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Northwestern Univ. Restrictions on Sorority Formals - 1903

Frappes? Creme de menthe?

No pencils?!? WHATEVER SHALL WE DO?

Quote:

Originally Posted by NutBrnHair (Post 2213270)

Formerly, the different sororities spent too much time and money on their formals. It was suggested by some “frat” girls to form a compact in order to cut down expenses. All the sororities, with one exception, agreed to have their formal parties limited to the following restrictions:

1. The hall shall be rented for not more than twenty-five dollars.
$657.89 in 2013 dollars. That's pretty interesting.

2. There shall be no wall or ceiling decorations and no palms. Pillows and rugs and subdued lights may be used if desired. A society banner may be hung on the wall.

3. The programmes shall be folders, without an inner sheet or pencils.
What if there were many to honor at the Formal? Have programme A and programme B? :confused:

4. The music shall consist of not more than five pieces.
With popular songs of the day being fairly short....I forsee a very monotonous event. Certainly doesn't say anything about repetition! ;)

5. Refreshments shall not be more than coffee, sandwiches, olives, pickles and frappe served during the evening.
Again....no specification on how many of each or type of each was allowed. :p

Reprinted from The Eleusis of Chi Omega, Vol. Five, Number One, February, 1903, pp. 97-98

Thanks for sharing. This was quite the eye opener. :D

Pillows for decorations sounds kind of like they're anticipating sexy times. Now we know where all those legacies come from.

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnation (Post 2213273)

No palms, lol.

Boys can get pretty naughty with their palms from what I've experienced! Haha

I wondering if "the music shall be no more than 5 pieces" means no more than a 5 piece band. In other words, ABC is not allowed to hire the Chicago Symphony for their formal anymore!

Quote:

Originally Posted by FSUZeta (Post 2213337)

I wondering if "the music shall be no more than 5 pieces" means no more than a 5 piece band. In other words, ABC is not allowed to hire the Chicago Symphony for their formal anymore!

I'm sure that's what is meant by "no more than 5 pieces."

And while popular songs may have been short in theory, the band could have taken a popular song and gone on for quite a while with it. The band wouldn't have been limited to popular songs either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by IUHoosiergirl88 (Post 2213289)

No pencils?!? WHATEVER SHALL WE DO?

Well now, exactly how was a young lady supposed to fill out her dance card without pencils?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Dance_card.jpg

I guess they told all the young gentlemen to make sure they had a pencil or pen on them.

When we were going through my mother's things, we found dance cards from dances she attended with my father when he was at The Citadel. It was a different time; I wish we hadn't completely lost some of the romance of it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FSUZeta (Post 2213337)

I wondering if "the music shall be no more than 5 pieces" means no more than a 5 piece band. In other words, ABC is not allowed to hire the Chicago Symphony for their formal anymore!

Yes, exactly.

And the next year, new rushing rules were enacted at Northwestern. This from the Nov. 1904 Arrow of Pi Beta Phi:

Illinois Epsilon has just passed through the strenuous part of the rushing season. Here at Northwestern we are having our first experience with a pledge day, and we older ones who have been through the mad scramble of previous years feel that a two weeks' pledge day is infinitely better.

Of course we had to be with our rushees a longer time than usual, but we have found that we have become very well acquainted with them and have learned to like them very much.

As a result of this splendid system we have pledged four very fine, enthusiastic girls. We have also had the good fortune of having two of our old pledges, Anna Thompson and Lili Hochballin, enter college this fall; a fact which made us feel enthusiastic from the very beginning. All the women's fraternities here at Northwestern sent out written invitations, and it was very exciting on pledge day waiting for our answers to come in. Each sorority had a room at Willard Hall where it received the freshmen when they brought back their answers. Every time a new girl was pledged the jubilation was heard all over the hall.