When I pledged my chapter in 1992, we didn't have phone lines in all the rooms either. (I think perhaps 2 or 3 rooms did have private lines, because somewhere along the line the occupants of the room paid for the installation out of their own pockets. But the vast majority of in-house residents had to rely on the house phone.)

I did phone duty as a pledge, and also as an active. We had a system down for paging someone over the intercom...a "phone" call meant that you had a female caller, a "telephone" call meant that the caller was male. There was a similar system for visitors...if you were being paged that you had a "guest" it was a female. If you were being paged that you had a "visitor" it was a male. Ah...brings back memories. :)

The rules were relaxing quickly throughtout the seventies at Auburn; for example, senior women didn't have to sign out! This was great for several reasons but a biggie was that we realized that guys were reading our sign-out cards before we came downstairs to see who we'd been going out with. So one of my sisters wrote some fake names on her card and when she walked in, her date said, "I hear you've been going out with 'Chip Smith'."

She had created the name out of the blue and asked him how he knew and he said, "Oh, people know. People talk.":eek:

I'm beginning to think that a "The Way Things Were" thread would be terribly interesting! In many ways, we had it much easier, but in others, much harder. We had our own phones, but we also had a sorority phone in the Chapter Room.

I can also remember going to a girlfriend's home, whose kitchen was just remodeled. She was the first person I knew with a microwave!

I remember living in the KD Dorm at Auburn in the mid seventies...when your date came to get you he came inside, picked up a phone at the desk, dialed the last four digits of your phone number (we all had phones in our rooms) and told you that he was downstairs. For a couple of years I dated the cutest KA who had the MOST southern accent I have ever heard (and I am from Alabama)....I'd pick up the phone and all he would say is : "Ah'm in yo LOBbih."

wonder whatever happened to him?????

And Carnation...what year did you pledge?

I would love to read this! I've been out of college a long time, but I don't think that much has changed in terms of schools regulations since I was there. Technologically, a lot has changed, and I'm sure it has a social impact.

But I'd love to hear about how things were and are now.

Carnation, your "Chip Smith" dating friend was a genius. Did she ever let on what she had done?

No, I think she thought he was an idiot from that moment and never went out with him again. The jokes about Chip, though, lasted until we graduated!

The sad thing is, this kind of thing used to be done for decorum and formality's sake. Now, they still have systems to get into the houses, but it's for safety's sake. When I lived in the house, we had an intercom in the foyer, and you had to go downstairs and let your guest in.

They told us it was for safety's sake because we might be in some kind of distress if we didn't come in at night. However, college boys can be in distress too and I heard that freshman boys never even had to sign out from Auburn's earliest days. Also, AU women (except for seniors) had to live on campus and no men did.

I bet they did. I suspect if you had a reunion or at homecoming, people would still love to see his name on a list of guests.

I can see "Oh, people know. People talk" becoming a catch phrase too, maybe to tip a friend off that you were bluffing about something or couldn't reveal your sources.

Do you think it should stay in Recruitment, or in Greek Life? I'm interested in the "historical" aspect, too!

Of course, I've also toyed with doing my own Recruitment Thread, only because it was done so completely differently! Pitt had a hybrid of its own rush & NPC that is very unique!

I would definitely be interested in reading it.

Well, we should have both! I'd love to read your recruitment story, and I'd hate to think that you delayed because of the history thread.

I don't know how strict people are about thread topics and forums.

I tend to think many of the women who would want to read it or have things to post already read mainly the recruitment section (or at least it seems that way to me because recruitment results are what brought me to GC). But I can also imagine that we have some men who have then/now memories about their college experiences who might never publicly post in the recruitment forum.

Have you checked out the 1969 Alabama yearbook linked in Greek Life, I think? It ties in nicely with this theme. If you decide to post elsewhere, that's be a nice connection.

Guess we've come full circle because most of the kids now just use their cell phones instead of having a phone in their room. My son had a phone jack in his room, but he and his roomie never connected a phone.

I remember having phones in my room though. At the Kappa house, we had a WATS line that the in-state girls (or I guess any out-of-state member who wanted to make in-state long distance calls) could pay to use. It was great!

*waiting for someone to question what a WATS line is!*

I'll bite - what's a WATS line? :)

We used a STAN card to make long distance cards. All the rooms in my dorm had phones.

It stands for Wide Area Telephone Service. Basically, whoever wanted to use the phone split the cost of having it. We could call anywhere in Mississippi, so we didn't have long distance charges to worry about.

Of course, the out-of-state members wouldn't be required to sign up unless they had family or friends in Mississippi they wanted to call.

I didn't have one at school, but I did have the benefit of using a WATS line through my father's work. It was kind of like an 800 number that you would dial, then you would input the long distance number that you wanted to call. It was wonderful because you never had to watch the clock when you talked long distance.:)

Yes to both!

I think it would be great to hear from some of the men on the historical aspects, so a thread in Greek Life would work well.

Count me in on those who'd love to read your Recruitment thread, Honeychile! :)

Yo tambien!

Starting the chant, since it worked for NutBrn:

HoneyCHILE! HoneyCHILE!

BTW, great retro rush thread, Carnation! Looking forward to your daughter's recruitment thread this year!

Thanks, angelove, I'm scared but excited!

HoneyCHILE! HoneyCHILE!

::::::::::jumping up::::::::::

:::::::::jumping down::::::::

HUH NEE, HUH NEE, HUH NEE!!!

ACK! I was more interested in Ye Olden Days, but I'll try a Retro Recruitment thread, explaining the ever-complicated Pitt Rush System by tonight!

My friend who had the "Chip Smith" experience just joined Facebook. Guess what I'm about to go post on her wall!

Since you bumped this 2007 thread, I had to read backwards to find the "Chip Smith" story... what a hoot! My oh my have things changed!!

She just responded.:D She said she still laughs about it! Ole Boy had no idea that a whole sorority was giggling behind his back for months after that.