Back in the day . . .

[Benzgirl]

RAIDS!!!
Of course, there were always food and/or bevvies involved.

[aephi alum]

"The day" was mid-1990's for me...

It was still called rush, rho chis were still rho chis, and real candles were used at pref. The year I rushed was the last year sororities could give flowers to rushees (*ahem* PNMs) at pref. One of our songs had the word "rushee" in it. (I don't think we use that song any more. "Rushee" has two syllables; "potential new member" has six, so it doesn't quite fit the meter.)

AEPhi had just changed over from "pledge" to "new member". My new member manual says "pledge manual" on the spine, and the word "pledge" is used throughout.

Real candles were used for candle passes, too, but there was a candle pass for a baby. When I had my candle pass for getting engaged, the circle happened to start with me, and I had to explain carefully that I was engaged and not pregnant.

[barbino]

Originally Posted by oldu

I know this may be hard for some of you to imagine but I was in school during the late 1950s, and campus life was decidedly different then. I was at a major midwestern university but our codes were pretty typical to most institutions. First, we had to wear a coat and tie to dinner each night (Friday was casual) and, as a result, many wore coats and ties to afternoon classes. Women still had to maintain "hours:" 10:30 weeknights and 1:00 on weekends, although there was some scurrying up the fire escape sometimes by the braver ones. Singing was a big deal for both fraternities and sororities, and servenading another group was popular after Monday night chapter meetings. In fact, there seemed to be much more musical talent then because we, and several other fraternities, had in-house combos that were actually very good. Greek sings and talent shows were big, so huge at Northwestern that theirs ran for several nights and tickets were scalped like at athletic events. The opposite sex was never allowed above the main floor of any chapter house, and all but the tiniest groups had house mothers. Ah, for the good old days!

NORTHWESTERN! I knew it! I love to visit this campus - to check out the Pi Phi house there though it's been years since I helped with rush, Northwestern was "redistricted." One of my brothers was an Evans Scholar there. The quads are still absolutely beautiful (although I hate to admit that admit I prefer U of Chicago for its "total intellectualism"). Northwestern still maintains an "old' feeling -there is too much ivy around there for it to ever feel new. The art library is tucked away in a little corner and still feels like you never left the 1930's or 40's. The older buildings are still there and being used. They have not been torn down & rebuilt like some college campuses.There are still Greek sings and talent shows there. Don't all the sorority houses still have housemothers???? Some things never really change, they just get better with age. Northwestern University is just one of those things.

[AGDee]

1983-87

Frilly rush, themes, favors at every party, food that fit the theme, "costumes" (like 50's for Grease night), decorations, hand made name tags for everybody.

The song on our whole campus was "We Are Family". When the DJ started playing it, all the sorority women bunched together with their sisters on the dance floor and tried to outsing eachother "We are AGD", "We are Alpha Xi", "We are Sigma Three" and "We are Sigma K"(they never figured out how to make it rhyme). The men would just stand there watching and shaking their heads.

Shout reminds me of the TKE house.

TKEs had happy hour every Friday afternoon at their house. THE place to be.

LXAs had a dance floor in their walkout basement, perfect for parties.

Real candles were nice.

Domino's large pizzas for $5, delivered within 30 minutes or they were free... we banked on that A LOT. They also came with a free quart of pop (soda for you people from other parts of the country) in a cardboard carton.

Matching baseball jackets.. each fraternity and sorority had "their" jackets, all totally matching except for the embroidered name. Ours were yellow with red writing, highly visible all over campus!

Other songs we HAD to dance to.. any Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and...

Superfreak, superfreak the girl's a superfreak!

[honeychile]

I can remember a PNM going through COR and asking what the difference between three sororities was, and one sister said, "Most sororities tend to go to concerts together. Just last weekend, the ABCs went to see Neil Diamond, the XYZs went to see Billy Joel, and we went Bruce Springsteen."

One sister had this weird thing for "Smoke From a Distant Fire" and that became all of our song. I have pictures (somewhere) of three different weddings with a bunch of us doing our little dance to it - each including the bride with her skirt hiked up, well, pretty high!

And yes, Cutie_Hootie, every Monday was pin attire - ALL day, classes, meals, everywhere. The only ones who got out of that were the nursing students.

[ForeverRoses]

Originally Posted by 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.

We sang "The Rose"! And so did three other sororities on my campus...

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

OH - how could I forget.

In the vein of "oh, how could I forget": Madras.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by 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!

It wasn't the letters, it was "Tau" written out. I don't think anyone outside our house and maybe a boy or 2 saw it. Don't be offended, I love you guys. (I'm sure some of the ASTs did the same thing to ASA merch as well. We had a friendly rivalry.)

I agree w/ you on little sisters. I think it was better for some women than being in a sorority - less of a commitment.

[SWTXBelle]

I'm glad little sisters are gone - they existed for the benefit of the fraternities,not the little sisters. And yes, many girls were little sisters instead of sororities - less commitment, sure - but again, nothing for the members and what about after graduation?
I was a Sigma after graduation - that was the wives of Sigma Chi group that has since disbanded. In fact, I founded the last ever chapter.

[jon1856]

Humm:
Very early rush-the week before Freshmen Orientation!
Little/Big Sisters-Still have a great friendship with mine.
Wednesday night dinner out-Student Union had real bad meals on Wednesday and a local pizza place picked up on that. Had all you could eat pizza slices at a real great price.
Friday on the patio with Frampton comes alive playing on the our house speakers (taken from the old Parimount NorthWest-rather large) over the entire campus. And Gin or Rum Tonics and beer.
Ice blocking at the point.
The SAE Riot

[33girl]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I'm glad little sisters are gone - they existed for the benefit of the fraternities,not the little sisters. And yes, many girls were little sisters instead of sororities - less commitment, sure - but again, nothing for the members and what about after graduation?
I was a Sigma after graduation - that was the wives of Sigma Chi group that has since disbanded. In fact, I founded the last ever chapter.

Our Phi Sigma Kappa alumnae corporation includes the little sisters in all their correspondence and functions. They had one of the better programs. If you joined nothing but a "hang out with cute guys and drink" group, that's what you got. Then again, you could apply the above label to some sorority chapters as well.

Anyway, so this thread doesn't turn negative and so I don't have to defend little sisters for the 34768236482364843276th time...

I think every group had a pref song to "Pass It On."

[Katmandu]

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.

[srmom]

How about planning/skipping your classes around All My Children, One Life to Live & General Hospital! We all met in the tv room with our lunches (had to sneak them out of the dining room under the nose of the house mom) to watch. I usually would try hard to hang in there for the 1/2 hour Jeapordy episode - you know, intellectual stuff since I was skipping class

Luke & Laura's wedding was a must see.

[gee_ess]

KAtmandu says,
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.



Every word of this is still very much in practice at Monday night formal dinners on one campus I know of...

[SWTXBelle]

I'd love to have some of you reminisce here!