OK, here's a pre-cell phone memory: PHONE DUTY!!
Our house had 1 phone number, 3 lines. Every pledge had to do phone duty, which meant answering the chapter phone and going to get the callee. Which was GREAT for getting to know who was who.
I remember the Georgia chapter house had a little alcove that included buzzers for individual rooms. You could pick up the phone on your floor...or come downstairs and meet your date.
At Alabama, we had a little room at the top of the stairs called the "Anchor Room," and it was the heart of the house. 2 phones, couches and a bench, with a full-length mirror outside in the hallway.
You'd hang out there with everybody else...smoking cigarettes
...playing cards. Everybody with a date would try on different outfits and check themselves in the mirror...at which point everybody hanging out could express their opinion on the outfit!
At the end of the date, they'd come in, change clothes and come crash in the Anchor Room to report.
Good times!
