Another Old Lady Retro Recruitment Thread

[PiPhiERDoc]

I've been inspired by all of the retro recruitment threads, so had to add my own. I rushed in the early 90's in the Pacific Northwest...scary to think that some freshman going through rush this year were BORN in 1990. How did I get to be so old???

Anyway, at the time we had 6 sororities
Pi Beta Phi (obviously)
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Alpha Phi
Kappa Kappa Gamma (closed in 2003, I think)
Delta Delta Delta (closed 1996)

I just spent the weekend with my 2 year old niece, so I'm coding by Sesame Street names...
Elmo
Cookie Monster
Ernie
Bert
Oscar
Big Bird

We rush 2nd semester, but I had 2 really good friends prior to starting who were greek. "Charlotte" was an Elmo, and "Carrie" was a Ernie. Charlotte's freshman roommate and my RA were both Berts. I had visited Charlotte and knew a lot of her Elmo sisters, and really liked them.
We had pretty strict no-contact rules prior to rush (oops, recruitment - it was still rush then, in my defense!), but here were my admittedly pretty superficial ignorant impressions going into rush:

Elmo - Charlotte's house. Thought I would probably be an Elmo. Liked their chapter house when I visited as a high school student. Seemed to be nice gals, good reputation on campus, lots of cheerleaders were Elmo. Not sure why I noticed this as I am not a cheerleader. Wasn't planning to be. But I thought that they were a very "strong" house and I was have been thrilled to be an Elmo. And thought I wanted to be in Charlotte's house. My only concern about the Elmo's were that a lot pretty into one of the campus religious groups, and I'm pretty liberal.

Cookie Monster - By far seen as the "weakest" house on campus. I think this was strictly based on their status as the smallest group. Looking back as an advisor, they were one of the strongest houses until a few years prior to my rush when they got one small pledge class. This is always given me pause because it reminds me that this could happen to any house, including mine. Knew 1 gal from my calculus class who was a Cookie Monster and was really friendly, outgoing, but overall, a few of the other Cookie Monsters that I had met were somewhat socially awkward.

Bert - Charlotte's freshman roommate was a Bert, and I really liked her, although she was kind of quiet and a little more conservative than I am. My RA was also a Bert...and I really did not like my RA. She was not very friendly or outgoing, and she could not stand my group of friends from our floor. Pretty much all of my floormates didn't like her either.

Ernie - If I wasn't an Elmo, I thought I might be an Ernie. My friend Carrie was great, a soccer player, and lots of athletes were Ernies. My only concern was that they were pretty "granola", and I was (and still am) a makeup loving, daily blow-drying, heel-wearing certified girly-girl. Less so as a freshman (hey, it was the 90's - everyone had flannel and birkenstocks), but I still wasn't sure if I'd fit in. Again, thought this was a "top house" and I would have been glad to be an Ernie.

Oscar - I didn't know much about Oscar. Rumored amongst the freshman to be mediocre house, some athletes, otherwise knew nothing about them.

Big Bird - Also a "top house" along with Ernie and Elmo. Had seen them on campus and had one in a class who was a really cool girl, and I liked their pink rush sweatshirts . They were pretty intimidating as a group, very pretty girls and outgoing. Charlotte and her friends were not fans of the Big Birds. In fact, Charlotte had been very, very good about not dirty-rushing at all, and just being every enouraging about going through rush in general, until we were at New Year's Eve Party, when I opened my big mouth and told her how much I wanted to be an Elmo. She said that she would love me know matter what I did, as long as I didn't become a Big Bird. I said "OMG, I would NEVER be a Big Bird!" (you can already see how this will come around to bite me in the rear end...)

One of my 2 freshman roommates, Samantha, was also rushing, as were most of our good friends on our floor.

We came back in January, ready to start. Recruitment at that time went like this
Day 1 - 6 party/house tours
Day 2 - 1st invites - Max 5 houses
Day 3 - 2nd invites - max 3 houses
Day 4 - Pref (2 houses)

This was also in the days before the ranking systems, so you got invitations (yes, they were actual hand-written, paper invitations) and would choose from them if you got more invitations than max number of houeses you could visit that day.

More to follow if anyone is actually still interested...

[FSUZeta]

i am.

[NutBrnHair]

me too!

[SmartBlondeGPhB]

Hey, long time no see......

[PiPhiERDoc]

Originally Posted by SmartBlondeGPhB

Hey, long time no see......

Yeah, I've been incognito for while
I thought you in particular might get a kick out of this thread...

[SmartBlondeGPhB]

Originally Posted by PiPhiERDoc

Yeah, I've been incognito for while
I thought you in particular might get a kick out of this thread...

It is amazing how the descriptions still apply.....there's a retro thread from a woman who went through recently and the descriptions are almost identical.

[Army Wife'79]

I seriously LOVE the names you have chosen.

[AOII Angel]

Where did you go to med school?

[PiPhiERDoc]

I went to Univ WA for med school

Slow day at work, so I'll march on to the first day of rush...

So there we are off to 6 party open house day, officially "Go-Greek Day". No bursting on this day, houses wore the same logo tee-shirts but in different colors. Really short parties. No one in my family has ever been Greek, so other than hearing from Charlotte and Carrie, and my HS friends who pledged at other schools in the fall, I had no idea what I was in for. And I was a more nervous that I expected to be walking into the houses for the first time...

Bert - 1st house of the day. I was so nervous that I nearly threw up the mint-chocolate chip milkshake served to me by the nice Bert girl right into her lap. She was a senior, very nice and I'm sure very aware of how nervous I was. I hardly remember anything else about that party except that I thought their house was pretty.

Oscar - I really liked the girls who rushed me. They seemed very down to earth, smart, good sense of humor. Overall, a great impression, and I was surprised by how much I liked them. Samantha (freshman roommate) was a legacy here.

Cookie Monster - Difficult to make conversation here. Only talked to one girl the whole time. I was pretty sure I would be declining an invitation back here.

Elmo - Charlotte's house. I had a good time here, Charlotte and several of her friends came by to say hi. Overall, outgoing, fun gals.

Ernie - I talked to an Ernie who had been in my English class, a really cool Junior girl (I was taking an advanced lit class an an elective - and I was the only freshman). She remembered me from class, and I had a great chat with her - until she asked me what grade I got and it turned out I had done better than she had! I thought I blew it! Otherwise, again, very friendly, chill girls - I liked it alot.

Big Bird - Again, I was very nervous going to Big Bird. The first girl I talked with was stunningly beautiful, smart, and so incredibly nice. Not what I expected at all. I also talked with another chapter member who was pre-med, which I thought was incredibly cool. I left Big Bird feeling so excited about it - and very nervous that I was so excited about it given my previous statements to my Elmo friend.

Roommate also really liked Big Bird and Ernie. She was not so crazy about Oscar, which was her legacy house. Other floor friends were excited about Big Bird, Ernie, and Elmo. No one on floor liked our RA, so a lot of them were ruling out Bert, which was a shame because as it turns out, she was really uninvolved in the house.

So after day 1 I felt like this:
Big Bird
Elmo/Ernie
Oscar
Bert
Cookie Monster

[Benzgirl]

Go Elmo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AOII Angel]

I'm at work too....sooo bored! You thread is helping!!!

[LoggerTheta]

Originally Posted by PiPhiERDoc

Kappa Kappa Gamma (closed in 2003, I think)

If you're a Logger, which I think you are, Kappa closed in Fall of 04. In case you were cuirous dor a definite answer.

[thetaprincess]

Yea for a NW retro thread.
I love these!

[Leslie Anne]

Another Retro! I'm one of those who never tires of these.

Go Big Bird!

[PiPhiERDoc]

So I got my invitations for Day 2 - invited back to all six (I thought I was pretty cool for about 15 minutes - until I talked to everyone else and found out only grade cuts were made after the first day. Oh.)
So I regretted the invitation to Cookie Monster, and geared up for skit day.
This was back in the day of "full frills" rush, meaning - BURSTING! Now for those of you who have never seen this, and I, being fairly greek ignorant, it is a pretty impressive site when all of a sudden 100+ women coming flying out the door singing in perfect tune but VERY LOUND - it is a site to behold. In my later years I found out that it was a bit of a nightmare as far as practice went to make it look this perfect, but it was pretty amazing.
So off I go...

Oscar - Really cute decorations, theme of "Camp Oscar", girls had on khaki shorts and vests, room decorated like a forest and a campfire in the front. They did a great skit, complete with campfire song and guitar playing. I am of the musically challenged variety, can't hold a tune to save my life, so I was impressed. I also talked with this very cool volleyball player and the chapter president, both of whom were so funny, smart, and down to earth. Oscar was definitely a dark horse in the running, and I really enjoyed this party.

Bert - Theme was sort of a bedtime/dream theme, had bunk beds (real bunk beds - I wondered how in the heck they got them in the room), girls were wearing nightgowns, except for 6 or so girls dressed like sheep. They were part of the skit, so it made sense later, but I was a little puzzled why farm animals were running around the room at first. I was not so excited at Bert today, the skit and decorations were a little cheesey for my tastes (again, which just reinforces why frills are sometimes NOT a good idea - picking sisters for life based on whether their paper decorations were to your tastes???) Another sour point was when the nasty R.A. from my floor came to say hi.

Ernie - Ernie had the coolest door song, this really rhythmic chanting/clapping thing that just got into your head and stuck there. Brilliant on their part - I found myself humming it for WEEKS after rush. They had a Genie/desert theme, cute skit about how all different types of girls wre Ernies, not just jocks/hippies (again, very smart to address their stereotype head on). I talked with an amazing pre-dental junior who I basically thought was my idol - such a cool girl. Overall, again, laid-back, friendly, great enviornment

Elmo - New Year's Eve was their theme - they had great outfits on, tuxedo tops with black skirts and different jewel-toned cumberbunds - so cute. Their poor rush chair though fell while trying to get them hyped up before we got there, and shredded her nylons and knees - ouch! She had to make a little speech to welcome us and at least could laugh at herself, but I felt so bad for her. Anyway, they had a very funny skit as well that was a spoof of "Wayne's World", and I chatted with Charlotte and her best friend for awhile which was great...but the rest of the girls that I talked to, while they were really sweet, just, well, I just didn't feel like I clicked. Nothing particularly wrong, just not that little spark that I had felt at Oscar and Ernie.

Last but not least...Big Bird - The theme was "Big Bird Republic" - for the fellow old ladies like myself, remember the old Banana Republic tee-shirts, with the black and white jungle drawing and the lettering above in red? They had white tees on just like that except Big Bird instead of Banana in the slogan. So cute. The room was amazaing - completely covered in jungle vines. The skit was this darling song, that was to the tune of Steve Miller Band Jungle Love, then The lion sleeps tonight. At one point in the song it said some line about "Come join our sisterhood..." and I just about jumped up and rushed the stage, yelling "Yes, I will!!!! Sign me up right now!!!". I also met several amazing girls, and each one just seemed more outgoing, smart, fun and friendly. Needless to say, I liked this house just a little bit

So I leave rush and go back to the dorms to wait for our invitations for the next day. Back at the dorms is occuring something that is worse than tent talk. It is dorm talk. Which means it goes on all night, and also includes opinions from people who ought to have ZERO input into these decisions, IE the BOYS who live in the dorm. Ugh. When they asked me which houses I liked, I told them Big Bird, Ernie, Elmo, and, Oscar. In all honesty, I probably had a better time at Oscar than I did at Elmo, but as soon as I said Oscar, the guys started saying how they were a crummy house, blah blah blah
Again, these are FRESHMAN guys. They know less about these chapters that we did. But it kind of got to me. I was also starting to get a little concerned that I wasn't feeling the love for Elmo like I thought I would. And even worse, I was starting to have the world's biggest rush crush on the Big Birds. And I wasn't sure I could even "get in" (again, so embarassing, but that was exactly the way that I thought at the time) to Big Bird, since I didn't have friends there, and I wasn't sure I was pretty enough to be a Big Bird. Roomate Samantha loved Ernie and Big Bird, and was not crazy about Oscar but was worried about hurting her mom who was an Oscar. Pretty much all of the other girls on my floor were liking some combo of Ernie, Big Bird, and Elmo.

I went to sleep with chants in my head, waiting until it was 7am and I could go pick up my invitations...