Fortunately my DG chapter escaped the plumbing and heating issues during formal recruitment, which back in the 1980's was typically held one week before school began. Back then we were just trying to keep from melting in our Laura Ashley dresses.
However I do recall one hiccup vividly. It was Sisterhood day and typically we would greet the rushees at the front and then escort them out the door, down the driveway around to the patio aka the parking pad when it wasn't rush. The weather was sunny and while warm, typically was cooler outdoors than indoors. In our minds it was a far better alternative to walk them around the house rather than leading them through the narrow hallways. That route would have taken the party past the kitchens, pantry and all of the rush accessories, props and more that had accumulated over the week. We believed that asking the rushees to climb over a five foot tall chicken wire anchor attached to a three foot wide base sent the wrong impression.
Now it was a long driveway that went from the street to behind the main house and it could handle the crowd of sisters and rushees easily. Decorations had held up in the early afternoon sunshine and gentle seabreeze. The Country Time lemonade was chilled. The DG cocktail napkins were neatly fanned on the tables. The patio was as clean as it could possibly be. For three of parties held earlier in the day, the space had worked perfectly. Or so we thought...
On this day our chapter adviser had tried to be extra efficient and interview a new housemother while sitting in as an alumni observer. She'd planned to meet with the applicant during the lunch break in the small chapter office which would have been away from the rush activities. Unfortunately our new prospective housemother was late due to some city road work and a lack of parking spaces in which to park her enormous, early 1970's dusty, pea green Chevy. (Yes the future DG housemom had her own boat so to say.) Not wanting to be even later than she was, she decided to park
in the driveway. Yes the very driveway that the actives and sisters were to use to access the patio.
So instead of calmly leading our next rush party down the steps and around to the patio, the Laura Ashley clad actives and rushees now found themselves inching past the housemother's car and the wooden fence that bordered the property. It was either that or try ducking under the dusty Cypress trees that were always a spider magnet despite our hasty pre-rush clean up efforts. (As a chapter we really were not into landscaping in our late teens/early twenties.
)
Upon being apprised of the situation, the President and Rush VP immediately dispatched the speediest sister to find the Alumni advisor and the prospective housemother to request that the car be moved ASAP! A few minutes later in the midst of a sister's solo of "When You Go Away To College," we could all hear the sound of repeated attempts to turn over an engine and then a backfire. Fortunately by the end of the party, the PHM was able to move the car and find a close parking space. (Yes she did get hired.)
To be honest I can't say that it was our best rush party that year, but it was the most memorable.
Threaded Mode
