AGDee's Retro aka How NOT to do recruitment

[AGDee]

I received my invitations the next day. I only remember what one of them was like (and this probably makes it very obvious which group this one was) but it was in the shape of a record (yeah, we had records back then, it was post 8 tracks and cassettes were getting popular, but we still had records) with the invite information as the record label. It was very cute. It was from the Airedale Terriers. All were handmade invitations from construction paper and they all looked like they took a lot of time to make (and they did, as I found when I was Rush Chair the next semester)

Since I knew I didn’t want to be a Poodle or a Russian Toy Terrier, I didn’t go to their first parties. Nobody had told me that this could impede any chances of getting a bid or that I had to go to their parties and, to be honest, I don’t think anybody cared back then. Almost everybody wanted to be a Poodle, except me.

I knew we had to dress up a little, so I wore basic black pleated dress pants, black pumps and a silvery/gray silky blouse. I wore the ever-present gold herringbone chain and some simple gold hoop earrings. Nothing too fancy. I had (cringe) a bi-level cut with big permed hair. If you don’t know what a bi-level is, I’m not telling, cuz they call it something else now and I don’t want to admit it.. BUT, it was VERY in then, I swear it.

I caught up with Renee outside the Airedale Terrier room in the student union and we waited outside together. She had already been to the other two parties. I had no idea what to expect. We walked into the room and there were two lines of women dressed in 50’s clothes.. poodle skirts, sweaters or blouses, with pony tails and saddle shoes! How adorable! They were singing some catchy song with their letters in it. As we each walked in, one of the girls stepped out of the line and escorted us to a table where they gave us a nametag and we wrote our names on them. They were homemade nametags and these were like the outline of a ’57 Chevy. They took us over to a table where there was punchbowl of root beer floats and platters of cheese and crackers and helped us get some food and a root beer float. Yum! I liked this rush thing. I enjoyed talking to the girl I was with a lot. She took me over to meet some other sisters. The room was all decorated like a 50’s diner. I chatted for a while with several different sisters and then they sat us down for a skit. It was a Grease skit and ALL the words to the songs were adapted to fit the sorority! How clever these women were! I was so impressed. I had no idea what to expect coming into this and I was really enjoying it. The skit was touching as Rizzo decided to become a member of this great sorority and all the sisters sang “We go together” and looked like they really loved hanging out with each other. Wow! I wanted to be part of that! Then, we had to leave and I was bummed out.

Renee and I headed to the next party, the Labradors and waited outside again for the party to start. We talked about how much fun the Airedale Terrier party was but Renee wasn’t quite as impressed as I was. Maybe because she’d been to two parties already?

We walked into the Labrador party together and stopped at the nametag table to fill out a nametag. Then, one of the sisters took Renee into the crowd but nobody picked me up. I kind of stood there, not knowing what to do. Nobody came and talked to me. I felt like a Martian. What was up with this??? I went to the refreshment table and they had assorted candies.. m&m’s, mints, etc. and a punch. I helped myself to those and tried to kind of hang out near a group of girls who were talking, but was too intimidated to just join in with a group. When the skit was going to start, I found Renee and sat by her. I don’t remember this skit at all. I think I was just shell shocked because nobody had spoken to me.

I left that party knowing that I wouldn’t be going back to them.