"Take Care of My Little Girl" (1951)

[MaryPoppins]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

We did sing like that...it was one of my favorite parts of sorority life. *sigh*

And it's now missing! They are over programmed and have no time for song.

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by MaryPoppins

And it's now missing! They are over programmed and have no time for song.

We used to have the formal seated dinners every night with the houseboys clearing plates and bringing dessert. We'd sing while they were clearing, and that's how the pledges learned the songs and we'd get our daily practice. Two- and three-part harmony!
Now the food is served buffet style and is casual - when you're finished you get up whenever you want and take your plate to the window. No having to excuse yourself to the housemother at the head table if you wanted to leave early.
Our yankee pledges were quite amazed at this at first. Heck, many of us were amazed. Good training, though.
Those were the days!

[Katmandu]

^^^ We did too! Singing was big on our campus. During rush, actives would burst into song during parties. Serenades, candle passings, etc. were all big time events and all focused on songs. We always serenaded before our formal parties and when we were partnered with fraternities for homecoming, spring sing, etc.

Formal dinner was on Monday evening and Sunday noon. Pin attire required. Week night dinners were also served by houseboys and were sit down events, but attire was casual. Our Housemother was always escorted into the dining room first by the head house boy and the expectation was that her table would fill first. There was a head of every table (changed every night depending on who sat at the head place) Pres and VP had their own tables on either side of the house mother's.

We sang grace and when desert was over, the song leader would initiate two or three songs to close which included both Kappa Delta songs and fraternity songs--it's how we learned the fraternity songs for serenades--we knew a song for every chapter on campus.

My son was freaked out when he pledged Lambda Chi Alpha and I sang one of their songs... he said, we don't even know them--how do you?!

Our girls now eat buffet style at random times within a two hour window. they grab plates, go through an industrial style buffet line, scarf it down and leave. I know they have busy schedules, and this type of meal service appeals to the times, but I don't think I am clutching my pearls too much to think that they miss out on a lot. We got to know each other at meal time, brushed up on manners, it didn't last that long--most meals were done in 30-40 minutes and it made for a nice oasis in a busy day. But eating together is something most of the current college students didn't have in their own families.

Being a house boy was one of the prized jobs on campus. They tended to be passed down among friends and relatives. They ate the great food the sorority cooks prepared, were paid fairly well, and got to look at pretty girls. We treated them well too.

[BraveMaroon]

Originally Posted by Katmandu

Being a house boy was one of the prized jobs on campus. They tended to be passed down among friends and relatives. They ate the great food the sorority cooks prepared, were paid fairly well, and got to look at pretty girls. We treated them well too.

We had one houseboy who was with us from the time he was a Freshman til he graduated.

He is now married to one of my sisters!

We had a sit down meal every night, and every night we sang the blessing. It's probably the first sorority song I learned.

And if you wanted to be excused, you had to ask the housemother.

I know some people hated it, but I always enjoyed dinner at the house.

[naraht]

The TCM article is pretty interesting to me

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/articl...My-Little-Girl

It sounds like the book it was based on was even more anti-sorority than the movie does (and that appears to be saying something) with the book specifically dealing with the fact that the sororities having racial and religious prejudices.

A comment on the book is at
http://books.google.com/books?id=fDG...A159&lpg=PA159

And then there is
http://www.jeffreyhunter.net/NewSite...tories0751.pdf

Which seems to be related to the movie, but mentions jews/catholics in a way I'm not sure the movie did...

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

We used to have the formal seated dinners every night with the houseboys clearing plates and bringing dessert. We'd sing while they were clearing, and that's how the pledges learned the songs and we'd get our daily practice. Two- and three-part harmony!
Now the food is served buffet style and is casual - when you're finished you get up whenever you want and take your plate to the window. No having to excuse yourself to the housemother at the head table if you wanted to leave early.
Our yankee pledges were quite amazed at this at first. Heck, many of us were amazed. Good training, though.
Those were the days!

Yes they were! That is how we did it at FSU. Don't forget some of the houseboys were come around with iced tea pitchers and water pitchers to refill glasses during the meal. We sang the blessing(in harmony) before we were seated and we waited to sit until the house mother had taken her seat. There was the house mother's table and the president's table and then the others were not designated. Food was served family style with the head of the table starting the food around the table. No one ate until the entire table was served AND the house mother had lifted her fork, then the table heads would lift their forks and everyone would eat.

The pledges served door/phone duty from 5 pm to 7 pm on a rotation basis fall quarter and took phone messages during the meal which she left in the appropriate person's mail cubby-out of house girls messages were pinned to a bulletin board in the phone room. AFter initiation, the out of house girls would be assigned 5-7 door/phone duty, and in house girls who were not executive officers would rotate phone/door duty from 7-10.

If anyone came around to make an announcement during the meal, the pledge would escort the person/persons to the dining room entrance, whisper in the house mothers ear that ABC fraternity had an announcement they would like to make, wait for her to grant permission and then the president would tap her glass with her spoon to get the dining rooms attention, the pledge would introduce the visitor(s), step aside and wait to escort the messengers out after their announcement had been made. We politely clapped after each outside announcement. During dessert, the president would stand and ask if anyone had any announcements and any sister who did would raise her hand and wait to be called on before speaking. Dinner guests were welcome any night, but fancier meals were served on Monday and Thursday nights, so most sisters invited their guests for those nights. Fun times!