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ahhh..the good ol' days
It was the early 80's....
*elaborate skits at every round of rush complete with themed food, themed drinks, and crafty,creative themed nametags! *one telephone per bedroom at the sorority house plus the main house phone that no one ever wanted to run and answer. *studying..er,cheating on pledge tests, hide and seek activity to find your pledge mom, fraternity little sister groups. *white hose...yes, white hose *Fraternity events like Sigma Nu relays, Sigma Chi Derby Days, etc always involved sorority competitions where alcohol was part of the event. For example, the three-legged beer chug. (can you believe that!?) *I barely remember Cardinal Puff, must have been all that alcohol at Sigma Nu Relays, but I do remember playing "Hi Bob" while watching old Bob Newhart reruns... I am sure I will remember more... |
Such fun memories
Some of my favorites from the mid-eighties: real candle passes with real flowers on the candles, scavenger hunts with us "borrowing" composites (of course the fraternities would get them back once they came to serenade), paint pens and acrylic picture frames, preference night flowers and notes, and my personal favorite - house boys:p
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^^^ LOVED the house boys! (and the acrylic frames - so true!)
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Feel free to post pictures, y'all. I certainly will once I'm moved!
eta - hands up - how many of y'all had a pref song to "The Rose" or "The Theme from Ice Castles (Eyes of Love)"?? Love is found in Gamma Phi A love that never dies, it keeps on something I've forgotten, how we love our sisters, how they help us grow, in Gaaaaaammmmaaaa Phi, we know we have found a home. |
RAIDS!!!
Of course, there were always food and/or bevvies involved. |
"The day" was mid-1990's for me...
It was still called rush, rho chis were still rho chis, and real candles were used at pref. The year I rushed was the last year sororities could give flowers to rushees (*ahem* PNMs) at pref. One of our songs had the word "rushee" in it. (I don't think we use that song any more. "Rushee" has two syllables; "potential new member" has six, so it doesn't quite fit the meter.) AEPhi had just changed over from "pledge" to "new member". My new member manual says "pledge manual" on the spine, and the word "pledge" is used throughout. Real candles were used for candle passes, too, but there was a candle pass for a baby. When I had my candle pass for getting engaged, the circle happened to start with me, and I had to explain carefully that I was engaged and not pregnant. :p |
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1983-87
Frilly rush, themes, favors at every party, food that fit the theme, "costumes" (like 50's for Grease night), decorations, hand made name tags for everybody. The song on our whole campus was "We Are Family". When the DJ started playing it, all the sorority women bunched together with their sisters on the dance floor and tried to outsing eachother "We are AGD", "We are Alpha Xi", "We are Sigma Three" and "We are Sigma K"(they never figured out how to make it rhyme). The men would just stand there watching and shaking their heads. Shout reminds me of the TKE house. TKEs had happy hour every Friday afternoon at their house. THE place to be. LXAs had a dance floor in their walkout basement, perfect for parties. Real candles were nice. Domino's large pizzas for $5, delivered within 30 minutes or they were free... we banked on that A LOT. They also came with a free quart of pop (soda for you people from other parts of the country) in a cardboard carton. Matching baseball jackets.. each fraternity and sorority had "their" jackets, all totally matching except for the embroidered name. Ours were yellow with red writing, highly visible all over campus! Other songs we HAD to dance to.. any Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and... Superfreak, superfreak the girl's a superfreak! |
I can remember a PNM going through COR and asking what the difference between three sororities was, and one sister said, "Most sororities tend to go to concerts together. Just last weekend, the ABCs went to see Neil Diamond, the XYZs went to see Billy Joel, and we went Bruce Springsteen."
One sister had this weird thing for "Smoke From a Distant Fire" and that became all of our song. I have pictures (somewhere) of three different weddings with a bunch of us doing our little dance to it - each including the bride with her skirt hiked up, well, pretty high! And yes, Cutie_Hootie, every Monday was pin attire - ALL day, classes, meals, everywhere. The only ones who got out of that were the nursing students. |
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I agree w/ you on little sisters. I think it was better for some women than being in a sorority - less of a commitment. |
I'm glad little sisters are gone - they existed for the benefit of the fraternities,not the little sisters. And yes, many girls were little sisters instead of sororities - less commitment, sure - but again, nothing for the members and what about after graduation?
I was a Sigma after graduation - that was the wives of Sigma Chi group that has since disbanded. In fact, I founded the last ever chapter. :( |
Humm:
Very early rush-the week before Freshmen Orientation! Little/Big Sisters-Still have a great friendship with mine.:D:cool::) Wednesday night dinner out-Student Union had real bad meals on Wednesday and a local pizza place picked up on that. Had all you could eat pizza slices at a real great price. Friday on the patio with Frampton comes alive playing on the our house speakers (taken from the old Parimount NorthWest-rather large) over the entire campus. And Gin or Rum Tonics and beer. Ice blocking at the point. The SAE Riot:eek::confused::mad: |
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Anyway, so this thread doesn't turn negative and so I don't have to defend little sisters for the 34768236482364843276th time... I think every group had a pref song to "Pass It On." |
Richard Nixon was president, Helen Reddy was on the radio, hair was long, skirts were short, collars were big, petroleum products were proudly worn. (Double knit, anyone?)
1973, large state university.... A couple of thoughts about sorority singing and dinner, 70's style. Singing! Don't know if it was the times, or just our campus, but glos sang a lot! Song leaders were important officers. Rush (frilly) included lots of singing. Many campus events included singing/theatrical competitions Serenades were big. We had song practice after dinner for days prior to a serenade (held before formals) Serenades gave glos important "face" time, as a great serenade could affect who invited you to do homecoming, Varsity Revue, etc. We typically sang one current pop song (The Carpenter's, The Association), a couple of our sorority songs, Christmas carols prior to our winter formal, and learned a fraternity song for each house we serenaded. When a fraternity serenaded us, studyhall emptied, you dropped what you were doing, and everyone crowded the front door to listen. Fraternities serenaded when someone in your house got pinned to a brother or before formals. Dinner (and more singing) We ate sit down family style dinners every night served by House Boys. Formal Dinners were held every Sunday at noon and Monday evening (chapter night). Formal dinner required pins, dresses, stockings. (no "pantsuits"). The door to the dining room opened at 5:30, and the house mother was escorted to her table by the head house boy. Her table was expected to fill up first, the President's and VP's tables were expected to fill up next. No one had assigned seats but them. If you didn't want to sit at one of the head tables, you hung back at the back of the crowd. As we entered the room, we stood behind our chairs and the song leader led us in a sung prayer (with three part harmony) then we sat down after the house mother and president were seated. Our dining room had tables for eight, and the head of table was responsible for passing food, seeing that each person had what they needed, using a little silver bell to summon a house boy for more water, tea, butter, etc. All of the sororities had house boys and it was a prized job on campus. Dinner ended with at least one song. At formal dinners, we sang one of our more "serious" sorority songs. Rgular dinners ended with one or two "fun" sorority songs or a fraternity song. Once the singing was over, the house mother stood, was escorted from the dining room, then we were free to leave. When my kids hear this, they scream with laughter, because it sounds positively medieval now. But dinner was fun. The dining room was beautiful, we had great food, lively conversation, lots of laughter, a sense of community and some practice in valuable social skills. It was the one time of day when everyone in the house was together in one place. Great thread! Sorry to natter on so long. |
How about planning/skipping your classes around All My Children, One Life to Live & General Hospital! We all met in the tv room with our lunches (had to sneak them out of the dining room under the nose of the house mom) to watch. I usually would try hard to hang in there for the 1/2 hour Jeapordy episode - you know, intellectual stuff since I was skipping class;)
Luke & Laura's wedding was a must see. |
KAtmandu says,
Dinner (and more singing) We ate sit down family style dinners every night served by House Boys. Formal Dinners were held every Sunday at noon and Monday evening (chapter night). Formal dinner required pins, dresses, stockings. (no "pantsuits"). The door to the dining room opened at 5:30, and the house mother was escorted to her table by the head house boy. Her table was expected to fill up first, the President's and VP's tables were expected to fill up next. No one had assigned seats but them. If you didn't want to sit at one of the head tables, you hung back at the back of the crowd. As we entered the room, we stood behind our chairs and the song leader led us in a sung prayer (with three part harmony) then we sat down after the house mother and president were seated. Our dining room had tables for eight, and the head of table was responsible for passing food, seeing that each person had what they needed, using a little silver bell to summon a house boy for more water, tea, butter, etc. All of the sororities had house boys and it was a prized job on campus. Every word of this is still very much in practice at Monday night formal dinners on one campus I know of...:) |
Hey, Divine Nine members . ..
I'd love to have some of you reminisce here!
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I don't REALLY think you are comparing helping fraternity men pass out drinks to pnm to working at a soup kitchen, are you?:rolleyes: I have this image of the homeless being helped, and fraternity boys . .. not needing it. And for what it is worth, I did a great deal of volunteering for a chapter of Sigma Chi, but I did not become a little sister. Why? Well, even then my sorority frowned upon it, and because I wanted to do what I did because I wanted to do it - not so I could wear their letters. I'm glad, 33, you had a good experience. I'm sure there were many groups that were above board and did not take advanage of the girls. But there were many who did. At any rate, there's no sense getting into a debate as the question has been decided.
So bring on the little sister group memories, all you Belles and Sweethearts and Little Sigs. |
Not little sisters...but...had to love our Big Brothers who went by the nickname "Moonshiners" They were mostly the GDI boyfriends of the girls in the house, the hashers, a few baseball players, friends who didn't go to school with us..and a smattering of fraternity guys. The different Big Bro groups played broom ball against each other. We usually had a mixer with them. They would have a box dinner auction and the girls would bid for their dinners- which were usually very good..quite elaborate picnic dinners. I remember buying one box dinner where the guys wore tuxes and really did it up!
They were really nice guys. I'm not in any way advocating big brother groups but the guys themselves were truly sweethearts. And it worked out well for more than a few of them who are now happily married to my sisters!;) |
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For the record, I was not a little sister...several of my good friends were. anyhoo.... One of the Sig Eps decided to grow a ponytail and we referred to him as FirstName "I Think I'm Bono" LastName. |
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1978 - 82 - Small midwestern college in Nebraska
Well, it was towards the end of Disco, thank goodness. I hated dancing to disco music, made all my curl go flat.
The song "We Are Family" was our pledge class theme. It was the only disco song I knew the words to - but I did like Meatloaf and STILL know all the words to "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights". I can related back to colors - our pledge class sweatshirts where white with red writing. Fraternity Sportswear would send a rep with promo pieces and you would order your navy blue sweatshirt with embroidered letters. It was a big deal when in about 1980 they had a light blue hoodie. Woo Hoo! Quarters was fun...fraternities would steal composites, and serenades were a big deal. We would take our pledge classes around to sing to the fraternities after we got our pledge classes and had a dinner. Animal House came out around then - so then we all had......TOGA PARTIES!!! Rush had lots of skits and song. We thought we were all that when we revised our Theme Day skit to a Grease Theme and wore 50's style costumes. And the slide show was made from pictures turned into slides! Took a lot of work! |
AOII Angel - Let me guess - replace "Gamma Phi" with AO II, and you've got your pref song!:)
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A-O-II It is for always and not just college years |
Well, it took some chapters a LONG time to get rid of candles. My chapter was using them really up until my presidency or maybe the one before me (can't remember). I don't mind using them for certain things, but honestly, and this is just my opinion, using them for things in pref ceremony is super-super lame. We used to do a candle-lighting thing and it wasn't as cool with electric candles. Plus many of the PNMs don't realize why you'd be using electric candles and it seems weird to them too. I think we ended up changing our preference night ceremony when our alumnae got more involved and we had to quit using real candles.
I understand no candles in situations where there are a LOT of candles and maybe fabric around, or even when the candles are 'background items,' but I honestly think that if you're just using one candle, and the candle itself is the focus of the ceremony (as in candle passes or our old preference ceremony) it's pretty stupid to ban it. I just think it's taking risk management too far. I mean with one candle you can pretty quickly respond to any issue that arises. I did my best to obey the rule when I was leading my chapter, and I would in the future if I were in a Pi Phi leadership position, but I just think a lot of the beauty of the ceremony is taken away by using electric candles. |
From MysticCat:
The music would almost always have included hits by groups like The Tams, The Embers, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, The Showmen, Bill Deal and the Rhondells, The Drifters, The Band of Oz, and General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board. "Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy" (The Tams) was sort of the unofficial anthem, although the girls all flocked onto the dance floor for "Carolina Girls" (General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board); the guys preferred "Sixty Minute Man" (The Dominoes). Oh, my yes! Along with "Mrs. Grace," "39-21-40 Shape", "Myrtle Beach Days," "Johnny Dollar," "Monkey Time", "Far Away Places", "Rainy Day Bells","Little Red Book,"etc. I still listen to this music when I run! Billy Stewart, Georgia Prophets. (And BTW, this was still the music for all of us when hubby was in medical school. We still shagged, and still do to this day. Weddings are always fun!) And gold and cloisone add a bead necklaces-completely forgot about those, though I know I have saved mine somewhere. Candlelights, yes, rush w/ everything, dresses all alike, pledge books we had to carry everywhere. |
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This, of course, was in the days before TiVo, but there were programmable VCRs. I went to high school in the Bronze Age, not the Stone Age. :p |
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Oh, and when we passed the Loving Cup around, it had real LOVE in it, not grape juice....:D
And I remember the AMC and GH sagas. I had never watched soaps before then. I never did care for One Life to Live - and it was between those two...we did name one of our son's Tristan - not after Tristan "Scorpio" Rogers, but I did know the name from that! Remember Anna with the plastic scare? She is on one of those makeover shows on Style or one of those channels. |
Thanks for the memory of the 'vous! While I went to UMass, one of my best friends was a DTD at Terptown in the mid-eighties. If we were not in Georgetown at Winston's (watching the staff dance on the bar to the "the Boys are Back In Town!") or at "ChiDi" or Chinese disco, a restaurant that used to be a shag dancing mecca, we would be at the 'vous. Do you remember what the sludge that would build up on the floor? 'Vous goo. of course! "Gatoring in the goo" was a rite of passage for many a UM greek:) Then, next store for Little Tavern burgers (think White Castle)
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diet coke-please.......it was tab and tab alone!
serenades were so much fun-giving them and receiving them. one fraternity even had two of the members accompany them on guitars and the changed the words to "california girls" to sororities on campus and then of course, the chorus was "wish they all could be like the zeta girls" when they sang to us, and then when they got to the next street over, it was the pi phi girls, adpi girls, etc. rush was full blown with a song and dance in the front yard to welcome the rushees to the house. after each party, the rushee was escorted by her hostess to the ends of the walk and down the steps and when enough sisters had been freed up, we started another song and dance, lining our sidewalk. we always sang the greek alphabet song and the chorus was "let me hear you say, zeta tau alpha, let me hear you say, zeta tau alpha, let ne hear you say, zeta tau alpha"......on and on and on and on! graduating sisters passed down their hideous rush dresses to anyone who needed them-the sorority chapters did not totally revamp recruitment every year. some of the fraternity members across the street would climb out on their porch roof and give the rushess scores on cards, like the diving judges did at the olympics. it was so cruel, whether they got a "10" or a "1" and it always worried us that some rushees might not see it as an asset to have a fraternity across the street. certain groups hung out at certain bars. at our hangout, only beer or bottled cokes were served. there were a couple of old pin ball machines(jumbo was one of them) a couple of foosball tables and several pool tables. they always played either,"the women all get prettier at closing time" or "why don't we get drunk and screw" as the bar closed. lovely! greek week was a big deal and included some competition every night for a week. same with sigma chi derby. we could get group seating at the football games and fraternities would do their cheers at the game. |
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