[That80sRush]

Well, Dirty Dancing was the late 80's, and this was in the early 80's. Ferris Bueller was in '86, so I did stretch my definition a bit since I love that movie.

A little background first...

I grew up in the same town as a large university that I’ll call Big State U. Every year when the pledge classes of all the sororities were printed in the paper, I’d study it to see who I knew from school, who I knew from the department store teen board (this was a group that did fashion shows and promotions for the store) had pledged where. I had a pretty good idea that Sixteen Candles and Some Kind of Wonderful were the best, based on the girls who pledged.

My decision of where to go to college was based on four things: whether there was a good mall in town, if there was a Greek system, the annual snowfall – it had to be minimal, and my mother’s insistence that I go anywhere but Big State U. After careful consideration, I selected Small Private School.

Like all of my high school friends who were headed to Big State U, I spent the summer before freshman year getting recs. We all typed up (on a typewriter, of course) resume’s with our senior photos and high school transcripts attached to distribute. One of my mom’s co-workers, an active Phi Mu alum, stepped in to help me prepare the resume and select the photo. Since Small Private School didn’t have a Phi Mu chapter, she felt that she wasn’t unduly influencing me and could be objective. To this day, there is soft spot in my heart for Phi Mu’s because of her generosity.

My best friend was going to Big State U, and her mom was a Fast Times at Ridgemont High alum. Her older sister had also been a Fast Times at Big State U. So, that was one rec down. One of our good friends’ mom was a St. Elmo’s Fire, so there was another rec. The owner of the store where I’d worked for three years said she’d like to write me a rec for Pretty in Pink. She added that her sister, a Sixteen Candles, would also send one in if I could give her my resume. Sixteen Candles!! Oh, they were the BEST, and I was so grateful that I’d have a rec for them, since I knew that you didn’t get invited past the first round of parties without them.

In stepped my dad’s cousin Topsie (a great lady who has since passed away, that’s what she was really called instead of her given name, Frances) who had been a Fast Times at Big State School back in the 50’s. She lived in a different town and we didn’t see her often, but she knew when someone needed help with rush and was happy to come to my rescue. Topsie took copies of my resume and went to work in her small town. Within two weeks she wrote back that recs were being written for me by her friends in Some Kind of Wonderful (yay! I needed one of those), Fast Times, Pretty in Pink, and Valley Girl. I knew that Valley Girl was a not too strong group at Big State U, so I probably wouldn’t be joining them, but it was nice of Topsie’s friend to write a rec for me anyway.

My mom tried to help, but having attended a tiny liberal arts college without a Greek system in a different state, she really didn’t know where to start. She was also perhaps a bit preoccupied since she was preparing to work out of the country for six months, starting the week after I would arrive at Small Private School. (At the time I thought this was really cool and adventurous of her. Now, it seems the antithesis of heli-moming.) We went shopping for rush clothes, and she was really good about supporting me in my life long goal of joining a sorority.

I still didn’t have recs for Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day off, or Footloose, but figured that since I’d never heard of them they probably weren’t going to be ones I’d choose anyway.