Another Old Lady Retro Recruitment Thread
 

I've been inspired by all of the retro recruitment threads, so had to add my own. I rushed in the early 90's in the Pacific Northwest...scary to think that some freshman going through rush this year were BORN in 1990. How did I get to be so old???

Anyway, at the time we had 6 sororities
Pi Beta Phi (obviously)
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Alpha Phi
Kappa Kappa Gamma (closed in 2003, I think)
Delta Delta Delta (closed 1996)

I just spent the weekend with my 2 year old niece, so I'm coding by Sesame Street names...
Elmo
Cookie Monster
Ernie
Bert
Oscar
Big Bird

We rush 2nd semester, but I had 2 really good friends prior to starting who were greek. "Charlotte" was an Elmo, and "Carrie" was a Ernie. Charlotte's freshman roommate and my RA were both Berts. I had visited Charlotte and knew a lot of her Elmo sisters, and really liked them.
We had pretty strict no-contact rules prior to rush (oops, recruitment - it was still rush then, in my defense!), but here were my admittedly pretty superficial ignorant impressions going into rush:

Elmo - Charlotte's house. Thought I would probably be an Elmo. Liked their chapter house when I visited as a high school student. Seemed to be nice gals, good reputation on campus, lots of cheerleaders were Elmo. Not sure why I noticed this as I am not a cheerleader. Wasn't planning to be. But I thought that they were a very "strong" house and I was have been thrilled to be an Elmo. And thought I wanted to be in Charlotte's house. My only concern about the Elmo's were that a lot pretty into one of the campus religious groups, and I'm pretty liberal.

Cookie Monster - By far seen as the "weakest" house on campus. I think this was strictly based on their status as the smallest group. Looking back as an advisor, they were one of the strongest houses until a few years prior to my rush when they got one small pledge class. This is always given me pause because it reminds me that this could happen to any house, including mine. Knew 1 gal from my calculus class who was a Cookie Monster and was really friendly, outgoing, but overall, a few of the other Cookie Monsters that I had met were somewhat socially awkward.

Bert - Charlotte's freshman roommate was a Bert, and I really liked her, although she was kind of quiet and a little more conservative than I am. My RA was also a Bert...and I really did not like my RA. She was not very friendly or outgoing, and she could not stand my group of friends from our floor. Pretty much all of my floormates didn't like her either.

Ernie - If I wasn't an Elmo, I thought I might be an Ernie. My friend Carrie was great, a soccer player, and lots of athletes were Ernies. My only concern was that they were pretty "granola", and I was (and still am) a makeup loving, daily blow-drying, heel-wearing certified girly-girl. Less so as a freshman (hey, it was the 90's - everyone had flannel and birkenstocks), but I still wasn't sure if I'd fit in. Again, thought this was a "top house" and I would have been glad to be an Ernie.

Oscar - I didn't know much about Oscar. Rumored amongst the freshman to be mediocre house, some athletes, otherwise knew nothing about them.

Big Bird - Also a "top house" along with Ernie and Elmo. Had seen them on campus and had one in a class who was a really cool girl, and I liked their pink rush sweatshirts :). They were pretty intimidating as a group, very pretty girls and outgoing. Charlotte and her friends were not fans of the Big Birds. In fact, Charlotte had been very, very good about not dirty-rushing at all, and just being every enouraging about going through rush in general, until we were at New Year's Eve Party, when I opened my big mouth and told her how much I wanted to be an Elmo. She said that she would love me know matter what I did, as long as I didn't become a Big Bird. I said "OMG, I would NEVER be a Big Bird!" (you can already see how this will come around to bite me in the rear end...)

One of my 2 freshman roommates, Samantha, was also rushing, as were most of our good friends on our floor.

We came back in January, ready to start. Recruitment at that time went like this
Day 1 - 6 party/house tours
Day 2 - 1st invites - Max 5 houses
Day 3 - 2nd invites - max 3 houses
Day 4 - Pref (2 houses)

This was also in the days before the ranking systems, so you got invitations (yes, they were actual hand-written, paper invitations) and would choose from them if you got more invitations than max number of houeses you could visit that day.

More to follow if anyone is actually still interested...

i am.

me too!

Hey, long time no see...... :D

I seriously LOVE the names you have chosen.

Yeah, I've been incognito for while:)
I thought you in particular might get a kick out of this thread...

Where did you go to med school?

I went to Univ WA for med school

Slow day at work, so I'll march on to the first day of rush...

So there we are off to 6 party open house day, officially "Go-Greek Day". No bursting on this day, houses wore the same logo tee-shirts but in different colors. Really short parties. No one in my family has ever been Greek, so other than hearing from Charlotte and Carrie, and my HS friends who pledged at other schools in the fall, I had no idea what I was in for. And I was a more nervous that I expected to be walking into the houses for the first time...

Bert - 1st house of the day. I was so nervous that I nearly threw up the mint-chocolate chip milkshake served to me by the nice Bert girl right into her lap. She was a senior, very nice and I'm sure very aware of how nervous I was. I hardly remember anything else about that party except that I thought their house was pretty.

Oscar - I really liked the girls who rushed me. They seemed very down to earth, smart, good sense of humor. Overall, a great impression, and I was surprised by how much I liked them. Samantha (freshman roommate) was a legacy here.

Cookie Monster - Difficult to make conversation here. Only talked to one girl the whole time. I was pretty sure I would be declining an invitation back here.

Elmo - Charlotte's house. I had a good time here, Charlotte and several of her friends came by to say hi. Overall, outgoing, fun gals.

Ernie - I talked to an Ernie who had been in my English class, a really cool Junior girl (I was taking an advanced lit class an an elective - and I was the only freshman). She remembered me from class, and I had a great chat with her - until she asked me what grade I got and it turned out I had done better than she had! I thought I blew it! Otherwise, again, very friendly, chill girls - I liked it alot.

Big Bird - Again, I was very nervous going to Big Bird. The first girl I talked with was stunningly beautiful, smart, and so incredibly nice. Not what I expected at all. I also talked with another chapter member who was pre-med, which I thought was incredibly cool. I left Big Bird feeling so excited about it - and very nervous that I was so excited about it given my previous statements to my Elmo friend.

Roommate also really liked Big Bird and Ernie. She was not so crazy about Oscar, which was her legacy house. Other floor friends were excited about Big Bird, Ernie, and Elmo. No one on floor liked our RA, so a lot of them were ruling out Bert, which was a shame because as it turns out, she was really uninvolved in the house.

So after day 1 I felt like this:
Big Bird
Elmo/Ernie
Oscar
Bert
Cookie Monster

It is amazing how the descriptions still apply.....there's a retro thread from a woman who went through recently and the descriptions are almost identical.

I'm at work too....sooo bored! You thread is helping!!!

If you're a Logger, which I think you are, Kappa closed in Fall of 04. In case you were cuirous dor a definite answer.

Yea for a NW retro thread.
I love these!

Another Retro! I'm one of those who never tires of these.

Go Big Bird! :D

Aren't the new freshman born in 1989. (not like its THAT big a difference, but...lol). Just saying, because my cousin is a sophomore and she was born in '88.

Anyways...excited to hear more! lol.

oooooooooooooooh. I feel so oooooooooooooooold

Day 2 - Skits
 

So I got my invitations for Day 2 - invited back to all six (I thought I was pretty cool for about 15 minutes - until I talked to everyone else and found out only grade cuts were made after the first day. Oh.)
So I regretted the invitation to Cookie Monster, and geared up for skit day.
This was back in the day of "full frills" rush, meaning - BURSTING! Now for those of you who have never seen this, and I, being fairly greek ignorant, it is a pretty impressive site when all of a sudden 100+ women coming flying out the door singing in perfect tune but VERY LOUND - it is a site to behold. In my later years I found out that it was a bit of a nightmare as far as practice went to make it look this perfect, but it was pretty amazing.
So off I go...

Oscar - Really cute decorations, theme of "Camp Oscar", girls had on khaki shorts and vests, room decorated like a forest and a campfire in the front. They did a great skit, complete with campfire song and guitar playing. I am of the musically challenged variety, can't hold a tune to save my life, so I was impressed. I also talked with this very cool volleyball player and the chapter president, both of whom were so funny, smart, and down to earth. Oscar was definitely a dark horse in the running, and I really enjoyed this party.

Bert - Theme was sort of a bedtime/dream theme, had bunk beds (real bunk beds - I wondered how in the heck they got them in the room), girls were wearing nightgowns, except for 6 or so girls dressed like sheep. They were part of the skit, so it made sense later, but I was a little puzzled why farm animals were running around the room at first. I was not so excited at Bert today, the skit and decorations were a little cheesey for my tastes (again, which just reinforces why frills are sometimes NOT a good idea - picking sisters for life based on whether their paper decorations were to your tastes???) Another sour point was when the nasty R.A. from my floor came to say hi.

Ernie - Ernie had the coolest door song, this really rhythmic chanting/clapping thing that just got into your head and stuck there. Brilliant on their part - I found myself humming it for WEEKS after rush. They had a Genie/desert theme, cute skit about how all different types of girls wre Ernies, not just jocks/hippies (again, very smart to address their stereotype head on). I talked with an amazing pre-dental junior who I basically thought was my idol - such a cool girl. Overall, again, laid-back, friendly, great enviornment

Elmo - New Year's Eve was their theme - they had great outfits on, tuxedo tops with black skirts and different jewel-toned cumberbunds - so cute. Their poor rush chair though fell while trying to get them hyped up before we got there, and shredded her nylons and knees - ouch! She had to make a little speech to welcome us and at least could laugh at herself, but I felt so bad for her. Anyway, they had a very funny skit as well that was a spoof of "Wayne's World", and I chatted with Charlotte and her best friend for awhile which was great...but the rest of the girls that I talked to, while they were really sweet, just, well, I just didn't feel like I clicked. Nothing particularly wrong, just not that little spark that I had felt at Oscar and Ernie.

Last but not least...Big Bird - The theme was "Big Bird Republic" - for the fellow old ladies like myself, remember the old Banana Republic tee-shirts, with the black and white jungle drawing and the lettering above in red? They had white tees on just like that except Big Bird instead of Banana in the slogan. So cute. The room was amazaing - completely covered in jungle vines. The skit was this darling song, that was to the tune of Steve Miller Band Jungle Love, then The lion sleeps tonight. At one point in the song it said some line about "Come join our sisterhood..." and I just about jumped up and rushed the stage, yelling "Yes, I will!!!! Sign me up right now!!!". I also met several amazing girls, and each one just seemed more outgoing, smart, fun and friendly. Needless to say, I liked this house just a little bit:)

So I leave rush and go back to the dorms to wait for our invitations for the next day. Back at the dorms is occuring something that is worse than tent talk. It is dorm talk. Which means it goes on all night, and also includes opinions from people who ought to have ZERO input into these decisions, IE the BOYS who live in the dorm. Ugh. When they asked me which houses I liked, I told them Big Bird, Ernie, Elmo, and, Oscar. In all honesty, I probably had a better time at Oscar than I did at Elmo, but as soon as I said Oscar, the guys started saying how they were a crummy house, blah blah blah:mad:
Again, these are FRESHMAN guys. They know less about these chapters that we did. But it kind of got to me. I was also starting to get a little concerned that I wasn't feeling the love for Elmo like I thought I would. And even worse, I was starting to have the world's biggest rush crush on the Big Birds. And I wasn't sure I could even "get in" (again, so embarassing, but that was exactly the way that I thought at the time) to Big Bird, since I didn't have friends there, and I wasn't sure I was pretty enough to be a Big Bird. Roomate Samantha loved Ernie and Big Bird, and was not crazy about Oscar but was worried about hurting her mom who was an Oscar. Pretty much all of the other girls on my floor were liking some combo of Ernie, Big Bird, and Elmo.

I went to sleep with chants in my head, waiting until it was 7am and I could go pick up my invitations...

This is great -- I'm loving this thread. I have absolutely no idea which one is Pi Phi so the suspense is killing me.

Can't wait to hear more!

Pi Phi--

PM me... If you are still at UWMC, I am at South Lake Union, Mercer... Research in Pathology.

AKA_Monet

This will kill the suspense for one of them, but we STILL do that song/chant (of course they may have changed in the last couple of years, it's been a while since I've been involved).....:D

And it appears it works.:D:p

Day 3
 

Hey, as far as the song/chant thing goes - if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Okay, back to day 3....
I got my invitations back on Friday morning, bright and early. I got invited back to all 5 houses, and selected to go back to Elmo, Ernie, and Big Bird. Looking back...I maybe should have given Oscar one more day, but I let the "reputation game" and the dumb freshman boys get the best of me.

I forgot to mention the oh so lovely outfits I wore for the week. I can't remember all of them, but I do remember the grey knit skirt and matching top (as in stretchy knit, like a sweater, but stretched over your butt in skirt form - ick!) that I wore to Friday night parties. Went reallllyyyy well with my big old spiral permed hair. (you other ladies who rushed in the 90's know you had one too...)

Ernie - Can't for the life of me remember the theme, but did the groovy chant/clap thing again. My rush idol pre-dental girl came over to say hi, which just made my night. I also spoke with a very cool soccer player. They had a slideshow which was cute and funny, and I was impressed with their sisterhood and overall laid-back attitude.

Big Bird - Theme was some sort of bedtime, sort of reminded me of Bert's day 2 theme. They had quilts and pillows with the Big Bird letters on them that were big/sis little sis gifts. I met an amazing girl from the crew team who was so cool, and had a great (and much longer than previous days) conversation with a couple of the sophomores in the house. Overall, again, very warm, outgoing, bubbly personalities. One funny thing was that they all wore flannel nightgowns, and with that many girls in the room, they must have been dying in the heat. And one of my friends from my dorm was sitting on a low chair and had some of the cookies they were serving, when all of a sudden one slid down her legs and under her skirt! She was trying to figure out how to dig this out when both she and the girl rushing her saw another one slide down! They both started laughing, and the Big Bird told her she would cover her while she dug the offending cookies out. I loved that story...

Elmo - Picnic theme, I think they wore some sort of khaki short/tee shirt combo. The room was decorated like a park, benches, ect. Walking into the house they were singing more of a serious song, and I whispered something to the girl walking me in, and she looked at me and said "SHHHHH", which was mortifying. Not a good way to begin. I didn't see Charlotte during this party, and I just got this uncomfortable feeling that I just did not fit in with a lot of the girls I spoke to. I spent a lot of time talking to this really, really petite blond cheerleader for a long time which was difficult because I was about a foot taller than her, and I could hardly hear her. She was telling me how diverse their house was, just before she got bumped and introduced me to...one of her fellow cheerleaders, who was petite, blond, and wearing nearly the exact same shade of bright pink lipstick. Oh dear. They just seemed a little more reserved, interested in things that I was not really interested in (Young Life, cheer). The longer I was there, in all honesty, the more I just wanted to leave.

I was kind of depressed going back to the dorm that night. What was I going to do??? I knew Charlotte would be really upset if I didn't go back to Elmo, but I felt like my heart was with the Big Birds, and if I didn't get Big Bird, I thought I would much rather be an Ernie than an Elmo. I honestly hoped that the decision would be made for me, and that I would only get asked back to 2 of the 3 for preference...:confused:

Hmmm, does she give in to the pressure from Charlotte or does she follow her heart? Dah nuh nuh!

I'm still rooting for Big Bird!!! :D

Pref
 

So after a somewhat sleepless night...I went back to get my pref invites. I got my big manilla envelope, opened it up, and out came invites for...Big Bird, Ernie, and Elmo. Uh oh. Decision time. I immediately signed on the dotted line to accept the Big Bird invitation. Then I sat and stared at the other two. And I continued to do this for about the next 45 minutes, as everyone else signed their cards and left. Finally I was the last person in my rush group, and my recruitment counselor came over. (We had no idea which house she was in - she was good. We suspected either Bert or maybe Elmo, but really didn't know). She asked me if I was okay - and I immediately burst into tears. While sobbing I told her I just didn't know what to do. She looked at my invitations and said, "Okay, so you want to go back to Big Bird, so what are you thinking about the others?" I told her that my friend was an Elmo, and that I knew she was going to be really upset if I didn't go back to her house. She asked again "But what do YOU want?" Then I really broke into the "ugly cry" - you know, the one where your face gets all red and you have snot running down your face and mascara leaking on your toes??? - and I said, "I don't want to go back to Elmo!"
She told me how she had a really hard time making a decision too, and how she had loved one particular chapter, and that some of her friends gave her hard time about it, but how glad she was that she had followed her heart, and that she had never regretted this decision.
So with a heavy heart, I said a silent "I'm sorry" to Charlotte, and signed my accept to Ernie....

After a few ice packs to my puffy eyes, and a few minutes with the diffuser to my awesome spiral perm, I went to my pref parties. At the time, the chapters used to hold their parties off campus at the stunning homes of local alums. It sounds kind of odd, but it was actually pretty neat.

First up - Ernie. The gals were outside in black dresses, and Carrie walking me into preference me, which was a huge relief. It was just nice to be with a friend that I could relax with after the emotions of the morning. Carrie told me that my Ernie Idol, the pre-dental girl, was so excited that I was back at Ernie, and that she had told Carrie that she thought I would be a real leader in the house, which I thought was so cool. Carrie said that she told her that she thought it was going to be a hard decision for me because of Charlotte. I told Carrie that I had regretted the invitation to Elmo that day, and Carrie got this funny little smile on her face and said that she was just glad that I still was considering Ernie,and that Big Bird was a great house too. What a class act that girl is! The pref ceremony was really nice, really emphasized the sisterhood in Ernie, and I had a really good time at the party. As we left, we opened a little card attached to the Ernie's chapter flower and it said something about following your heart. We were then supposed to throw that into a little wishing well by the door on our way out, which I did, and wished for.....hmm, I think I'll save that secret for now;)

Then it was off to Big Bird. Their alum's house was a beautiful old victorian, and it was actually accented in the Big Bird colors, how funny is that! Even I am not quite that die-hard of an alum, but it was still pretty impressive. The girls were all in white, and I was preferenced by the girl from the crew team first, and then by the pre-med girl. The pre-med girl asked me which other house I had gone to, and I told her Ernie. She asked me if it was going to be a hard decision, and I was sort of flustered because I didn't know what we could or couldn't say, so I just said "no". I told her that I had a really good friend who was in another house, and that I had decided not to go back to that house today because I really didn't see myself there, and that I had been really surprised by that b/c going into rush I had felt completely different. She told me she had felt the same way, that she had never guessed going into rush that she would love Big Bird like she did, but that it had felt like home, and that it was a great decision for her. The pref ceremony here was also really nice, and then the active members went outside while the new member educator talked to us. When we went outside, the Big Birds were lined up singing this beautiful song, holding candles (it was getting dark at this time) and it had just started snowing...they looked just like angels (hee hee).

I went back to the room, and after thinking for a couple of minutes, I decided that while I really could be truly happy at either chapter, and while it would be awesome to be in Carrie's chapter, my heart was truly with the Big Birds. I also felt like Carrie would totally understand if that was what worked out.
So I ranked Big Bird first, and Ernie second.


The next day, I got my bid card..





And with shaking hands.....




opened it up, so see that I was invited to memebership in....





BIG BIRD!!!! (my Pi Phi Angels!!!!)

After bawling my head off, I went off to bid day with my new sisters.

So I did see Carrie later that day, who gave me a huge hug and congratulated me, and told me again that they were a great chapter and how happy she was for me. How great was that? I still have very good feelings towards the Ernies.

As for Charlotte - I called her later that day. I asked her if she was mad at me, and she said of course not. She said, "So, you are an Ernie, right?" I was kind of shocked, I thought somehow she would know. I gulped, and said no. Then she said, "Are you a Bert? An Oscar?" Then she sounded sort of mad and said "What ARE you?" I said, "Um, I'm a Pi Phi?" She literally dropped that phone and shouted to her roommate "Oh my god, PiPhiERDoc went PI PHI." Roommate says in the background "You are JOKING.". Yeah....that went well...

....so what did you wish for? (I am sure we can all figure it out...but we want to hear it from you)

Great story btw!

And whatever happened with Charlotte...?

Sorry to leave you ladies hanging...

The wish in the wishing well was to get a bid to Pi Phi, which I must admit I did feel a little guilty about doing, given that it was into another chapters wishing well!

As for Charlotte - she eventually got over it, and we continued to be friends. Looking back, I know that most of her reaction was just disappointment that I didn't join her house, given that she adored her chapter and we were such good friends. I would have been pretty sad if the same thing had happened to me. But in all honesty, I was just not a good fit for her chapter, and I was even more sure of this after I saw the girls in their new member class from my dorm - perfectly nice gals, but just not women that I could see myself becoming sisters for life with. I did feel bad about hurting her feelings (her roommate told me that she cried her eyes out when I regretted the invitation to preference), but I am so, so glad that I did the right thing for me!

AHHHH!!!! THIS IS MY SCHOOL!!!!! I totally know all the houses except I can't figure out the ones that closed since I've joined. LOVE this thread!

If you don't feel like doing a reveal, could you at least PM me the identities of the chapters just so I can make sure...

I'm still reeling at the line about the diffuser boosting up spiral perm post-ice packs on the eyes. Sorry, that's just bringing back too many scary memories of my roommate with her Tres Semme mousse and rolled down, oversized colored socks that went over the leggings. I'm glad Charlotte and you stayed friends!

Yup, those were the days - in one of my sophomore composite pictures my hair is SO BIG that the sides of it are cut off in the frame of the picture.

Oh, I forgot one thing that was pretty neat - my Rho Gamma ended up being a Pi Phi as well. We all thought she was either an Elmo or a Bert, and she was really, really good about not revealing a THING to me when I was having my big old pre-pref meltdown. She was great on bid day - she told me how happy she was that I was "Pi Phi or Die" and that she had a hard time not grinning when she saw that I had immediately signed the Pi Phi invitation to preference. I would have been a horrible Rho Gamma - I can't keep emotions off my face to save my life!

Just so I'm clear, where were the chapters at this point. Like I know we're in Sigma Chi's old house, and that G Phi is in Snu's and Snu is in SAE's and I think Pi Phi is in Fiji's? When did all this moving go down? And where were the other chapters?

If Fiji started it all then Pi Phi is in Sigma Nu's old house who was in it after Fiji (Pi Phi wasn't on the row when I was there - Sigma Nu lived there). So Sigma Nu has had 3 houses that I know of (ours, Pi Phi and where they are now).

Theta is in the KSig's old house.

In the early 90's only us and Alpha Phi had houses by the fraternities. Theta moved in when Kappa Sig left (mid 90's I think).

In the early 90's the fraternities were the ones they have now plus SAE and Kappa Sig. The sororities were the ones they have now plus Tri Delt and Kappa. Pi Phi, Kappa, Tri Delt and Theta shared two dorms.

Wow, so did Pi Phi move in to their current house when SAE left and Snu moved into their current (until this year) house?

Yes. My understanding is their current house sleeps fewer than their old (now Pi Phi) house.

You are right - when SAE left, Sigma Nu actually asked us to apply for their house so they could apply for SAE, which had fewer beds. After that group of Sigma Nu's had graduated the rumors were around for awhile that we had "stolen" their house - completely untrue - we really didn't care which house we got on Union Ave, as long as we got a house! Also, it would have been pretty much impossible to do that with the university's current policy about the greek houses - if you currently live in the house and you are making occupancy, you have "first dibs" on that house. It really worked out for the best for us, as I think that our current house was much easier to remodel into a home fitting for a sorority than it would have been to change the former SAE house.

When I was at UPS, Pi Phi and Kappa Kappa Gamma shared Smith Hall, and Tri-Delta and Theta shared Schiff.

I never heard that rumor....The key of course is making occupancy.....;)

I never lived in the dorms so I couldn't remember which was which.

When did A Phi and G Phi get on to Greek row?

I (naturally) loved hearing a Pi Phi story!

I started thinking Big Bird was Pi Phi when I read this:
Our chapter does this, in fact, I just picked up my pillow for my second little the other day :-)

PPL