Back in the day . . .

[SWTXBelle]

Twisted bead necklaces were really big - until cheap knock-offs appeared.

[Leslie Anne]

Originally Posted by Elephant Walk

Phi Delt does it here..

I guess it's become a Phi Delt tradition. I like that!

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

"Our" song was "Uptown Girl" - my favorite formal pics are of all the Gamma Phis in a giant kick line, dates looking on from the sidelines.

That sounds so cute. Anyone else want to see those photos?

Originally Posted by AOIIalum

I'll meet your "Holding out for a Hero" and raise it with a "Never Surrender". Spill it 33. Come on, you know you want to.

Yes! Spill it. Both of you.
I'll tell my most shameful stunt if you do.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AOIIalum

I'll meet your "Holding out for a Hero" and raise it with a "Never Surrender". Spill it 33. Come on, you know you want to.

It's not scandalous or anything.

Scene: basement of the Crow house.

Dorky guy to my sister Cindy: Hey, what's up, what's your sign, etc.

(Holding Out For A Hero comes over the sound system because the brother in charge of music is busy, umm, imbibing)

Cindy: Excuse me, but I must go and jam to this.


Our song (sung at top volume in a circle in all public places) was Paradise by the Dashboard Light. It annoyed everyone but us. We eventually got the Crows to sing along with us (dirty lyrics, obviously).

[Leslie Anne]

lol I got the giggles imagining Holding Out For A Hero playing and then:

Originally Posted by 33girl

Cindy: Excuse me, but I must go and jam to this.

Oh, and Meat Loaf rules!

[SWTXBelle]

If those photos weren't pack, you know I'd post 'em!

[srmom]

Twisted bead necklaces were really big - until cheap knock-offs appeared.

Oh, I had those - malachite, lapis, etc. Those were really popular at SMU.

Also the humongous tulip rings in emerald, ruby and sapphire.

I keep those in my jewelry box - if I had a daughter, and if she wanted to wear tacky 80's jewelry, I'd give them to her!

Anybody wear Cullinanne(sp) outfits? I really liked them, along with the ever present Laura Ashley dresses. I still have a few in an upstairs closet - never know when they might come back haha

[srmom]

Also, we used real candles for candlelights, white with wine and silver blue ribbon tied around them. I still have mine (24 years later), proudly displayed in my kitchen in a hurricane shade.

[fantASTic]

Wow...a lot of that stuff is cool, but some stuff I'm glad is gone! Now I see why they stopped giving gifts...if I saw an ASA crossing out our letters like 33girl mentioned, I would be horrified, as I'm sure would her chapter. I know that if an AST here did that it would NOT be tolerated, as it is exceptionally rude and disrespectful.

I wish we could bring back little sisters...if I was going to pick something to bring back, that would be it. What a cool program!

[Benzgirl]

No AquaNet here...my poof is natural!

We didn't get gifts from the chapters we preffed, but didn't pledge, but we received flowers. Luckily, we had a little time between pref parties, so many ran back to their apartments and dorms to drop them.

Michael Jackson's "Thriller" reminds me of the AGS house
"Shout" of the Beta house
"I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls, Delta Tau Delta
Anything by Duran Duran reminds me of the Phi Psis
Phil Collins reminds me of Kappa Sigma
1999 reminds me of Sigma Alpha Mu
Anything from Flash Dance reminds of of the SAEs

Bars: Papa Joes, Triology, Mine Shaft, Oar House, Mean Mister Mustards and Crazy Momas

Senior Year: every guy tried to imitate Tom Cruise in Risky Business (right down to dancing in the boxer shorts)

My cousin had the Add a Bead but I had the Add a Pearl. I had tons of gold jewelry, but not the bling of today

[Cutie_Hootie]

Every Monday was badge attire--every fraternity boy wore khaki slacks, shirt, tie, and navy blazer. The girls all wore skirts or dresses, preferably plaid skirts. (My favorite not-as-dressy outfit was a plaid skirt with a denim shirt (untucked!) and my beautiful fisherman sweater, all from Abercrombie and Fitch. Egads!) We always dressed up for classes, and only wore jeans on Tuesdays or Thursdays when most people had labs. We always wore letters on those days. Most people had plaid letters. Every self-respecting sorority girl had a tote bag with her letters embroidered on that too, and carried it to class daily. We always wore a gold herringbone necklace with another necklace with our lavalier hanging on it (the necklaces came out the front of our turtlenecks, which was not a good look for me!). We wore our own letters until we were lavaliered by our boyfriend, then pinned, then engaged. We had beautiful white candles for our candlelight, wrapped in both red and yellow ribbon with a white carnation as well as his fraternity colors mixed in.

We were the first year that didn't get presents at Pref, and everyone felt sorry for us. (it was never a big deal to any of us though) We definitely had full frills rush other than the gifts though. It was awesome to walk into each house every day and see it totally transformed.

Like so many others, we paint-penned everything that couldn't run away from us...even stupid stuff like hangers, clothespins, lighters (for those forbidden candles in your room of course). We had paintpenned candles for big/little revelation, and of course we had real candles for everything!

Nothing was better than serenades--we loved going from house to house to introduce our new pledges, invite them to our Fall party Chi-Oahu (to the tune of Copacabana by Berry Manilow) or drum up excitement for Formal. And fraternity serenades were the end all be all. We all crowded into our front entry and stairwell to see who would get flowers, who were the new pledges, and most importantly, what song they sang and who they sang it to. The pledge serenade was most important because we were then invited to join in a pledge dance with one of the fraternities. And the other big serenade time was for Homecoming, where the entire campus would turn out on the Quad to hear the chapters sing.

Pledging was an adventure--quizzes every week, plenty of pranks--especially scavanger hunts, stealing composites and other things from the fraternities, and bonding with your pledge sisters. And we had to wear skirts every week, regardless of weather (we had formal rush in January). I remember one time when we had six inches of snow on the ground and a killer windchill, and our pledge trainer just said, "I won't tell you not to do it, but in my opinion, a Chi Omega does not wear pants with her badge." None of us did wear them after hearing that!

The entire campus had a curfew. All the dorms were single sex, and all dorms and fraternity/sorority houses closed at midnight during the week and two on the weekends. It was always a shock to walk into the bathroom (of the dorm) at about 4 am and see feet facing the WRONG way.

Our campus was dry, but for some reason no one would say anything if you had a cup in your hand or a backpack on your back. So on Fridays and Saturdays, you'd see a lot of people with overloaded backpacks taking off down to the fraternities. A guess a lot of studying was going on...It was always fun to be spoiled by the fraternity pledges. They picked you up and brought you down to the house, walked you back to your room, even drove us to and from the bars. Of course, they waited on you hand and foot in the house. And our favorite song was American Pie, where we would change the words to "white carnation" from "pink carnation", so it became a screaming war between us and Phi Mus. We also loved Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana, where we would scream ChiOOOOOOChiOOOOOOO during various parts...wow, we were cheesy!

Ahh, the good old days (I'm rather shocked by how much my campus culture has changed in just a decade!!)

[AOIIalum]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Our song (sung at top volume in a circle in all public places) was Paradise by the Dashboard Light. It annoyed everyone but us. We eventually got the Crows to sing along with us (dirty lyrics, obviously).

Okay, so Never Surrender was our chapter song (we were the brand new chapter on campus, so it was a theme thing). It got played, we all stopped whatever we were doing to circle up and sing at the top of our lungs. It worked for us!

[gee_ess]

It was the early 80's....

*elaborate skits at every round of rush complete with themed food, themed drinks, and crafty,creative themed nametags!

*one telephone per bedroom at the sorority house plus the main house phone that no one ever wanted to run and answer.

*studying..er,cheating on pledge tests, hide and seek activity to find your pledge mom, fraternity little sister groups.

*white hose...yes, white hose

*Fraternity events like Sigma Nu relays, Sigma Chi Derby Days, etc always involved sorority competitions where alcohol was part of the event. For example, the three-legged beer chug. (can you believe that!?)

*I barely remember Cardinal Puff, must have been all that alcohol at Sigma Nu Relays, but I do remember playing "Hi Bob" while watching old Bob Newhart reruns...

I am sure I will remember more...

[EtaPhiZTA]

Some of my favorites from the mid-eighties: real candle passes with real flowers on the candles, scavenger hunts with us "borrowing" composites (of course the fraternities would get them back once they came to serenade), paint pens and acrylic picture frames, preference night flowers and notes, and my personal favorite - house boys

[gee_ess]

^^^ LOVED the house boys! (and the acrylic frames - so true!)

[SWTXBelle]

Feel free to post pictures, y'all. I certainly will once I'm moved!

eta - hands up - how many of y'all had a pref song to "The Rose" or "The Theme from Ice Castles (Eyes of Love)"??

Love
is found in Gamma Phi
A love that never dies,
it keeps on something I've forgotten,
how we love our sisters,
how they help us grow,
in Gaaaaaammmmaaaa Phi, we know we have found a home.