A very retro rush - with frills

[dvs-dz]

Waaaayyyyy back in the dark ages, I went through rush.

A bit of background, while neither of my parents had been in greek organizations, my uncle and his wife had. This aunt was also a national officer of her organization (but not a major officer) and I had been raised to know this group inside and out. My father was very eager for me to join a sorority, and he certainly had his opinions about them! I think his main source of information was an article that was published in Texas Monthly about rush at UT. Mandatory reading for me. Had to recite paragraphs verbatim (not really, but almost).

So I applied to two colleges - one that had national sororites, one that had local only. Guess which one was selected?

At the time, my college had 5 sororities. Since I love Jane Austen, I'll call them:

Pride & Prejudice
Emma
Sense & Sensibility
Mansfield Park
Persuasion

Yes, I know that leaves out Northanger Abbey, but that really was one of her weaker works.

Just to show you how long ago this was, my first introduction to these sororities was when I received letters from a member of each of these groups, welcoming me and telling me a bit about the college and their group. This finally ended sometime around my junior year but it was a really nice tradition and made me feel welcome. I returned letters to each, except for Mansfield Park, who had neglected to give me her return address. I had a good correspondence going with Emma, Sense & Sensibility, and Persuasion.

And then I arrived at campus...

[dgdramadawg]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY frills!

[CZAXOTerp]

oooh- this should be fun- I want more hints as to where you went school.

Were there lawn dances?
They got rid of lawn dances on my campus before I rushed, but I remember hearing about them!

[FSUZeta]

bring on the frills!!

[dvs-dz]

I arrived on campus, and not much happened until January - we have deferred rush!

I did meet a lot of sorority women, especially my correspondents with Emma and Sense&Sensibility. But I had a great time getting to know the other freshmen on my wing. My college was a heavily greek campus, so most of them intended to rush. Interestingly enough, if there were stereotypes, no one really talked about them.

At one point in the fall, the freshmen were able to visit each chapter in their chapter room (the fraternities had houses, the sororities had chapter rooms in the main women's dorm). There were very few members of Mansfield Park, because they had just reorganized the year before - I think they had 8 members at the time.

And all semester, my aunt was writing me, sending me cartoons, and basically really rushing me for Emma.

Finally January arrived ...

[tld221]

oh this is gonna be fun... but one question:

what exactly is "frills?" i know it means over-the-top fancy rush, but what does that involve? wearing dresses and going to tea? and how far back in the dark ages are we going - i see you're writing letters () and all.

i can kinda imagine what regular rush looks like, having been through one at my school (which, noting my siggie, didnt really work out for me) and reading the recruitment threads here, but an old-school rush - i need details to set the scene.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by tld221

oh this is gonna be fun... but one question:

what exactly is "frills?" i know it means over-the-top fancy rush, but what does that involve? wearing dresses and going to tea? and how far back in the dark ages are we going - i see you're writing letters () and all.

i can kinda imagine what regular rush looks like, having been through one at my school (which, noting my siggie, didnt really work out for me) and reading the recruitment threads here, but an old-school rush - i need details to set the scene.

When my sister was an active (at the hometown university), they would give each PNM some sort of a nice token or gift at each round. For preference it was something really nice. I know she still has one of the other chapter's preference gift given to her. A porcelain "Cinderella Slipper" on a velvet pillow. Something to do with a "perfect fit" I guess. I just know that it represented Cinderella in some way. And as I recall her chapter gave her (gave out) a silver keepsake box that was lined.

There were elaborate skits, full fledge food and punch, and decorations with massive floral arrangements. I'm not sure if there was an agreed upon budget cap or not. After my sister became an active, my brothers and I (all younger than our sister) were "volunteered" to help prior to rush. (This was my Mother's chapter too - thus the forced labor.) I recall to this day stuffing tissue paper in this giant door covering thing made out of chicken wire that I think may have been a horse shoe. It was over the front door or something like that.

When I attended college years later and at a different school, they also had "frills". However, no gifts and there was "limited" outside help. (No younger siblings tied up in the basement stuffing tissue paper into a chicken wire horse shoe.) Also there was a budget cap. But from what I recall, it still allowed for a lot of "frills".

As for what they wore, I have no clue what my sister wore. However, this would have been a time when a lady rarely wore slacks for these kind of events. So my guess is that everyone was pretty much dressed up. At UK, it was more casual, but still kind of dressy.