Back in the day . . .

[AGDAlum]

70-74 at Mizzou

As others have said, rush had frills. Sidewalk songs were big with the actives "singing the rushees in." Frat guys also lined the sidewalks checking out the rushees.

Monday night was "formal dinner." Pledge came to the house for 5 p.m. pledge meeting; then dinner (cloth tablecloths); 6:30 was chapter meeting. Everyone did it that way. The chapter room was a mysterious place that the pledges did not go in. (What a letdown to find out it was only a big room.)

1970 was the year that the pantsuit hit the fashion world and jeans became acceptable for everydaywear. Polyester doubleknit was the miracle fabric--no wrinkle, wore like iron. In 1970 we defined when it was okay to wear pants ("as part of an outfit"). By 1974 we asked members to wear bras and to not smoke marijuana in the house.

The house was locked at 11 p.m. on weekdays, midnight on Saturdays. Dorms had similar hours. Men were allowed upstairs only on very special occasions. (Coed dorms began in the 70's.)

You could get a phone in your room if you wanted to pay for it. Otherwise you used the phone in the hall. We changed rooms 3 times a year. If you had a phone you could stay in the same room twice in a row.

Coors beer was distributed only to the Kansas/Missouri line. People who went home to KC or to KU for the weekend brought Coors back.

Columbia had only one Mexican restaurant (Connie's El Sombrero), though there was a Taco Bell on Providence. The 18th Amendment and Harpo's were the big bars. We found out that the bar at the Tiger Hotel didn't card and was much quieter (more grownup).....Bagels were a novelty, unavailable in Columbia. One of my chapter sisters would bring back a bag from a deli in St. Louis.

Streaking was the big news of 1974! You'd be walking to class and a guy would run past you wearing only sneakers and a stocking cap.

[ktbug10474]

Originally Posted by honeychile

*Hoping there's a nursing home for greeks!*

oh there will be and i'll start it. you're gonna have to give me a few more years to get out of college and start making money etc.. etc..

But here are the details.

Alpha Zeta Nursing Home

Helping Greeks reminisce about the old days.


and the requirements to get in.....

a) a scavenger hunt
b) a chugging contest
c) there shall be a pledge period and initiation
d) and anything else yall would like to add

[EEKappa]

I can smell the paint pens just reading this thread! All my friends on my floor would bring me stuff to paint their letters on, which was good since I had already put KKG on everything I could find. I got really good at drawing Theta kites.

We received pref gifts that we took with us, and the ADPis bid cards were done in counted cross stitch. The sisters on that committee worked on them all summer long.

Formal chapter meetings were a sea of Laura Ashley dresses. Our pref dresses were navy taffeta for two years, then changed to our choice of white with light blue or dark blue chintz sashes.

Did anyone else find out who their big sister was with a scavenger hunt? Or get taken out for a pledge kidnap breakfast?

[Tom Earp]

Ah, lets go back to the 60-70's!

Much more formal as far as dress went on Campus!

Dress was semi formal for guys, coats and ties for meetings.

Meeting days were every Tuesday night and we wore appropriate attire on campus and meetings. Let the Campus know who we were!

Weekends, oh well, look out as that was fun time! But, letters were worn on T-Shirts once again to let them know who were are/were!

Now! They wear beer, or shoes, GAP, Old Navy shirts!

That really promotes GLOs!

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by 33girl

You don't understand what I'm saying.

The way I always understood it (and what my friends who went over the border to Ohio told me) was...if you had turned 18 in a year when the drinking age was still 18 there, you were allowed to drink. It had nothing to do with what state you personally were from. I have no idea what they did in Washington. Since I believe Benzgirl is talking about Ohio that's why I didn't understand why her friend had this issue.

I live in Ohio, but was in Texas when it was 18. Cousin lived in Texas and was not Grandfathered when the legal age changed.
However, Ohio at the time was an 18 state for 3.2 Beer (tasted awful) and 21 for everything else. Since then, everything went 21 in both states.

[OldAOPi]

Originally Posted by EEKappa

Did anyone else find out who their big sister was with a scavenger hunt? Or get taken out for a pledge kidnap breakfast?

1978 - We did - we matched up socks. We would go hide in the house somewhere and the pledges would come look for a sock to match up with theirs. And we did kidnap our pledges for breakfast and took them, of course, to McDonalds. We kidnapped our Big Brothers also, to let them know they had been selected. The Sig Eps did that for their little sisters, too. What, people don't kidnap people anymore?

We went to Mcdonalds for everything, especially large Cokes and Fries when they were doing the Monopoly game. And then there were those that did dumpster diving.....yuck! but they would come back with bags of still warm food that was thrown in the dumpster at the end of the shift.

[ForeverRoses]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

I live in Ohio, but was in Texas when it was 18. Cousin lived in Texas and was not Grandfathered when the legal age changed.
However, Ohio at the time was an 18 state for 3.2 Beer (tasted awful) and 21 for everything else. Since then, everything went 21 in both states.

I remember in Ohio the "high" stamp and the "low" stamp. Low was for anyone 18-20 and they could order the 3.2 beer and high was for anyone 21 or older that could order anything.

Of course, I was in high school when they were doing this, it was all 21 by the time I was in college.

[em_adpi]

Originally Posted by OldAOPi

What, people don't kidnap people anymore?

My diamond little bignapped me this year and took me to IHOP.

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by ForeverRoses

I remember in Ohio the "high" stamp and the "low" stamp. Low was for anyone 18-20 and they could order the 3.2 beer and high was for anyone 21 or older that could order anything.

Of course, I was in high school when they were doing this, it was all 21 by the time I was in college.

Do you know how many "high" stamps I had? We kept different colors of stamp pads in the car and would find out what color they were using for the night. Got in free and drank the good stuff.

Ohhhh....those were the days
(before I burned out my brain cells)

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

Do you know how many "high" stamps I had? We kept different colors of stamp pads in the car and would find out what color they were using for the night. Got in free and drank the good stuff.

Ohhhh....those were the days
(before I burned out my brain cells)

Way too hard. We just had fake ID's.

The university ID's had pictures, but drivers licenses and draft cards didn't.

Heck, I had a fake ID in high school in Ohio.

Didn't matter much, though, except in the bars. In those days the older brothers would buy pretty much anything you wanted.

And, yes, as I recall, when the drinking age was changed to twenty-one, those between eighteen at twenty-one were grandfathered.

I was twenty-one by then, so I really didn't care.

[paulam]

Back in the day…
1) Everyone (well almost) in the late 50's to mid-60's wore circle pins to indicate they were still virgins. Protecting one’s reputation was crucial, especially if one was a member of a sorority. Flash forward 5 years to my first job. A new hire had been a Tri Delt at Texas and I found her sobbing in the restroom one afternoon. When she finally settled down and was able to tell me why she was so upset, I nearly fell over. Apparently, my female co-workers, most of whom had been in sororities and were several years younger than I, had been teasing her, calling her a virgin. She began to cry and shouted back, “I am not still a virgin”, attracting attention from executive management, not a great career move. I was stunned at how the culture had changed in just a few years from sorors proudly declaring their virginity to those who found being called a virgin insulting.

2) As a new NPC colony, we decided to throw a party and invite all of the other sorority women on campus so we could become better acquainted. Without giving it any thought, our social chair had invitations printed inviting each sorority to our “Cocktail Party”. We never intended to serve alcohol but the party was to be held in the evening with cocktail dress as the standard so calling it a cocktail party seemed the right thing to do. We purchased tons of food and made punch (no alcohol) and decorated the beautiful home in which the party was to be held. Dressed in our finest “cocktail” dresses, we waited and waited and no one came.

Finally, the doorbell rang and it was the President of Panhellenic standing there by herself. She had come to tell us why no one from the other sororities would be attending our party and to let us know that we would be called before the standards committee to explain why we were serving alcohol when it was strictly forbidden by both Panhellenic and university rules. Most of us were in tears by then. We showed her that there was no alcohol anywhere in sight and had her taste the punch, containing fruit, 7-Up and ice. We explained why we had called it a cocktail party, calling it a lapse in judgement. She felt just awful that we had gone to so much trouble to plan the party to get to know our fellow sorority members and no one showed up. Later, whenver we thought about that night, someone would shout out, “What if you gave a party and no one came?” By then we could laugh about it. We received apologetic phone calls the next day from all the sororities and whenever we were on campus and a soror saw us, she would make a point to come over and talk to us. We never gave another “cocktail” party during our sorority years!

3) We were kidnapped by our pledges one early morning when we had a sleep over at our sorority apartment. Someone had “leaked” their plans so naturally, we all wore our finest PJ’s and make-up and had our hair styled rather than rolled. We pretended to know nothing so as not to spoil the pledges' fun, but I am sure they knew we had been tipped off. No one looks that good at 5 a.m.!

Years later (40), I was watching Gilmore Girls, the episode in which Rory is invited to join the “Puffs” at Chilton, the upper class private high school she attended. Someone had tipped off her mother, Lorelei who encouraged Rory to dress nicely, wear make-up and style her hair. When the Puffs came to kidnap her, the other “pledges” looked like hell, while Rory was her usual beautiful self. I had to laugh as it reminded me of our pledges kidnapping us when we were fully dressed. The Puffs were caught in the Headmaster’s office and suspended from school. We were lucky…we went to the Pancake House!

There are a million stories but this will have to do for now.

Paula M.
Sigma Delta Tau

[aephi alum]

PaulaM, your post makes my eyes hurt. Little fonts are bad, mmkay?

I guess the word "mocktail" hadn't been coined yet? My chapter has done mocktail parties as a recruitment event - mmmmm strawberry smoothies

[Benzgirl]

^^^^ Ditto. I had to get out my bi-focals for that one.

[paulam]

Sorry to have made you squint...I am having difficulty with my computer and will have to have my son take a look at it next time he comes over. That's why we have kids, right?

Paula M.
Sigma Delta Tau
ΣΔT
Patriae Multi Spes Una One Hope of Many People

[banditone]

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