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Retro Recruitment: 1985
Hi everyone! Longtime poster here posting under a pseudonym. I guess you could say Alias85 is a benign sock puppet :)
I'd held off on writing a retro recruitment thread for a long time because the ones I've read have been so well written and full of detail and I didn't think I could manage that. Then I figured, what the hell, I'll give it a try. So, here's my story... WHO: Alias85 WHAT: Totally Awesome Retro Rush Story WHEN: Fall of 1985 WHERE: A big school in the east WHY: Why not? DISCLAIMER: Since this took place 29 years ago, I am going by the following: pictures taken before and during the events, casual conversations with people who were there and the mostly illegible scribblings in the little rush notebooks we were allowed to carry. My rush started on a humid Sunday afternoon in late August the day after I moved into my dorm. The yearly event called the Watermelon Picnic was the opportunity for the fraternities and sororities to set up booths and mingle with the potential rushees (there will be no usage of words like PNM and Rho Gamma in this story. I’m old school) and with each other and, well, eat watermelon. Rush at Big School in the East isn’t like down South with the town by town voting blocks, outpouring of recs and Lily-clad young ladies groomed for sorority life from birth (not that there’s anything wrong with that). If it were, I assure you that I would not be writing this because I’d be a GDI. Anyway, my roommate and I, along with a group of girls from our floor, all ventured down to the Watermelon Picnic. I don’t remember much about it, but photographic proof says that I was wearing what I can only describe as a pair of overalls in a pattern most often associated with train engineers and an oversized red t shirt. My feet are (thankfully?) not visible in this picture but if they were I fear that if they were you would see black Chuck Taylors with the tops jauntily folded down. We ate watermelon, flirted with the cute fraternity boys and mingled with the sorority sisters. I remember being happy to see a few familiar faces in the crowd that I knew from the fraternity parties I’d been attending for the past couple of years (What? You weren’t running around fraternity house parties when you were 16? Well, okay, that’s understandable) and by the end of the day, I'd paid my $15.00 and was signed up to participate in Rush. We all got pink t shirts with a picture of the Pink Panther on them that said “Think Greek”, but it had sigmas where the E’s were supposed to be so I guess it was more like “Think Grssk”. I still don’t get why they did that. So, back in those days at my school, there were twelve sororities. The easiest way to name them is, I think, to assign them each an astrological sign: Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces The schedule was as follows: 12 Parties 8 Parties 4 Parties Preference Parties ... |
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Happy to see another RETRO story!
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And go Capricorn! :D |
Sorry the hijack, but another person posted something about the Watermelon Picnic, albeit years later since they had re-named it by the time this person went through rush/recruitment. Your story is fun, can't wait to read the rest of it!
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...72&postcount=5 |
Rooting for Leo ;)
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All hail rush and the rushees!
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Libra! libra! LIBRA! We're those chill, laid back girls that everyone can get along with. Why not join? ;)
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Agreed, Angel! This story is hilarious already.
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I'm loving all of these retro threads to keep us busy until August. More, please!!
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12 Parties
The first round of parties was a blur. That probably hasn’t changed much in 29 years! It was over two evenings; six parties each night. I do remember thinking it was weird how we’d be directed to a chair and then the sisters would sit on the floor around us. It felt awkward to me, but I guess it was more polite than making a rushee sit on the floor! The whole practice of the sisters lining the hallways and singing loudly while the rushes filed out the door kind of freaked me out a little. Everything seemed a lot more structured than I’d thought it would be (although not as structured as it actually was, as I’d find once I was on the other side of rush). After the 12th party, we sat down with our Rho Chi group in the student union ballroom and filled out our cards. I really liked Aries, Cancer and Sagittarius and I really didn’t care for Aquarius and Pisces. The reason I didn’t like the latter two? Their houses were not on campus and I couldn’t imagine walking so far every time I wanted to stop by. As you can see, I had a highly scientific plan in place. Then I didn’t much care for Leo because they pretty much left me alone on a chair and ignored me! I felt like Mohammad, Clayton, Sidney and Jugdesh from the Omega rush party in Animal House! None of the other sororities really stood out one way or the other so I didn’t feel like I could decide on them without more information. The next round, my schedule was as follows: Aries Cancer Sagittarius Gemini Cancer Leo Taurus Virgo Oh! Did you want to hear about my wardrobe choices for the 12 round? I don’t have pictures from Day 2, but on Day 1 I had on a bright yellow miniskirt and an oversized white t shirt with three buttons at the neck and multicolored drawings of the Eiffel Tower all over it. In addition, I belted the t shirt with a wide turquoise colored leather belt slung low around my hips. White sandals completed my snazzy ensemble. I don’t remember if this took place before or after Labor Day so I’m not sure if the white sandals were appropriate or not. Oh, and Lord help me, I had a leather turquoise headband holding my bangs back. ... |
Hair crimps. Were there hair crimps?
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Unfortunately (or fortunately?), my hair was not long enough to crimp at the time
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You got it in the parentheses! Fun story!
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I would love to see pics from these retro stories! |
8 Parties
At my school, at least back in the day, they didn’t do a Philanthropy Round. The parties were just like the first round except that they were longer and we didn’t have to go to as many. Like with Round 1, the parties were distributed over two days. It was fun in that I was able to get more of a sense of what every house was about. Sagittarius prided itself in kicking butt every Greek Week. Cancer usually won Derby Days. Virgo had what I remember as my favorite philanthropy; providing therapy to help critically ill children cope with their illness. Aries had sisters involved in high profile positions all over campus. When it came time after Round 2, I remember putting Gemini and Taurus at the bottom of my choices partly because they each had half of a floor in the sorority dorm instead of having a whole floor each. I knew I eventually wanted to live in the suite and it didn’t seem that would be a possibility since they had half as many beds as the other houses. Plus, I felt like the sisters at Taurus were following a script when they were talking to me and asking questions and the conversation didn’t really flow very well. I liked Capricorn a lot, but they were such a small house; about 1/3 as big as one of the large houses. 4 Parties So for the next round, my schedule read: Sagittarius Aries Cancer Virgo This is where it got tough because I really liked all four of these houses and it was hard to decide on just two for Prefs. Sagittarius really seemed to have a big presence on campus. It seemed like there were large groups of them, in letters, EVERYWHERE. I could see myself there, and a big reason for that was because they all looked like me! Medium height, curvy, dark brown bob (the only variation: some with bangs, some without). Their skit was amazing. According to fraternity friends, they were a force to be reckoned with during Greek Week and they took their fundraising very seriously. I really liked Sagittarius, but in the end I worried that I would feel claustrophobic there. It was almost like they expected sisters to be “on” at all times. Aries seemed like a bunch of fun girls who genuinely liked each other. During the party, their interactions with one another seemed genuine and affectionate. The skit wasn’t perfect, but it was fun and they were enthusiastic. I remember noticing during the week that their table at the cafeteria was always loud and raucous, with tons of people stopping by to say hey and they seemed to know everybody! Aside from the fact that many of them looked like Barbie dolls, they seemed very friendly and down to earth. Their attitude during rush was kind of “wink, wink, yeah you know and I know that this whole thing is kind of silly, but we have no choice.” I found that kind of endearing, actually. Plus, I already knew two or three of the older sisters and liked them. Cancer, I absolutely loved. I think part of that was, in addition to having some lovely sisters, they were expert rushers. I almost felt like they had a dossier on me or something! I remember a sister I’d never spoken to before making recommendations on which professors were the best in my major and thinking, “How did she know what I want to major in???” Everyone I met was adorable and welcoming and I felt comfortable there but I had to wonder how they interacted without being in such a structured atmosphere. I wasn’t sure I saw the “real” girls. The girls at Virgo were so sweet and nice and their skit was cute. I was a little bothered to find that several of the sisters on the rushing side of things were actually from another school’s chapter because the chapter at my school was very small. I understand the need to shore up numbers so you don’t have rushees without anyone to talk to, but it felt a little like false advertising to me. What to do, what to do? |
Lovin' your story!
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Maybe she didn't like her selections and she withdrew from rush?
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Hope it's in the stars for a happy ending!
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I hope we get an update today!
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Whatever happened to the OP of this thread? She said she was a longtime poster.
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I was so sure this was going to be a whole story. Sigh.
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Something says she's busy elsewhere among these GC threads, and may return to her story when GC isn't as abundant with New Member happiness/reports/pictures.
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