|
A totally bitchen '80s rush story
Yeah, yeah, I know....I said I'd never do this. But I'm so pathologically excited to have my desktop back I want to type just for the pure joy of typing. Plus I should probably save this for posterity before I become senile.
I rushed at a state school in Pennsylvania with a student population of 6000ish in the mid-1980s. I won't be revealing the names of the groups on here (except the one I end up at which you all know, duh) so if you really really have a burning need to know, PM me when the story's done. :) There were seven sororities and I will be using the names of beloved 1980s clothing stores. (Some of these may be semi-local but we didn't know that stuff before the intraweb.) Ups & Downs Merry Go Round Susie's Casuals Foxmoor County Seat Ormond Reunion I rushed in the fall of my sophomore year. My school had deferred rush so formal rush was in the spring. We had a partially structured rush which worked as follows: -Meet the Greeks - All rushees visit each sorority for 30 minutes in classrooms in the the oldest and prettiest building on campus. (It may have been less time than that, my DITTO SHEET doesn't say. :) ) No cuts made after this round. -Theme Parties - hour-ish each, spread out over a week. Rushees could go to as many or few theme parties as they liked. -Pref Parties - hour-ish each, spread out over the next week. Rushees had to be invited. -Bid Day was Friday of the second week. The theme and pref parties were held in suites, houses, dorm activity rooms or classrooms depending on each group's housing situation. At the time, only two sororities had houses. One group was still in a dorm suite - this was what most of the groups had been doing but the college needed the space and was pushing them out if the opportunity arose. Total on campus at the time was 50. Some of the other ladies in this story will have the names of the original SEVEN (look it up kids) Facts of Life girls. |
Rush started on Sunday with Meet the Greeks. My best friend Molly was going through rush also so we went over together.
I was really confused and worried about a lot of what was going on and I ended up talking to Blair, who it turned out was the Panhel president. She gave me her number and told me to call if I needed anything which was great. Other than that, I don't remember a whole heck of a lot about MTG except for two groups: Ormond was acknowledged to be the "rich pretty princess" group on campus. They all had to buy matching suits and formal dresses (no other groups on campus did this) and they could only date certain guys and etc etc etc...those were the rumors. When I walked into their room, they obviously had decided to play against type. They had a country theme and were all dressed in overalls, pigtails, etc...but of course if you are cute as can be you can get away with that. I ended up talking to this girl named Tootie. Now besides being very beautiful, her name stuck in my mind because it was the name of one of my favorite soap opera characters. Anyway, I had a great time talking to her and was pleasantly surprised how I felt about Ormond. The other group that stuck out in my mind was Merry Go Round. This group had a reputation for hazing, and I don't mean scavenger hunts or silly quizzes...I mean beatings. I really wanted to give them a chance though, so I tried entering their room with an open mind. I ended up paired with a girl who was from a hometown near mine and tried to talk to her about hometown things, but it was evident she had very little interest in talking to me. Now there was another thing about Merry Go Round that was a negative in my mind. Our previous semester's RA had been one of their sisters, and she basically promised Molly a bid - to the point that Molly suicided. Obviously Molly didn't get a bid since she was rushing again. So those two things, coupled with the fact that no one in this group seemed very friendly to me, made up my mind. I wasn't going to go to Merry Go Round's theme party the next night. |
Wait ... Shouldn't Blair be an Ormond? And does George Clooney and his mullet make an appearance?
|
She might be, and he might be :)
|
This thread is so rad! *tightens side ponytail*
|
OMG UPS & DOWNS! I loved that store back in the day. I like this thread already. : )
|
You had me at totally bitchen. :-D
|
Yeah! 80's! Merry Go Round, Foxmoor and Ups and Downs bring back wonderful shopping memories.
|
Oh man am I way out of my league with all these 80s references that I was not around for, but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy the story!
|
33, I'm begging you - shoulder pads! Big hair!
|
Quote:
|
Let me tighten up my Adidas shelltops!
Cute story. Sounds a lot like my NPC rush. |
I used to love Ormond!
So, did you have a boyfriend at the time? Because if you did, I bet he pledged Chess King! |
Darn it, chi-o cat, you beat me to it. I was going to ask if they had mixers with Chess King, Jeans West, or Just Pants. Some of these might be '70s, though.
|
Are you going to make one post a day?
|
Where is Benetton????
|
Does anyone in the Texas/Louisiana area remember Weiner's? I remember shopping there as a child. My kids think it's hilarious that I shopped at a store called Weiner's.
http://www.beeville.net/ShopChristma...ont%209645.jpg And for our younger greekchatters..... http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/73...c3f12616b1.jpg http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...f821aca3b4.jpg |
I remember Weiner's!
|
Me too! My grandmother used to get the fabric for our Easter dresses there!
|
Quote:
|
Is it wrong that I still kind of want to look like the women in the Merry Go Round ad? Or at least have a flat stomach and long hair. Although I do have to admit that I was a Benetton girl. I would sweat my behind off, but I ALWAYS wore sweaters. Did not matter what the season was, either.
|
Unless you were down South, and we were still sporting Malia sundresses, Pappagallos, Izods, Polo, Tretorns and Topsiders ... And, of all things, painter's pants. And dressing up for the football games. And chintz. -- Laura Ashley, balloon-sleeved, Princess Diana over the top chintz. I still love the mall theme!
|
I still love the mall theme!
|
Theme Party Week!
I forgot to mention that another girl on my and Molly's floor, Nancy, was also going through rush. She was a junior and was very poised and ladylike. I assumed that she would be concentrating on Ormond. So off we headed to our theme parties - there were three scheduled the first night. Ormond was the first. They were one of the sororities that had a house - it actually had been a small dorm at one time (I think the modern day equivalent would be a theme house). This was another thing that made them sort of a big deal. We got to the rush party and they were doing a 50s theme. All the sisters were either dressed in 50s wear or to fit their part in the skit. The skit itself was very slick and polished with a song and everything - they had obviously rehearsed and rehearsed. After the skit we had refreshments and dispersed around the room. Do you remember the scene in Animal House where Pinto and Flounder keep getting stuck in the corner with Jugdish et al? That was EXACTLY how I felt at this party. No one was rude, but I just felt completely uncomfortable and I obviously wasn't on their priority list. If I would have been wearing multiple Swatches I would have been checking every single one of them constantly. The party finally came to the end and Molly and I headed back to our dorm for a breather. Merry Go Round was next and obviously Molly wasn't going there either. She had LOVED Ormond - she spent the entire time talking to the dorm director's girlfriend who was a sister there. I was glad she had fun but I had a feeling even at this early point that we weren't going to end up as sisters. The third party scheduled for the night was Susie's Casuals. I didn't know much about these girls except they seemed a little more fashion forward than most of the campus and had several members on the cheerleading squad. This party was held in a dorm rec room. The theme was cute and we made our own desserts. I had a really good time at this party. The girls seemed like they could be prim and proper if the occasion called for it, but they had a rock n' roll edge underneath. I liked them a lot. There were no parties scheduled on Tuesday because these guys came to play at the annual campus concert and NO ONE was planning on missing it. They were AWESOME. |
Wednesday there were two parties on the schedule.
The first one was County Seat. This was an interest group that was still looking to get picked up by a national sorority. It was held in one of the larger classrooms. I do not remember a damn thing about this party. I could see where being in a new group would be kind of neat but the girls didn't really make an impression on me. The second party was Reunion. It was held in the room where campus weekend dances were usually held. This was a group that had recolonized the semester before. Now, for the back story on this one. My boyfriend was good friends with most of the "old" members of Reunion and he and I had spent a lot of time hanging out in their suite which happened to be in our dorm. I had been pledging a service group the previous spring and my plan had been to pledge Reunion first thing my sophomore year. In the interim, they recolonized. Part of me wanted to blow off this party to support my friends, but I realized that it wasn't the new girls' fault - it's not like they stole the charter out from under them. So I went to the party and ended up having a really good time. Their theme was cute and the girls I talked to seemed nice and very down to earth. Molly also had an issue with Reunion. Her next door neighbor, whom she was extremely close to, had been a sister of the "old" chapter at our school several years earlier and wanted her to pledge. After Molly didn't get a bid from Merry Go Round, she went through Reunion's colonization rush. She was chosen to join the colony, but realized fairly quickly that it wasn't for her - she was just doing it to please her neighbor. To be fair there were quite a few girls that also dropped out of the colony - it was something that hadn't happened on our campus for a long time and no one knew what to expect. |
Oh, a side note...
During the week, I remember being in the business building and seeing a really pretty girl wearing Foxmoor letters. She was talking to a member of the George Clooney fraternity. These guys were hands down the hottest guys on campus. Now, this kind of surprised me, because I had been hearing from everyone that the Foxmoor sisters only dated members of Christopher Atkins...they were cute enough guys, but too clean cut for me. This kind of made me look at Foxmoor in a new light. |
Two more parties left on Thursday.
The first party was at Foxmoor. It was held in their house which was directly off campus. Their house was a largish family house which had been made over to accomodate 10-14 girls...it was cozy and welcoming and the complete opposite of Ormond. They had a cookout theme so we ate weiners lol. I am pretty sure I wore pleated capri jeans to this party. (They sound worse than they were, they were actually very cute.) They didn't really have a skit...I think we played word games or something. The pretty girl I'd seen in the business building with the Clooney came up to me and said "I saw you scoping out my letters the other day!" and we got to talking. She introduced me to her big who actually looked like her bio sister - they were both really cool and nice. I knew two sisters of this sorority through my boyfriend - Sue Ann and Natalie. I wasn't sure how they would react since my boyfriend wasn't altogether happy about my rushing, but they couldn't have been more welcoming. All in all I was really comfortable here and enjoyed myself a lot. The second party of the night was with Ups & Downs. They also held it in the campus weekend dance room. My boyfriend's nickname for this group was "The Amazons" and while I did see a girl or two that could probably hold her own with Hulk Hogan, for the most part it was a really diverse mix of lovely women. Two of the girls in my freshman year dorm, Cindy and Kimberly, had pledged this group the year before and seeing what a great time they had was one of the things that made me want to go Greek. They both greeted me with open arms, Kimberly in particular. They had an around the world theme, the food was good, the favor we got was cute and useful and the skit was hilarious. It was obvious that they had an extremely close sisterhood and loved each other very much. I had a really, really good time here. Weekend off!! (Thank God) We would be getting our invites to pref (if we got any) in our campus mail throughout the weekend. |
George Clooney AND Christopher Atkins! And pleated capri jeans! Good stuff!
|
Quote:
I'm LOLing at "Foxmoor" and "Merry Go Round"! I haven't thought about those places in years! Let me just fetch my Forenza sweater and matching socks, and my white high top Reeboks so I can fit in here. I still have my acid washed, dropped shoulder jean jacket, just in case, y'know, it ever comes back in style. |
Quote:
I miss my Tretorns. |
So over the weekend, our invites trickled in.
Molly got invited back to Foxmoor, Ups & Downs, and Ormond. I got invited back to... Susie's Casuals Reunion Foxmoor Ups & Downs and County Seat. Every group I'd gone to, except for Ormond where I knew I didn't have a snowball's chance anyway. I couldn't believe it. I was in shock. In a good way. I hadn't had a great time socially in jr high & high school - was not successful at things that were tryouts or anything resembling popularity contests among my peers. I literally could not believe that all these girls wanted me to come back. No, this wasn't a huge recruitment. No, this isn't a super competitive school. But still - I was amazed that I really was not that awkward 13 year old any longer. I chose the school I went to largely on a gut decision, and this to me just solidified that it had been the right one. Mush over. |
Quote:
|
I heart this thread.
|
Quote:
ETA: Why did I number this? I guess I had a follow up question, but who knows what it was. LOL. |
They still make Swatches. They are still awesome.
http://store.swatch.com/?utm_source=...FUc0aQodPCIAtA |
Loving the names! I can remember when, as a punishment, I wasn't allowed to go to Foxmoor for a month!
|
We lived for Laura Ashley. The definition of chic.
|
Pref Party week! I actually do remember what I wore this week because I put skirts on LOL. Monday night I wore my HS graduation dress which was a lavendar and blue plaid. Not exactly seasonal but this wasn't the sort of place where people showed up with their rush wardrobes in separate garment bags for each day. ;)
The first party I went to on Monday was Susie's Casuals. This was held in the same dorm rec room where their theme party had been held. It had a more serious tone and I do remember that they sang Pass It On (that had to happen in at least one place). I still liked these girls a lot and was still kind of amazed that they had invited me back - they seemed so much more poised and polished than me. The second party was at Reunion. They held it in the campus weekend dance space. They seemed a little unsure of what they were doing, which made sense since they were still a colony. Tuesday night Ups & Downs and County Seat were holding their parties. Ups & Downs was the first party of the night. This time the party was held in their dormitory suite. Sisters lived in a wing of the dorm and the study room at the end of the hall served as their chapter room. Once again Cindy and Kimberly made sure I was being showed around. Cindy took me on a suite tour and was pointing out different things that had to do with their philanthropy, sisterhood events etc...I liked it, but it just seemed like she was too gung ho - like EVERYTHING related back to Ups & Downs and there was no life outside of it. (That is way more dramatic than I wanted it to be.) Eventually it was time for the preference ceremony. Each rushee was holding a candle and flanked by a sister and Kimberly stood behind me. They sang a sorority song and then one of the sisters recited a poem about their sisterhood and most of the sisters were bawling by the end of it, along with some rushees. They then sang another song and started escorting us out. Kimberly gave me my favor and told me to make a wish and gave me a hug. It was very powerful and moving and I had tears in my eyes too. It was also VERY VERY HOT. I was wearing a tank top dress with Molly's thick shaker knit sweater over the top. There were approximately 80-85 girls in a not very large suite, in fall clothing, WITH CANDLES. Bleah!!!! I desperately wished there was a way to take a shower or at least stand in a freezer before the County Seat pref, but no such luck!!! I don't remember much about County Seat's pref either, except I think the sisters were all dressed in white. It was held in the same classroom they held their theme party in. They had a hard act to follow - the pref parties obviously only occurred once so if anyone was coming from Ups & Downs they probably couldn't help but compare the two. Wednesday night Foxmoor and Ormond held their pref parties. Molly and I went over to the Foxmoor house together but I could tell she was already anticipating Ormond. I wore a pink and black rose print sweater (the other 80s girls will know exactly the kind of thing I am talking about) and my friend's black knit skirt. (This is another reason deferred rush is awesome. If I had had to completely wear my own clothes for rush I would have been up sh%^ creek.) Foxmoor again held their party at their house. Everyone was in dressier clothes and the conversation was quieter but there was still that comfortable feeling. When it came time for the ceremony, all the rushees went downstairs while the sisters prepared the main room. We came upstairs to see candles and soft lighting - it looked beautiful. We were each given one of the sorority's jewels (a faux one of course) and told to take it up to the wishing well and make a wish. As we did so, they sang the sorority's hymn. I went up and placed it in the well - as in put my whole hand into the bowl so it didn't bounce. I didn't realize there was water in the bowl. Hahahaha. I don't think anyone noticed though. We were given roses and left the house quietly. I wished Molly good luck at Ormond and went back to the dorm. Rush was over for me, party-wise anyway, since the only group holding pref the next day was Merry Go Round. Bid signing was on Friday morning. I had a whole day and then some to do nothing but think! Yay! |
Indeed, I know the pink and black rose sweater, and "Pass It On" had been safely out of my mind for decades until now ... Please continue!
|
Quote:
33, I'm loving this thread! |
| All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:55 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.