Wow….thoughts of back in the day.
Yes, honey, Rush with frills! I get a little sad that Maryland no longer has Formal Rush in the fall….all the sisters lined up outside the chapter houses wearing their matching outfits trying to out-yell each other. (We wore black, straight skirts, white blouses and black bow ties. We probably looked like flight attendants, lol, but I loved it.) The Rushees had to endure rankings from the frat boys who brought their couches out onto their lawns. They’d zero in on a particular girl and hold up big cards, 1 through 10. Rushees took flowers and inspirational hand-written letters with them after Preference. And, yes,
real candles.
The main hang out for Greeks was the ‘Vous which was pretty disgusting but had been around forever. It always had at least an inch of gunk on the floor and they only served beer on tap. Very bad, watery beer. I think of the ‘Vous every time I hear “How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths (often requested by the sillier sorority girls who thought it was a great “party” song – did they ever listen to the lyrics?) Around 1986 or so, they built Sante Fe Café and that became the nicer hang out with food and mixed drinks. The front patio was the place to be seen…in your letters…drinking. The ‘Vous is now gone.
Not sure about SFC.
Campus traditions: Monday night serenades by the fraternity men in their coats and ties, stealing composites and plastering them with suggestive phrases cut out of magazines, massive scavenger hunts during Greek Week. Greek Week was just the best. The talent competition was a big highlight. I remember one year the Alpha Phis and whoever they were teamed up with did a Flashdance kinda thing and everyone freaked when they had water splashing down onto all the electrical equipment. That same year I pranced around the stage dressed as Snow White with my sisters as the dwarfs.
It’s a hazy memory since I needed a whole lot of alcohol beforehand to get the nerve to dance in front of a few thousand people. We came in second though.
I must have missed the add-a-bead thing. I only remember pearls; lots and lots of pearls that dangled out over turtlenecks…never got the hang of that. Dressing for going out at night was big slouchy belts, big bows in the hair, and lots of bangles. Very Madonna-esqe.
Songs that will always remind me of certain fraternities:
“Blister in the Sun” = Delta Tau Delta
“Margaritaville” = Fiji
“The Wall” = Pike
“Shout!” and “Destination Unknown” = Phi Delt
Did any other campuses do Destination Unknown parties? No one but the presidents and social chairs knew where we were going. We’d just pile into busses and end up in some bizarre place. The first song of the night would, of course, be “Destination Unknown.”
Aww. The memories.
Threaded Mode
