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Richard Nixon was president, Helen Reddy was on the radio, hair was long, skirts were short, collars were big, petroleum products were proudly worn. (Double knit, anyone?)
1973, large state university....
A couple of thoughts about sorority singing and dinner, 70's style.
Singing! Don't know if it was the times, or just our campus, but glos sang a lot! Song leaders were important officers. Rush (frilly) included lots of singing. Many campus events included singing/theatrical competitions
Serenades were big. We had song practice after dinner for days prior to a serenade (held before formals) Serenades gave glos important "face" time, as a great serenade could affect who invited you to do homecoming, Varsity Revue, etc.
We typically sang one current pop song (The Carpenter's, The Association), a couple of our sorority songs, Christmas carols prior to our winter formal, and learned a fraternity song for each house we serenaded. When a fraternity serenaded us, studyhall emptied, you dropped what you were doing, and everyone crowded the front door to listen. Fraternities serenaded when someone in your house got pinned to a brother or before formals.
Dinner (and more singing) We ate sit down family style dinners every night served by House Boys. Formal Dinners were held every Sunday at noon and Monday evening (chapter night). Formal dinner required pins, dresses, stockings. (no "pantsuits").
The door to the dining room opened at 5:30, and the house mother was escorted to her table by the head house boy. Her table was expected to fill up first, the President's and VP's tables were expected to fill up next. No one had assigned seats but them. If you didn't want to sit at one of the head tables, you hung back at the back of the crowd.
As we entered the room, we stood behind our chairs and the song leader led us in a sung prayer (with three part harmony) then we sat down after the house mother and president were seated.
Our dining room had tables for eight, and the head of table was responsible for passing food, seeing that each person had what they needed, using a little silver bell to summon a house boy for more water, tea, butter, etc. All of the sororities had house boys and it was a prized job on campus.
Dinner ended with at least one song. At formal dinners, we sang one of our more "serious" sorority songs. Rgular dinners ended with one or two "fun" sorority songs or a fraternity song. Once the singing was over, the house mother stood, was escorted from the dining room, then we were free to leave.
When my kids hear this, they scream with laughter, because it sounds positively medieval now. But dinner was fun. The dining room was beautiful, we had great food, lively conversation, lots of laughter, a sense of community and some practice in valuable social skills. It was the one time of day when everyone in the house was together in one place.
Great thread! Sorry to natter on so long.
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