When did "dinks" die?
 

"Dinks" were one term for the special hats/caps that freshmen (often just the men) had to wear on campus either during their entire freshman year or in some cases just until homecoming.

If you remember in Animal House that the freshmen looking to pledge had those hats on, those were dinks.


Also, these days is there *anything* that a Freshman would be expected to have/wear/whatever during the first part of the school year that a later year wouldn't at your school?

I thought you were talking about "Double Income No Kids"

I did, too... and I was starting to get a little worried for myself!

I alwasy thought those stilly little hats were just called beanies.

I'm guessing they died in the early/mid 1960s.

I have a 1969 yearbook from Southern Illinois University in front of me. "A bevy of white beanies identified New Student Week leaders at the opening convocations." Beanies were still being used for identification purposes but not to identify all the freshmen. I think they were totally gone by the early 70s in most places.

An older friend of mine who was an adademic advisor during the 50-80s called the introduction of blue jeans into acceptable campus wear as the great equilizer. I suspect beanie went near or about the same time that women could wear pants and/or jeans to class.

My mother still has hers and she started college in 1969.

The freshmen at my campuses didn't have anything official to wear designating their year. However, freshmen did have a tendency to wear the school lanyard (given by the school as a welcoming present) around their necks. Upperclassmen never wore it that way.

My mom, class of '68, still has her beanie too. Recently she asked me if I still had mine. (????)

I had to break it to her that those vanished in the early 70s on our campus and were long gone by the time I started college in the 90s. She had no idea.

Same here and I was going to say DINKs are definitely not dead.

Husband went to a small college his freshman year, 1970, and they were worn for the first week or so. They also had a week of light hazing activities and a day of games or something - I think he won a tricycle race.
But before we graduated, they were gone.

The yearbook could very well have my mother or father in the picture. I will have to ask them and the beanies. I remember our housing core president showing us her Sigma pledge beanie, but I think she attended early 60's.

My university sent out a fundraising solicitation at the end of last year that also included a 2013 calendar featuring a “Then and Now” photo collage, which has been decorating my cubicle all year. One of the vintage photos is of a male and female student at a picnic (or some sort of meal served outdoors) and they are both wearing a beanie! The picture isn’t dated, though. It looks like 50’s or early 60’s.

The last person I know of that wore one went to a small college in PA (I think Indiana University), and graduated from Pitt in 1979. She's the only person I know who ever wore one - or admitted it.

My Frosh year at NWMU 1960 we wore green and white beenies.
Some Jocks had a deal with a selected frosh to shave his head on the lawn of Admin. They some grabbed me and shaved 1/2 of my head. Was not happy. They let classes out for this and then a march to the town square. I led a revolt and there was major goings on, no longer had beenies, LOL!:cool:

College hazing and they think we greeks have a lock on hazing???

That's awesome.

At our alumnae meeting this weekend, we were asked to bring our favorite set of letters from our collegiate days, and one of our sisters who's turning 80 this month brought one of her dinks. It was green with our letters in gold on the front. She said it was 61 years old and all the sisters wore them back then.

Other sisters asked, "You wore hats?" She corrected them, and I was happy to know I learned the term "dink" from here on Greekchat :)

http://i829.photobucket.com/albums/z...pse68b108a.jpg
The age of the white felt dink is unknown.
The red "bucket-style" hat with the brim up in the back, was used as a dink for a Chi Omega chapter in Ohio in the 1950s

Saw this on "Beanies of the Big 10"

http://library.osu.edu/projects/beanies/

My alma mater (U of Montevallo, formerly Alabama College) used to have a number of hazing traditions, both before and after coeducation in 1956. Senior March (see link) hung on until the early '90s:

http://www.mocavo.com/Montage-Univer...1992/838567/37

Expected? No. Inadvertently have because it was given to them at say, new student orientation? Sure. Freebie stuff like day planners, sunglasses, those drawstring bookbags, etc.

I'd imagine many first-year students would be so "too cool for school" to wear a beanie, and some would cry hazing (bc OMG my life and livelihood is threatened by wearing a hat!)

I want to know when "DON'T CARRY A PURSE OR EVERYONE WILL KNOW YOU'RE A FRESHMAN" died. My 17 years older than me cousin told me that, and she was right.

a purse versus what? a bookbag? tote bag?

I never heard the don't carry a purse thing.

Yes.

Are these dinks?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-75TtokFqD0...63624102_n.jpg

http://shewasabird.blogspot.com/2012...-ra-ra-ra.html

Old thread I know but ^^ yes they are.

Georgia Tech still does this tradition.

And apparently so does Columbia U The FU Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences! (just saw it on a utoob vid ---skip to 4:29 ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLh-ZnPsK9E )

I know this is a pretty old thread, but ... my initial thought was also "DINK" = "Double Income No Kids". I remember the beanies from "Animal House" but I've never heard the term "dink" in this context before.

At my mother's alma mater, St Andrews, there was the tradition of the raisin string. First year students, known as bejants or bejantines, were paired with a senior man or woman who would help get them acclimated to campus life. On Raisin Monday (in early November) the bejant/ine had to present his/her senior person with a thank-you letter, which had to be written in Latin, Greek, or Hebrew. The senior person would then present the bejant/ine with a raisin string - basically a string with little trinkets like silver charms - which the bejant/ine would attach to his/her academic robe. (All students were required to wear academic robes to class.) Until you got your raisin string, older students could haze you, which typically involved reciting verses from "Gaudeamus Igitur". It seems the tradition has morphed a bit since my mother's day, but the basic principles are the same.

My dd pledged this year and I couldn’t believe they no longer wear pledge pins :(
(Nor are they “pledges”...) I can’t even imagine dinks!

No pledge pins? How strange!

I know! Is that everywhere now or just some schools?

I think that's an abberation. My son wore his FIJI pledge pin last year, and my daughter wore one when she joined Pi Phi 5 years ago...they both still have them, but I think they only wore them for meetings, not all the time. My daughter's school, W&L, has an annual yearbook, and many guys wear pledge pins in the first year photos. The women generally wear those drapes for the photos, so they don't wear pins (75% of the student body is Greek, so this is a pretty good indication). We still have pledge pins, but they're returned after initiation and reused.

None at all or just not required to be worn all the time? Another possibility, did they just not have enough in time? Do they do ribbons instead? So many questions!

Since most 'pledge' pins are rather inexpensive, do the common pin manufacturers use flimsy/poor pin materials that some sororities find cheapens the look (and possibly the meaning behind) their pin?

Conversely would a group having a more expensive 'pledge' pin decide it is less expensive for members to pay for ribbons instead of a pin?

Although it might rarely occur, using ribbons could save any group from theft of pins by women who never return pins after dropping before initiation (even if women must somehow then pay for said 'lost/borrowed forever' pins).

If I recall correctly there is at least one NPC group that doesn't require initiated members to have their very own pin. I wonder if that means they consistently pass-down old pins to their next generation of members as part of their traditions and standards.

I'm curious if anyone has or knows anyone that has their freshman cap/dink?

TTT -- I'm researching for a story that I’m writing and this thread was helpful.

I don't recall backpacks becoming popular on my midwestern campus until the late 1970s. Before that, one carried their books or had them carried by a strong and handsome fraternity man :) .

One item new female students of my day were encouraged to utilize was the school-issued plastic ID holder for dollar bills and credit cards, rather than carrying a purse. Good thing the wearing of jeans/pants with pockets had somewhat superseded dress-wearing. That ID holder cost all of ten cents!