Back in the day . . .
 

Okay all you "oldsters" - what activities, traditions, clothing rules, etc., did you have back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and you were an active?

Back in the mid eighties when I was in school -

- Fridays meant TGIF at Slutz - I mean Strutz. All the GLOs went and had certain areas they always staked out. Everytime I hear "You Spin Me" by Dead or Alive I am instantly transported back . . . the location is now home to the San Marcos WIC program. There's a joke there somewhere . .

- Stiff Stuff. It was required for those amazing, gravity defying bangs.

- We had to make our own little/big gifts. Dot lettering was a necessary skill. Paint pens were a girl's best friend.

- PNMs who went to pref received little gifts. What you were supposed to do with the gifts from the chapters you didn't pledge was never discussed.

- We used real candles for candle passes, intiation and rush. How the Stiff Stuff avoided going up in flames is beyond me.

I'm transported to a much more terrifying place by hearing that song...

Give a frat-wave if you know what I'm talkin about, FH and Old Rowers.

OK, I hope no one gets offended by this one. The ASTs gave out notepads with "Alpha Sigma Tau" on the top. After I joined ASA, I crossed out the "Tau" on all the pages & wrote "Alpha." Every time I gave someone a note they cracked up laughing.

We did not have a lot of fashion options in town that wouldn't break the bank. Consequently we all ended up shopping at Fashion Bug (it was nicer back then) and you would go to a party and see the same top in all 6 different colors that it came in.

Zip at the ankle jeans. If you didn't have to point your toe to get them on, they were too wide.

$5 all purpose party shoes - basically, white Keds but bought from GC Murphy's or K Mart because you were going to get all kinds of alcohol and crap on them so it was dumb to pay more.

The last songs at the Roost on Thursday were always "Why Can't This Night Go On Forever" and "Hard To Say I'm Sorry/Get Away" w/ "Get Away" played like 10 times.

I think I've mentioned this at GC sometime recently, but one of Ms. MysticCat's sisters went through a can of hairspray a week, and her hair did go up in flames during a candle pass. (No one was seriously hurt.)

What I remember is shagging with a beer cup in your hand -- you and your partner both had to be smooth shaggers to avoid spilling any. She, of course, would have been wearing the de rigueur add-a-bead necklace; somewhere nearby would have been her monogramed (because everything she had was monogramed) bermuda bag. (The "in-thing" now is a monogram decal on your SUV.) Bright pink and kelly green were everywhere.

I would have been wearing chinos, a buttondown and weejuns (without socks, of course). Grosgrain watchbands were common, as were leather/web belts with grosgrain.

The music would almost always have included hits by groups like The Tams, The Embers, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, The Showmen, Bill Deal and the Rhondells, The Drifters, The Band of Oz, and General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board. "Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy" (The Tams) was sort of the unofficial anthem, although the girls all flocked onto the dance floor for "Carolina Girls" (General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board); the guys preferred "Sixty Minute Man" (The Dominoes).

Yes, much of what was in the Official Preppy Handbook seemed quite commonplace to us, LOL.

Now why didn't we think of that? My personal rule of thumb was I would stay at a mixer until the first drink was spilled on my shoes - then I was gone. (I was dating someone seriously, so mixers weren't high on my list - I went because we had to!)

OH - how could I forget. The Gator drill. The ladies of Gamma Phi Beta would NOT watch fraternity men "gator" - as soon as the first man started "gatoring" we would turn on our heels. So OF COURSE the fraternities loved doing it, just to watch us pivot and turn. LOL. We loved, loved, loved "Shout!".

Well I was in school during the change-over from big hair to grunge. So we:

Used real candles during candle passes and pref (the idea of "turning off" a candle still seems odd to me)

We recieved flowers during pref that you kept (but my first year as an active was the first year we had to take the flowers back before they left)

"Bucks" were the shoe of choice for all "sorority girls"- my GDI friends used to say they could tell if someone was greek if they had on bucks; also popular were the cloth book bags with letters sewn onto them

Lots of flannel. Big hair was reserved for formal and dressy occasions, but it was still around. Flannel was the choice for everyday.

Our pledge classes still had "names"- mine was the Zeta class. Meaning we were the sixth pledge class since our chartering. They aren't allowed to do this anymore. We even had pledge class group pictures taken every year on bid day.

Pawpurs was also known as Pampers, the bar where "baby greeks" (Freshman and Sophmores) hung out. Once you were legal, you moved on to the Fab Four- The Junction, The Pub, The CI, and The Crystal. Pawpurs was a great place to befriend greeks in other orgs.

I forgot to mention that Family Planning is now located below the parking lot of the aforementioned Roost (which is nowcalled Hamburger Bill's or something of that nature).

Then again, Family Planning used to be next to the State Store so I guess it's a pattern.

Oh, that's another one. $2.50 Pill packs, ladies. You can all go cry now...

Ah yes. Good times, good times.

Omigosh, the memories! Yes, The Official Preppy Handbook reigned supreme, which made the few Greeks on campus stand out just a little bit more! Greeks hung out at a place with an ancient jukebox - you put in your money & talked to some little old lady who played songs with dedications: Shout, Runaround Sue, a lot of oldies, I'll have to think about them.

We gave gifties at Pref, and the Phi Delta Thetas did "Kiss and Carnation" on Bid Night. They gave each pledge a carnation (their flower) and a kiss to welcome them into the Greek System.

Hair was still stiff, as were the drinks, and yes, monograms & add-a-bead were required - IF you wanted to be taken seriously.

Couples still got lavaliered, pinned, then engaged. There was no such thing as a Candle Pass for a baby.

Sorority women were thrilled to be asked to be Little Sisters, and Sweethearts were serenaded (usually). Little Sisters knew the fraternity handshake.

Alll women had at least two Anne Klein wrap dresses - very forgiving if you partied too much over the weekend!

Fraternities still had Best Dressed Sister and Pledge Awards, and insulting a sister meant that they sent flowers to the entire sorority or were permanantly snubbed.

Candle passes for a baby?? :eek: Maybe if she was an advisor..

This reminded me- all the fraternities and sororities would go serenading, meaning usually some time during I-week you would go to the different houses and sing (similar to caroling at Christmas). The people in the houses would come out and sing back to you. I think now this is considered hazing.:(

I have to co-sign most of the above, a lot of this brings back tons of memories (some fuzzier than I'd like to admit, too much time has passed!).

But MC, reading your post reminded me of the movie "Shag" -- have you ever seen it? I love that movie.

Mid-1990s

- Scavenger hunts at fraternity philanthropy event days. Running all over town looking for random stuff was always so much fun. Those days were also occasion to get up at 8:00 to start drinking. Nap late afternoon and go until 8:00 the next morning.

- Matching sweatshirts and sweatpants. Sweatshirts had letters on them with favorite ugly fabric. This was classroom attire on days you overslept.

- Blue eyeshadow (which I am wearing today, so I guess I can't talk too much crap).

- Preference dresses were an azure blue taffeta that hit mid-calf, had the V waistline and MASSIVE poofy sleeves. They could have easily been in 27 Dresses.

- Ditto on the dot letters and paint pens. We would decorate plastic cups with paint pens and put candy in them for gifts.

- Halloween costumes weren't even remotely as revealing as they are today. Remember Mean Girls? We all dressed like Lohan did in hideous outfits.

Did anyone else play "Cardinal Puff"?

I pledged in the fall of 1970 ...

we had

flowers we got to keep at pref - we went to 3 prefs so by 3rd pref the sisters knew by what flowers you were carrying which 2 prefs (or just 1 pref) you had been to.

our pledge class was Iota and we had pledge class outfits ... awful polyester tunics and pants (yuch!!!)

we wore formal gowns for preference and had actual themes and skits and made name tags for rushees for each party in line with the theme which they got to keep.

as pledges we carried a notebook which had a page for each active. we had to schedule interviews with each active and each week we had to get 5 signatures from actives. we also had to organize and fund a dance for the pledges and actives prior to being initiated. we didn't get initiated until we had grades -- we lost a pledge when she decided over Christmas break she didn't really want to be in a sorority.

candles were real and we never had a problem with anyone getting burned.

Flashback, early to mid 80s:

We gave flowers at Pref, and our greeters would take and put them in vases at the door. Those of us Preffing didn't have to look at them all night AND it made it easy to see who our competition was based on the flowers!

Pledges either wore their bid day tee/letters tee, sorority button pin (remember those?), or pledge pin on campus.

Say it with me, Aqua Net and hot rollers! My mom said they should have bought stock in the Aqua Net company.

In addition to the other style memories, on my campus the first Liz Claiborne bags were it. So were topsiders, penny loafers, Tretorns and the first Reebok aerobic shoes.

"I Heart" ringer tees and jerseys in your own colors. None of this ADPi wearing Pink and Navy jerseys or KKG wearing white and red bid day tee shirts (note: examples used were not on my campus). For that matter, bid day tee shirts were either in the "I Heart" style, were iron-on letters only (if the sorority allowed pledges to wear letters before initiation), or the spelled out sorority name.

Ditto on candlelights with real candles and a baby candlelight only for advisers.

Ditto on little sisters and sweethearts. Fraternities were known to serenade based on which chapters their little sisters were in and would serenade after the girl's candlelight. Who still has their little sister pin?

Yes but I never got past the first verse. That game was hard. :(

Threeman was easier and more popular.

I have my little sister pin!

SEC Rush= Extremely frilly rush. You got pricey gifts from the sororities you preffed and like someone mentioned earlier...what on earth did we do with the gifts from the groups we didn't pledge? :confused:

Auburn's pledges were horribly hazed by being asked to wear their pledge ribbons the whole week after rush. Eek! I'll never get over it. Likewise, no sorority let their pledges wear letters or crests until after initiation. :eek:

We didn't do hairspray in the seventies--why would long, straight hair need it?--but long hair was its own hazard with the real candles and we did have a sister's hair flame up on one side at a ceremony.

Believe it or not, I never did see it. I remember when it was made/released. Seems like we had kind of a "maybe we should see it, but it would probably make us barf to see Hollywood's take on Myrtle Beach" so we never did. So it's worth a look?

Well, I'd say it's a good weekend "fluff" pic, it's very cute (IMO) with a very high "cheese" factor, so I can't say you'll be bowled over by it, but I think you'll be entertained. And I loved the cast in it and there was a good bit of shagging, which I always enjoyed watching (especially when people pull off that really smooth footwork like you mentioned, I love it!).

Surprisingly, I am a Pope!

I think that's why I very rarely drink anymore.

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We did "Salamanders". I understand this came from German university fraternities or "Student Corps". Apparently one had to do a perfect Salamander before one could go into the "Salle a manger" and have dinner.
Not sure why the German students used a French phrase for dining room except that it was a good play on words. Anyway, one could get well and truly lubricated before having anything to eat if you messed up your salamanders. Memory dims (brain cells shot by too many imperfect salamanders?) as to the exact sequence of the salamander but I think it was distantly related to Cardinal Puff.

Cardinal Puff was big on our campus - I never got into it, but I remember it!

I know this may be hard for some of you to imagine but I was in school during the late 1950s, and campus life was decidedly different then. I was at a major midwestern university but our codes were pretty typical to most institutions. First, we had to wear a coat and tie to dinner each night (Friday was casual) and, as a result, many wore coats and ties to afternoon classes. Women still had to maintain "hours:" 10:30 weeknights and 1:00 on weekends, although there was some scurrying up the fire escape sometimes by the braver ones. Singing was a big deal for both fraternities and sororities, and servenading another group was popular after Monday night chapter meetings. In fact, there seemed to be much more musical talent then because we, and several other fraternities, had in-house combos that were actually very good. Greek sings and talent shows were big, so huge at Northwestern that theirs ran for several nights and tickets were scalped like at athletic events. The opposite sex was never allowed above the main floor of any chapter house, and all but the tiniest groups had house mothers. Ah, for the good old days!

I had to read this twice to realize that the Phi Delt's were giving the carnation and kiss to female pledges and not Phi Delt pledges. ("Wait, the Phi Delt's did what????")

Wow….thoughts of back in the day.

Yes, honey, Rush with frills! I get a little sad that Maryland no longer has Formal Rush in the fall….all the sisters lined up outside the chapter houses wearing their matching outfits trying to out-yell each other. (We wore black, straight skirts, white blouses and black bow ties. We probably looked like flight attendants, lol, but I loved it.) The Rushees had to endure rankings from the frat boys who brought their couches out onto their lawns. They’d zero in on a particular girl and hold up big cards, 1 through 10. Rushees took flowers and inspirational hand-written letters with them after Preference. And, yes, real candles.

The main hang out for Greeks was the ‘Vous which was pretty disgusting but had been around forever. It always had at least an inch of gunk on the floor and they only served beer on tap. Very bad, watery beer. I think of the ‘Vous every time I hear “How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths (often requested by the sillier sorority girls who thought it was a great “party” song – did they ever listen to the lyrics?) Around 1986 or so, they built Sante Fe Café and that became the nicer hang out with food and mixed drinks. The front patio was the place to be seen…in your letters…drinking. The ‘Vous is now gone. :( Not sure about SFC.

Campus traditions: Monday night serenades by the fraternity men in their coats and ties, stealing composites and plastering them with suggestive phrases cut out of magazines, massive scavenger hunts during Greek Week. Greek Week was just the best. The talent competition was a big highlight. I remember one year the Alpha Phis and whoever they were teamed up with did a Flashdance kinda thing and everyone freaked when they had water splashing down onto all the electrical equipment. That same year I pranced around the stage dressed as Snow White with my sisters as the dwarfs. :o It’s a hazy memory since I needed a whole lot of alcohol beforehand to get the nerve to dance in front of a few thousand people. We came in second though. :D

I must have missed the add-a-bead thing. I only remember pearls; lots and lots of pearls that dangled out over turtlenecks…never got the hang of that. Dressing for going out at night was big slouchy belts, big bows in the hair, and lots of bangles. Very Madonna-esqe.

Songs that will always remind me of certain fraternities:

“Blister in the Sun” = Delta Tau Delta
“Margaritaville” = Fiji
“The Wall” = Pike
“Shout!” and “Destination Unknown” = Phi Delt

Did any other campuses do Destination Unknown parties? No one but the presidents and social chairs knew where we were going. We’d just pile into busses and end up in some bizarre place. The first song of the night would, of course, be “Destination Unknown.”

Aww. The memories.

Phi Delt does it here..

Oh geez, if I get started on that one I'll take up all the bandwidth.

Although I'm pretty sure no one else has a memory connected with "Holding Out For A Hero."

"Our" song was "Uptown Girl" - my favorite formal pics are of all the Gamma Phis in a giant kick line, dates looking on from the sidelines.

I'll meet your "Holding out for a Hero" and raise it with a "Never Surrender". Spill it 33. Come on, you know you want to.

My memories involve early B-52s and Violent Femmes. The place would explode any time a song from either band was played. Needless to say that night we brought the band to campus tickets were sold out from just the Greek system! I think the tickets were like $5 for students. Those were the days.

Oh, and Leslie Anne, there were pearls too. Sometimes just on their own, sometimes in combination with a shorter add-a-bead, sometimes even pearl add-a-bead necklaces!

Twisted bead necklaces were really big - until cheap knock-offs appeared.

I guess it's become a Phi Delt tradition. I like that! :)

That sounds so cute. Anyone else want to see those photos? :D

Yes! Spill it. Both of you.
I'll tell my most shameful stunt if you do.

It's not scandalous or anything.

Scene: basement of the Crow house.

Dorky guy to my sister Cindy: Hey, what's up, what's your sign, etc.

(Holding Out For A Hero comes over the sound system because the brother in charge of music is busy, umm, imbibing)

Cindy: Excuse me, but I must go and jam to this.


Our song (sung at top volume in a circle in all public places) was Paradise by the Dashboard Light. It annoyed everyone but us. We eventually got the Crows to sing along with us (dirty lyrics, obviously).

lol I got the giggles imagining Holding Out For A Hero playing and then:
Oh, and Meat Loaf rules!

Uptown Girl
 

If those photos weren't pack, you know I'd post 'em!

Oh, I had those - malachite, lapis, etc. Those were really popular at SMU.

Also the humongous tulip rings in emerald, ruby and sapphire.

I keep those in my jewelry box - if I had a daughter, and if she wanted to wear tacky 80's jewelry, I'd give them to her!

Anybody wear Cullinanne(sp) outfits? I really liked them, along with the ever present Laura Ashley dresses. I still have a few in an upstairs closet - never know when they might come back ;) haha

Also, we used real candles for candlelights, white with wine and silver blue ribbon tied around them. I still have mine (24 years later), proudly displayed in my kitchen in a hurricane shade.

Wow...a lot of that stuff is cool, but some stuff I'm glad is gone! Now I see why they stopped giving gifts...if I saw an ASA crossing out our letters like 33girl mentioned, I would be horrified, as I'm sure would her chapter. I know that if an AST here did that it would NOT be tolerated, as it is exceptionally rude and disrespectful.

I wish we could bring back little sisters...if I was going to pick something to bring back, that would be it. What a cool program!

No AquaNet here...my poof is natural!

We didn't get gifts from the chapters we preffed, but didn't pledge, but we received flowers. Luckily, we had a little time between pref parties, so many ran back to their apartments and dorms to drop them.

Michael Jackson's "Thriller" reminds me of the AGS house
"Shout" of the Beta house
"I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls, Delta Tau Delta
Anything by Duran Duran reminds me of the Phi Psis
Phil Collins reminds me of Kappa Sigma
1999 reminds me of Sigma Alpha Mu
Anything from Flash Dance reminds of of the SAEs

Bars: Papa Joes, Triology, Mine Shaft, Oar House, Mean Mister Mustards and Crazy Momas

Senior Year: every guy tried to imitate Tom Cruise in Risky Business (right down to dancing in the boxer shorts)

My cousin had the Add a Bead but I had the Add a Pearl. I had tons of gold jewelry, but not the bling of today

1992-1996
 

Every Monday was badge attire--every fraternity boy wore khaki slacks, shirt, tie, and navy blazer. The girls all wore skirts or dresses, preferably plaid skirts. (My favorite not-as-dressy outfit was a plaid skirt with a denim shirt (untucked!) and my beautiful fisherman sweater, all from Abercrombie and Fitch. Egads!) We always dressed up for classes, and only wore jeans on Tuesdays or Thursdays when most people had labs. We always wore letters on those days. Most people had plaid letters. Every self-respecting sorority girl had a tote bag with her letters embroidered on that too, and carried it to class daily. We always wore a gold herringbone necklace with another necklace with our lavalier hanging on it (the necklaces came out the front of our turtlenecks, which was not a good look for me!). We wore our own letters until we were lavaliered by our boyfriend, then pinned, then engaged. We had beautiful white candles for our candlelight, wrapped in both red and yellow ribbon with a white carnation as well as his fraternity colors mixed in.

We were the first year that didn't get presents at Pref, and everyone felt sorry for us. (it was never a big deal to any of us though) We definitely had full frills rush other than the gifts though. It was awesome to walk into each house every day and see it totally transformed.

Like so many others, we paint-penned everything that couldn't run away from us...even stupid stuff like hangers, clothespins, lighters (for those forbidden candles in your room of course). We had paintpenned candles for big/little revelation, and of course we had real candles for everything!

Nothing was better than serenades--we loved going from house to house to introduce our new pledges, invite them to our Fall party Chi-Oahu (to the tune of Copacabana by Berry Manilow) or drum up excitement for Formal. And fraternity serenades were the end all be all. We all crowded into our front entry and stairwell to see who would get flowers, who were the new pledges, and most importantly, what song they sang and who they sang it to. The pledge serenade was most important because we were then invited to join in a pledge dance with one of the fraternities. And the other big serenade time was for Homecoming, where the entire campus would turn out on the Quad to hear the chapters sing.

Pledging was an adventure--quizzes every week, plenty of pranks--especially scavanger hunts, stealing composites and other things from the fraternities, and bonding with your pledge sisters. And we had to wear skirts every week, regardless of weather (we had formal rush in January). I remember one time when we had six inches of snow on the ground and a killer windchill, and our pledge trainer just said, "I won't tell you not to do it, but in my opinion, a Chi Omega does not wear pants with her badge." None of us did wear them after hearing that!

The entire campus had a curfew. All the dorms were single sex, and all dorms and fraternity/sorority houses closed at midnight during the week and two on the weekends. It was always a shock to walk into the bathroom (of the dorm) at about 4 am and see feet facing the WRONG way.

Our campus was dry, but for some reason no one would say anything if you had a cup in your hand or a backpack on your back. So on Fridays and Saturdays, you'd see a lot of people with overloaded backpacks taking off down to the fraternities. A guess a lot of studying was going on...It was always fun to be spoiled by the fraternity pledges. They picked you up and brought you down to the house, walked you back to your room, even drove us to and from the bars. Of course, they waited on you hand and foot in the house. And our favorite song was American Pie, where we would change the words to "white carnation" from "pink carnation", so it became a screaming war between us and Phi Mus. We also loved Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana, where we would scream ChiOOOOOOChiOOOOOOO during various parts...wow, we were cheesy!

Ahh, the good old days (I'm rather shocked by how much my campus culture has changed in just a decade!!)