Interesting Older ADPi Items
 

I thought I'd start this thread to see if anyone has anything that's part of our heritage - even if it's owned by your chapter. Photos would be great, but if not available, post anyhow.

I just picked up a Pledge Book from 1949 on ebay, and it's a riot! There are pictures of almost every house at that time (I think there were 80+ chapters), which I'm going to try to scan & post at another time.

It gives a list of what a Pledge needs to learn each week (Twelve Weeks!), with one of the assignments for the First Week as "Plan a Tea for the pledges of other sororities"! Remember, this is the International book, not the chapter additions!

Also, the following are the only NPC sororities:

ACW
ADP
AGD
AOP
AF
AXD
BSO
CW
DDD
DG
DZ
GFB
KAQ
KD
KKG
FM
PBF
SK
QU
ZTA

BSO was absorbed by ZTA & QU was absorbed by DZ. Also note that there are only TWENTY listed, including the two which were absorbed by others!

There are a LOT of other fun things in this - I'll add more from time to time!

And, if any other GLO has something similarly quaint, they're welcome to do so!

This should be an interesting thread! I would LOVE to read that pledge book!

I had fun just before I graduated digging up the old scrapbooks for my chapter. I mean I actually found our first one from our founding year (1968)... The big thing I noticed that was in all the original scrapbooks were the fact that they had all the christmas cards the chapter was sent and it had the wedding announcements of sisters... The other thing that was in there were letters written by the pledges asking to officially become members of the chapter... Now in todays day that would be entirely hazing... but they were really interesting to read... I wish I had been able to scan them all like I had planned... Unfortunately I did not have time )c:

Actually one other funny thing... If any of you have copies of the sisters book... The date in there for the founding of the Epsilon Xi chapter is wrong... but also, the picture of our first chapter president looks exactly like one of the chapter presidents when I was an undergrad... They look so so much a like... We used to give her such a hard time about it...

Actually, one of the things we did for our scrapbook was to have the Historian take photos of the entire suite every other year (or just after it was redecorated). It's interesting to see how it changes - and not always for the better, IMHO!!

I went with one of my sister-advisors to her little (biological) sister's initiation at MY chapter of initiation. What a TRIP - I had not been back to my alma mater since graduating!! Unfortunately, the house had not been redecorated since the year before I was a pledge. In fact, my senior-year composite was still hanging on a wall!

In helping the chapter prepare for the ceremony, they were 'missing' some item and claimed "we've never had X!" (They had trouble getting the fact that I had been initiated in that very house!!) I begged to differ and headed up the search party to the storage area. Not only did we find those items they "never had", but I found the scrapbook from the pledge class before me! Talk about Memory Lane!!

Just out of curiosity, did y'all really want me to post excerpts from the 1949 Pledge Book? I was planning to post the (obviously, black and white) photos of houses, I just didn't know if y'all wanted the funkier parts of the assignments & other non-ritual stuff, too?

Just let me know!

One of my favorite "strange recruitment events while an alumna" moments found me in the kitchen, polishing silver at the very last minute, when someone charged in, saying we couldn't serve punch after all, because the punch ladle was missing! At the time, I was holding a 70-year-old, newly polished sterling silver punch ladle, and I said, "Why not use this?" The sister was beside herself, saying, "It doesn't match!" (We're talking about a fairly new but certainly not pricy punch bowl here, which came with a plastic ladle!!)

I held my breath a moment (a very popular sport among alumnae!), then said, "Ladies, you will NEVER have access to this much sterling silver unless you plan to marry a Rockefeller or buy out Donald Trump!" I finished making the punch, put the clean sterling ladle in it, and gave it to the sister to place on the appropriate table.

So, F&F, when you talk about knowing what was there when you were there, I'm with you! It makes me crazy when nice things are misused or "walk off"!!

PS - Where do they keep the china? On the top shelf, which is accessed by one tall sister standing on top of the counter, and reaching up another foot or so!! She then hands it to a shorter sister standing on the counter, who stoops to hand it to a third sister standing on the floor. Madness!!!!

I would love to hear some of the things that are in that book! And, I definately want to see those pics! :)

The scanner at my mother's house isn't working properly, but I'm hoping to spend some time at my own place over the weekend. I'm going to try to post a few thousand photos on photobucket, or some online service, so I can share them. The rest, I'll just have to be a sport and type out! ;)

I also want to find one of my own Pledge Books. We had more in my Pledge Class than was expected, so some of us were given older editions at first, then got the new ones. One of my favorite passages is (this is paraphrased), "An Alpha Delta Pi does not paw in the back seat of cars with her dates." It was popularly referred to as "The Pawing Pledge Book"!

I have 2 copies of the Beta Sigma Omicron pledge book. It's interesting reading, to say the least.

Both are 1925 editions and one has the pledge's 1926 bid card in it.

I love it!!!! :D

Great advice for young lion cubs! LOL

Honey, I love this thread -- please share more.

Sorry for the crash, but I also collect old items of my sorority. Ebay is fabulous! I have a cookbook from the 20s, a dance card and a history from the 30s, a songbook and a history book from the 40s, history books from the 50s and 60s, and the pledge manual from the 70s :)

/end crash

Okay, from the 1947 book...
 

It's kinda hard to select what would be interesting to other people and what wouldn't be. There's a whole page (P.47) devoted to Mothers' Clubs:

"Most active chapters are fortunate enough to have an 'auxiliary' organization knowns as a 'Mothers' Club'. This is a social unit in which the mothers or guardians of the sorority members and pledges enjoy association. These Mothers' Clubs assist in maintaining a suitable background of social standards for the active chapter, offer sympathetic understanding of collegiate problems, and assist in a material as well as cultural way in the betterment of active chapters through supposrt of the various national projects, such as scholarship and fellowship funds. They also engage in local philanthropy and chapter house projects, often joining with the Alumnae in the latter's choice of a project.

Wishing Song

If wishing wells were at my command
And magic lanterns in each hand
I would not do as it is told
And like King Midas wish for gold.
Nor like Aladdin would I dare
To wish for castles in the air,
For there are things that are more dear
To wish for.

I'd wish for a life that is full of fun,
For laughs and joys where everyone
Can look into the heart of each
And find the love that friendships teach.
One wish would cover all for I
Would wish to be an A D Pi -
For just this thing I hold so dear
I'd wish for."

***
As I typed this, I was thinking that, in 1947, an active would have been born around 1925-1929, and most of their mothers probably didn't go to college. So, a Mothers' Club would have been most important, especially where the Alumnae Associations were not available. Any other thoughts?

Standards of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority
 

(Let's remember that I don't have a New Member Education book at my side, and don't know at this moment how much is redundant!)

"Founded in a an age and place distinguished by the gentlewomen it produced, Alpha Delta Pi has a proud tradition of membership to maintain. Through a century colored more than any other by changing values and customs, it has held fast to the high ideals established by its founders. To these every individual who achieves membership in the sorority must bind herself to concur.

Throughout the years the criteria set by Alpha Delta Pi have been those most acceptable to good society. They are based upon the practical ideal of mutual betterment - first within the chapter house and later in the broader reaches of the adult world. As we progress in Alpha Delta Pi, these standards come to serve as a pattern for a gracious and useful way of life.

Only by constant effort to maintain or to surpass these standards can a member call herself a worthy Alpha Delta Pi.

Group Responsibility

The first concern of every Alpha Delta Pi shoud be an understanding of her individual responsibility to the group she represents; ony in this way does she become an integral part of the sorority. It must be understood that with the privilege of membship goes the accompanying obligatinos without which group efforts cannot function: support of the will of the majority; unfailing loyalty to other group members; acceptance of individual responsibility as indicated by the group; reticence about confidential matter; and active participation in group functions and plans. When every members adheres to these obligations the chapter becomes a harmonious working partnership to advance the interest and stimulate the development of each and all members."

***
Trust me, there's much, much more on Standards!!!!