying for. You had SO few chances....I actually had a tanning lamp - which was a high voltage light with tanning bulb....just made us kinda red but it was a precurser to those tanning beds! And the tanning products were horrid. By the time summer hit, it was out the door with the oil and blankets - plan on 3 hours for a good afternoon...

I can't WAIT to hear the end!!!!

I think I saw a clue in one of her posts! It's a great story. I went through rush in the early 80s, but a lot of these types of things were the same. Theme day was over the top. During my rush, everyone wore embroidered Mexican dresses.

michelle

Wow! How do you choose when you have 3 pref parties like that?

I put the lemon juice in my hair before laying out. It was suppose to help bleach your hair and oh how I really wanted to be a blond. I never did achieve that look. Was always a brunette, but looked like a brunette who put lemon juice on her hair and laid out in the sun.

I went to a state college too. We were not allowed to take anything out of the house during rush, so we received no gifts on preference night. I went through rush in fall of '71.

DaffyKD

Please continue. I would like to know where you ended up at.

*waits anxiously*

These stories are great!

This is a really good rush story and I cant wait to hear more!

Pref Night Continued
The parties are over and we walk silently back to the activity center. We are required to remain silent from the time we leave the last party until we fill out our bid cards and leave the activity center. I see Lisa and Tina on opposite ends of the room. Neither of them looks particularly happy and they both complete their cards quickly and leave. I really want to talk to them! Most of all I really want to talk to my mom and dad. But tonight the decision is all mine, and I feel like I am making the first adult decision of my life.

My parents had been very surprised when I called them and asked them if I could rush. Like many who were familiar with Greek life only from the things others said to them about it while they were in college, they thought sororities were elitist organizations. Many years later, my mother said she had worried a lot about my decision to rush, because I had always been a girl who was friendly with many people and traveled fluidly amongst cliques as opposed to being in one particular group. She and my father were concerned that being with one particular group would change the way I viewed the world and turn me into a much more socially cautious person.

But who am I really? Do I belong in the sorority with so many people I know who are from similar backgrounds? Everything would be much easier that way? Do I want the sorority where I know no one yet everyone is so impressed I am still in the running? Or do I pick the sorority where I know quite a few people but there are plenty of others I don’t know? What about GPAs? What about the physical houses? What about their social life and what the fraternities think of them? (Yeah, I know, I’m eighteen. So shoot me!)

I’m really agonizing here. I’m certain I could be happy in any of my choices. My RC is no help at all. She just tells me to pick whatever feels right. But what if they all feel right? I seriously consider doing eenie meenie minee moe. And then, like a lightening bolt it hits me. I know who my number one choice should be. I should go to the place that feels like home. Where they already know me and appreciate me for who I am and not who I possibly could be. Where I won’t feel like I am always trying to impress people or live up to some sort of ideal about what a member of that chapter is like. There was only one place where I truly felt this. I click my ruby red platform shoes and fill out my card...........

I logged on just to check your recruitment story- thanks for the post :) Now I'm eagerly awaiting to see where you end up.

“You have always been a Donna. I hope you will make it official tonight.” I burst into tears (and I had been doing so well here!) because I knew exactly what she meant.

I think that she picks Donna!!

Good call, puglover! My bid card reads:

1)Donna
2)Jackie
3)Fez

I am so relieved as I turn it in and walk back to the dorm. It’s over and what will be will be.

Every girl on my floor who has rushed is gathered in the lounge at the end of the hall, eating pizza and chatting away. It was really a sight to behold, all these girls still in full makeup and done hair and wearing their jammies. Since I seem to be the last one to return, I just take off my shoes and head straight to the party.

Lisa is sitting in a corner, quietly talking to another girl. She is definitely not her bubbly self. She pulls me to the side and tells me she only received two invites tonight, to Eric and Laurie. She really wants Eric and considered suiciding, but after talking to her mother the night before, she decided to rank them one and two. They had discussed all the possible scenarios and her mother urged her to accept any bid she was given and work to make the sorority a better place. But I am pretty certain they assumed she would still get her remaining first choice.

Just as I was about to tell her about my evening, Tina came booming over, full of praise for the Hydes. Huh? Yes, the only party Tina was invited to was at Hyde and now they had miraculously been transformed into the BEST house on campus! Somehow in all the pizza party craziness, I manage to get out of telling the girls I had three parties, one of which was Fez. I do tell them Donna was my first choice. Lisa gives me a sly smile and says, “I told you so.” Suddenly I am terrified that I will open my envelope tomorrow and see Fez for my bid. It’s bad enough that we aren’t going to end up as sisters, but I am sure it will kill Lisa if I end up the only Fez. Tina, well, I’ve really started to see her true colors. And I might enjoy watching her twist in the wind if she saw me in a Fez bid day shirt.

I need to get away from the computer, but I want to know the ending- and where your friends end up! Lovin' this story!

.... oh my as I'm reading your " in your jammies" line, it so took me back. My rush group went out to pizza, then back to the dorm where we all stayed. Within 10 minutes of being back there was a " jammie fest" in the hallway. Everyone talking about where they went and their choices....

Isn't it amazing how choices do change, I'm excited to hear where you ended up! This has been a great story and has certainly taken me back. Thank you so very much-- this thread has had me logging on daily for what comes next......:)

Can't wait to see how it all turns out!

And yes, this story has taken me back to great memories-got that lemon juice in my hair, have cut class to lie out in the sun, (we usually started on the first warm day in February; I remember one day laying out in the sun, and the three days later playing in the snow! This is Georgia, ya know.) Marvin Gaye is playing on the record player, we're going to see Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose in the gym tonight, and then on to the Sigma Chi house where we'll shag to Carolina beach music. Thank you, John and Mrs. Grace anyone? College-gotta love it!!!

Now, back to the dorm...

I remember baby oil and iodine! I think that was around in the 50's, lol (and NO, I wasn't a teen/college girl back then, lol.)

Also I remember Everclear and Mad Dog 20/20. Never drank the stuff, thank goodness!

In the back of the sorority dorm was a little grassy area where the sorority dorm girls would go lay out. I swear there was this girl from another sorority that would start to lay out March 1st until September. She had very dark, long hair. She would get so dark tanned, I've always wondered if she ever got cancer. Hmmm..just remembered maybe I should ask an alumna I know from that chapter from that era.

Remember John Romaine pocketbooks?? They were the Coach, etc. of today. My mom had one but I never did. I was soo jealous of the girls that had one. Guess that's why I go buy my own pocketbooks and jewelry these days.;)

Anxiously awaiting the rest of your story!!

I think I have figured out the campus for sure and at least half of the chapters. I can't wait to hear the conclusion!

Don't be so hard on your 18 year-old self. Based on your descriptions, that's exactly how I would rank the chapters as well. From your descriptions, it sounds like all 3 were regarded as very desirable chapters, so it doesn't sound like "tiers" made a difference.

Fez was right to be 3rd, because although you liked them and they seemed to like you, the main pull was that everyone seemed to want this chapter.

Donna and Jackie are close, but I would have gone with Donna first just because it sounds like a better fit for you. You were very lucky to be torn over 3 excellent chapters.

Anxiously awaiting the conclusion.