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.