Greek Social Life - Then and Now

[33girl]

Originally Posted by vtgreekalum

One thing no one mentioned was the apparent disappearance of the Fraternity little sister programs. We had 20-25 girls who were mostly independents -usually the girlfriends or relatives of brothers and their friends. They helped decorate the house,
went to intramural events and rush events, got to wear letters, paid no dues; like "cheerleaders" for the Fraternity. There was nothing overtly sexual about the sitiuation, although the Sororities we held functions with usually requested they not come.

Some of our fraternities had little sisters, but they had a rushing and pledging program much like the sororities did - except, of course, they were voted on by the other little sisters AND the fraternity brothers. In one fraternity, almost all the little sisters were also sisters of the same sorority; in 2 other fraternities, the LSs weren't allowed to belong to a sorority at all. They paid dues, although not nearly as much as sorority dues. Sometimes they dated the brothers but sometimes not.

They were not allowed to attend mixers the fraternities had with sororities, as those were closed parties for the fraternity and sorority only and the sorority could have gotten a rush infraction for having nonmembers at a closed function. As far as open fraternity parties or fraternity formals, of course LSs attended those.

Lots of sorority women (then and now) get their panties in a bunch over little sisters, but I never had a problem with them. It's not like they lived in the fraternity house or something and the fraternity brothers weren't ordered to date them. For some women, it was a good option.

[EEKappa]

Originally Posted by 33girl

BG & I are around the same age I think, and (I know she'll correct me if I'm wrong) I think that what she means by "modesty" is "we didn't put pictures of it all over the freaking internet." I know I've stated this before on here, but - professional photogs at mixers??

We always had Party Pics photographers at mixers and formals, even at our high school dances in the early 80's. Maybe this is a southern thing? The proofs sheets would arrive several days after the event, you'd hunt for the photos of yourself that looked cute, sign your name by them, and then the cost of the photos would be taken out of your house account. Several weeks later, you'd have that lovely keepsake photo with the event name and date on the side.

I know that this is all done online now, but we didn't have computers back then.

[SWTXBelle]

The cry of "Party Pics!" was well-known on our campus 83 - 86. (This was in TX). You could go by the office and order, or the proof sheets would come to the house.

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by vtgreekalum

It certainly seems as if there is a significant gap between the perception of things "now" by some and the reality of it as reported by current or recent students.

As for my "thens":

Mixer themes: Barn Party, Jungle Party, Boxers and Blazers, Revenge of the Nerds (several variations on this one), Hawaiian.
Sex: People actually dated one on one, no "group dates" like seemed to become popular in the 90"s; few random hook-ups, but lots of people sleeping with their boyfriends/girlfriends - it wasn't the 50's after all.
Drugs: Beer, Grain alchohol, little wine - unless you were on a date. Not much pot and nothing harder - Tech was pretty conservative that way. Coke and LSD was
in high school, but that may just have been Fairfax County.
Risky Behavior: It may seem mild now, but we had a pledge who cut the bra off a passed out drunk girl without removing her shirt and then kept it as a trophy for awhile. Rarely a drunk guy would run naked throug the house.
One thing no one mentioned was the apparent disappearance of the Fraternity little sister programs. We had 20-25 girls who were mostly independents -usually the girlfriends or relatives of brothers and their friends. They helped decorate the house,
went to intramural events and rush events, got to wear letters, paid no dues; like "cheerleaders" for the Fraternity. There was nothing overtly sexual about the sitiuation, although the Sororities we held functions with usually requested they not come.

LOl, you pretty well hit the nail on the head!

Big things at my school, were pit partys. These were strip mines for coal in SE Kansas which proved very fun.
Large plastic trash cans with purple passion or hunch punch made on the scene.

Parties were held out side of the houses as there was no drinking inside them.

Places were rented and while not classy, they were fun places: the Parkview, Road House and others that rented to college Greeks and made money.

Run outs were a big thing where a Fraternity and a Sorority would get together after meetings on Tuesday nights and go out to mingle.

Kansas at that time was 18 year old drinking age which helped!


LXA at one time had The Cresent Girls who were like big sisters. They had their own shingle with their names on them and were very cool. They had to be voted on to get in and was very prestigious for them to have thier names on them. I have one that will go to the chapter as part of our history.

National decided some years back to discontinue them as there was at the time a push to intermingle male and females. They felt it may threaten the Male only status.

Some times I miss the good old days when things were much more simple.

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by 33girl

BG & I are around the same age I think, and (I know she'll correct me if I'm wrong) I think that what she means by "modesty" is "we didn't put pictures of it all over the freaking internet." I know I've stated this before on here, but - professional photogs at mixers?? At formals?? We would have NEVER allowed anyone like that into our private events. This doesn't even touch putting pics on the internet - this concept is just so beyond me I can't even wrap my brain around it. I understand that cameras are different and it's the easiest way to share photos, but I certainly don't want Harry Baals from Pigsknuckle Arkansas looking at pictures of me at a toga mixer, even if it's completely innocuous. My pictures and memories of my good times are for my friends and I, not the world. Honestly, download the pics onto your PRIVATE computer and send a PRIVATE email.

.

Exactly. I just got tired of people blowing things out of proportion so I stopped answering.

We did have professional photographers at date parties and some TGs. BUT, the chapter president typically edited the cut sheet before anyone else got to it. In other words, any pictures that "displayed poor character" were deleted. Personal photos were with 35mm cameras, which few people had (I did). Today, everyone has a digital camera, so everyone has a gazillion pictures.

We also did a lot to cover up the lasp of judgment that our sisters made (like running in the back door of a fraternity house the next morning with a change of clothes for someone who decided to spend the night with someone not her BF). Drunken pictures still reside in my personal scrapbook. Unless someone breaks into my house and can find it burried in the basement, the picts will not hit the web.

And, for the person who insulted my niece, she in no way hangs around shady characters. She is just not blind to what is around her. If you don't like what she tells me, don't read it.

[WaterChild]

Party Picks is big at my campus now.

[ForeverRoses]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

I know, it's spooky. Those contrasts came from a 19-year old. She is somewhat disgusted be what she saw in the dorms, but loves college anyway. I am aware of many similar responses from the smaller colleges near my home. The one that completely threw me was when she told me there was a "condom club". I didn't ask her to elaborate

I know this is from the first page, and this thread is on page 7 now, but I do have to comment on the "condom club". My alma mater- Ohio University does have a student run "condom club". They are dedicated to 1) teaching people the correct way to use one 2) providing them to students at cost. In order to get them at cost, a student sits through a presentation (it used to be called condomology) that talks about signs and symptoms of STDs. It is sponsored by student health services.

I don't see it has a huge negative, in fact they try and get the word out about being as safe as possible.

[Lucky SC]

Originally Posted by ForeverRoses

I know this is from the first page, and this thread is on page 7 now, but I do have to comment on the "condom club". My alma mater- Ohio University does have a student run "condom club". They are dedicated to 1) teaching people the correct way to use one 2) providing them to students at cost. In order to get them at cost, a student sits through a presentation (it used to be called condomology) that talks about signs and symptoms of STDs. It is sponsored by student health services.

I don't see it has a huge negative, in fact they try and get the word out about being as safe as possible.

everyone in U101 has to go to a presentation on that at South Carolina. we have the #1 awareness programs from the school and percentages have been going down because of it supposedly.

I don't see whats wrong with getting the people informed either, believe it or not i bet a decent amount of people go into college not knowing how to use a condom

[33girl]

Originally Posted by EEKappa

We always had Party Pics photographers at mixers and formals, even at our high school dances in the early 80's. Maybe this is a southern thing?

It must be, or else a big school thing. We had professional photogs on Pledge Pickup night (aka Bid Day) but that was it - and those events were generally pretty sedate compared to regular mixers (no scaring the newbies!!). When the proofs came back you ordered what you wanted. But at mixers and formals - NEVER. In addition to the privacy issue, we didn't have the money, and we didn't have such things as "house accounts."

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by EEKappa

We always had Party Pics photographers at mixers and formals, even at our high school dances in the early 80's. Maybe this is a southern thing? The proofs sheets would arrive several days after the event, you'd hunt for the photos of yourself that looked cute, sign your name by them, and then the cost of the photos would be taken out of your house account. Several weeks later, you'd have that lovely keepsake photo with the event name and date on the side.

I know that this is all done online now, but we didn't have computers back then.

We called them Joe Photo and had them in the Midwest in the late '90s. We still had proof sheets that were sent to the house and we would be charged if one of the (usually assumed embarrassing) photos was torn off the sheet, so that helped keep the lewd photos to a minimum.

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by 33girl

It must be, or else a small school thing. We had professional photogs on Pledge Pickup night (aka Bid Day) but that was it - and those events were generally pretty sedate compared to regular mixers (no scaring the newbies!!). When the proofs came back you ordered what you wanted. But at mixers and formals - NEVER. In addition to the privacy issue, we didn't have the money, and we didn't have such things as "house accounts."

My memory (which, granted, is not always perfect) is the opposite of this -- I actually don't remember any formal pics at Bid Day, but we did always get professional pictures at our formals/semi-formals. I have a whole bunch of those rectangular photos with the big white space on the bottom that had the date/place/name of the formal, etc. I think it was similar to what someone mentioned above, huge proof sheets came back and we had to take turns combing through them to find the ones we were in and order those and the versions of the group pictures we liked... I remember one that caught me mid-limbo (don't ask). I need to dig into some boxes and find my old albums...

[ForeverRoses]

We had photographers at bid day, homecoming (the parade) and at the major date parties each quarter. We didn't usually have them for mixers. From what I remember, the photographers were usually fellow students that worked for the photography company (usually photography majors- go figure). We did have one photographer that was obviously a fine art major- the pictures were all at odd angles and very "artsy". Not something that a bunch of sorority women necessarily apreciated in their formal pictures!

[honeychile]

We had a photographer who came in whenever at least two sororities or fraternities wanted them within two days. That meant Bid Day, Bif/Little Day, All Greek Mixers, Homecoming, Greek Week, Formals, and whenever two mixers happened within two days. That made it wise to ask a few other GLOs when they were planning "big" events. If I remember properly, we got an Index sheet & ordered from those; the Spirit Chair would be allowed to spend x amount on them. They cost roughly $1 each, 6/$5. I can't remember the name of the company, other than we dealt with a guy named Mark from Ohio.

After reading nittanyalum's post, they must have used the same company - or the same style.

[alum]

We also had professional photographers come in for official functions.

Back in our day, the Jacket Man would come once a month or so and show his clothing samples so we could place orders.

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by 33girl

It must be, or else a small school thing. We had professional photogs on Pledge Pickup night (aka Bid Day) but that was it - and those events were generally pretty sedate compared to regular mixers (no scaring the newbies!!). When the proofs came back you ordered what you wanted. But at mixers and formals - NEVER. In addition to the privacy issue, we didn't have the money, and we didn't have such things as "house accounts."

Nah. Our school had over 50,000 students, about 2500 Greek.

The photographer that came around the most was a pervert named Warren. He loved to put couples into really strange poses. Not indecent, just strange.