OK, were you in a fraternity/sorority?

[trof]

You knew this was coming, right?
It seemed like such a big deal back then.
And now it all seems kinda silly.
But I will say the parties were KILLER!
Delta Kappa Epsilon
Psi Chapter
University of Alabama
Class of '63.

And now some of you will never think of me the same way again.
Have to say I'm not the same guy I was then.
;-)

[NewHampshireDem]

1. Theta Chi 'til I Die!

And, no, it was nothing like 'Animal House.'

[trof]

4. Mine was damn close.

My daughter and I went to see Animal House when she was around 16 or 17.
I said "Shug, that's about the way it was."
I think at that moment I gained great stature in her eyes.
;-)

[Worst Username Ever]

2. Beta Theta Pi, University of Minnesota '99 (Beta Pi chapter)

And yes, it kicked ass.

On edit, my fiance was a Pi Beta Phi at the same school. Love them sororoity girls. :P

[loudestchick]

14. What's your favorite kinda pi? Beta Theta Pi!

I'm ashamed.:shrug:

[Worst Username Ever]

21. You should be.

OK, maybe I secretly liked that.

:7

The a-phis on our campus were great, btw.

[loudestchick]

30. Glad to hear it---I believe our Beta's burned down their house playing

pledge invaders the year after I left. They may have even roasted mallows on the smouldering ruins. Ah, college life!

[Worst Username Ever]

33. HA!

THAT IS AWESOME. Stupid, but awesome. Hope no one got hurt.

[loudestchick]

35. Not that I recall... n/t

[flamingyouth]

3. Zeta Tau Alpha, University of Washington, initiated 1987

:hi:

I really enjoyed the experience, on the whole. We had a nice group of women in our house.

[tigereye]

36. that's funny, FY, you and I would be the last people I would

expect to have been in a sorority. I always stump people with that one when someone asks me to tell them something about myself they would never believe.

I was a Delta Phi Epsilon, for a time. Wasn't really my scene.

[AwakeAtLast]

70. ZTA here, too!

University of Evansville, 1990.

Very small college, so if you wanted to do anything, you pledged. I only stayed in E-ville for a year and a half, though. No ZTA at the college I transferred to.

:hi:

[no name no slogan]

5. I'm a guy, and was in a co-ed sorority

We only went co-ed a year before I joined. It was also the year after our president came out as a lesbian at my small, conservative, mid-west church-affiliated liberal arts college.

Most of the people in my sorority were a bit eccentric, to say the least. Many were art or philosophy majors, musicians and most of us had been arrested for protesting against Reagan/Bush at least once.

Consequently, most of us went on to interesting careers. We had a glassblower, a woodworker, a bluegrass musician, and a brew pub owner.

It was a great sorority!

[trof]

7. I like your Twain quote. What's it from?

[MuseRider]

6. Alpha Phi

but only because my father would not let me go to college unless I was pledged to a sorority.

[Worst Username Ever]

9. Strange request by your father, but I loved the a-phis

Personally, I will be doing everything in my power to keep my daughter (if I have one) OUT of sororities. I know what goes on there!

[MuseRider]

52. Exactly!

[trof]

10. No kidding?

I can think of some dads who wouldn't let you go if you DID.
What was his reasoning.

[MuseRider]

53. This was 1971

I was a little hippie chick with a long haired boyfriend who he hated and I was going to be a music major and that meant to him that I was never going to learn to be a "lady". He was very archaic, very. Remember, this was a time when pledging was not a terribly popular thing, we still had to wear dresses to classes, gloves on Mondays etc. The funny thing was that we also had the biggest stash on campus hidden away in that house and although we were "little ladies" on the outside, we were not that way at all. We only looked like Stepfords, my fathers ideal type of woman.

[loudestchick]

18. Me too. Alpha Phi in '86.

:hi:

[MuseRider]

54. Sistah!

You didn't go to school around KC did you? I see you are there now, I am in Topeka.

[loudestchick]

71. Mizzou. Where were you?

[MuseRider]

72. In Topeka

Washburn U.

[texastoast]

8. No, cuz the Greeks didn't want no freaks

But I did get down and do the 'gator.

Sorry. I just had to do it.



:7

[pstans]

11. Sure am

Phi Kappa Psi (2000) at the University of Iowa and my wife is a Chi Omega. Nothing like Animal House, but a lot of fun and I made some great friends.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

12. No, but I've made out with a ton of frat boys.

And it was fun. I even cooked for them a lot. I was 19. Ahhh...memories!
Duckie

[matcom]

13. I was but i drank 5 Gallons of water

now i'm not anymore x(

[Worst Username Ever]

They teach you in frat school to stop at 4 gallons.

You shoulda listened better while I was whipping you with the wet towel.

[Nikia]

15. Kappa Kappa Gamma

That suprised most of the people who knew me in high school, including my family. It also suprises some people who know me now.

[Worst Username Ever]

16. Ooh, kappas.

They were the "hot" ones.

:7

[loudestchick]

20. Kappas at my university were "old money", as were the Thetas

they had a class where every new initiate was a legacy! Wacked!

[Nikia]

23. Did you go to a Southern college?

I hear that they are a lot more hardcore down there. I will suspend further comment as to not incriminate.

[loudestchick]

Mizzou--it's a weird mix of Kansas City/St Louis and a lot of mid-staters.

[AllyCat]

41. Kappa Alpha Theta--Beta Omega chapter

Colorado College. Seemed like belonging to a sorority was the most important thing in the world at the time. By the end of senior year, I wanted to deactivate, but never got around to doing it.

I'm definitely NOT old money :) Not new money either.

[trof]

24. "I yam a Kye-yappa Kye-appa Gye-yamma

That the way the suthun belles sang it at the U. of Alabama back in the day.
;-)

[Blue-Jay]

17. Kappa Kappa Psi, Iota Epsilon chapter - founding member.

[katinmn]

19. I was invited but declined. Too bourgeois for my taste.

Nothing against those that enjoy that sort of thing. Smacks of elitism, though.

[trof]

22. Well OF COURSE it was elitist.

Jeez, that was the whole point.
My bunch is better than your bunch.
Also works for political parties, religions, sports teams, you name it.
;-)

[katinmn]

25. LOL! I used to be even more of a socialist than I am now.

Today, being somewhat more moderate (but not much), I might have joined just to see what it was all about. The networking would have been a bonus later on.

[trof]

31. Gotta say the networking never did me a bit of good.

I am not now in contact with a single one of the guys.

[katinmn]

27. hey, trof, is that a truck-broke dog in your sig?

:)

[trof]

32. Nope. No dogs allowed in back.

[Tafiti]

26. Sigma Chi, Xi chapter, DePauw University, Class of '03.

It was a small, private school (around 2400 students) in a shithole Indiana town, so basically, the Greek life was pretty much the only viable social outlet. Something like 75% of the campus is Greek. If I would've gone to a larger school, I'm fairly positive I wouldn't have pledged a fraternity.

But, I made great friends through the Greek system (many of whom would probably agree with my assessment above), and had a lot of fun doing it.

[Worst Username Ever]

28. Machis

Were our next door neighber/rival. Hey, you had to be mad at someone, might as well be another member of the miami triad.

[Tafiti]

34. That's hilarious.

Betas were kind of our neighbors - we shared back parking lots, and were diagonal (make sense?). Beta was probably our "rival" as well, but I think all the frats came together in a shared contempt for the Phi Psis. Everyone called them the Phi Khaki Psis. They were the rich, pretty boys who thought they were the shit. Of course, every house has their share of those, but theirs was rife with it.

[Worst Username Ever]

37. Phi Khaki Psis. I love it. We had those,

but they weren't as much of a presence. SAE was the big preps on campus ("Sigma Alpha Hairsalon"). FIJI was the sweater-vest crowd. The machis actually had TWO houses, because Phi Delta Theta got kicked off and they took over the other house.

[Tafiti]

39. Hairsalon! That's fucking classic.

However, SAE's were the exact opposite at our campus. They were known as the "crazy motherfuckers." During Rush, they'd put on a skit called "Crazy Shit", where members would do all kinds of fucked up things like set themselves on fire and throw themselves onto tables and break them, and jump out windows and shit.

Their frat house also featured a room dedicated to breaking shit. People would bring all kinds of shit that weren't useful anymore, like TVs, chairs, and of course bottles, and throw 'em against the wall and smash 'em up. I was slightly intimidated during Rush, thinking, shit I'll never survive if I pledge here. I couldn't even imagine what their hell week was like.

On edit: I used the word "shit" way too many times in this post.

[yellowdogintexas]

48. Phi Delts were the Animal House on our campus too, and they got

kicked out too. They finally got a house, and within 3 years had totally trashed it, lost their national charter and were expelled from campus as an organization.

The Sigma Nus were the "Gentlemens club fraternity", the Sigma Alph Mu chapter was the new house who bid everybody to build their chapter, and the Sigma Phi Epsilons were the more trustworthy hard partiers. They had a cougar in the basement of their house and were famous for passion punch: washtub full of ice into which you dumped whatever bottle you brought for the evening. Sometimes Welches grape juice was the base.

These three are still alive, well and on campus. All houses were disbanded, frats moved back into dorms, and the two remaining sororities and three remaining frats are all in a co ed dorm, which knowing the dorm as I do probably has the women on one floor and the men on the other two floors.

the two sororities left are Kappa Delta (also known as Krappa Deltas or the Green Meanies) and Sigma Kappa, (also known as Shitma Krappas)

KD was the prissy preppy girl group, Sigma K was mostly PE majors and when we were there, AOPI was the most fun. Definitely the friendliest, least "elitist" acting and not stuck up at all.

[ikojo]

63. Self delete...

I was thinking of A E PI....

[yellowdogintexas]

74. right, ...but funny you should say that AOII was founded by

four women at Barnard who were really close friends and when they did not all four get bid to the same sorority they started AOPi.

they had decided to stick together no matter what so they did.

[salin]

50. I was a Sigma Chi little sis - at that U

literally and figuratively....

real live little sister of a sig x at Wabash - and a fraternity little sis (Sig X) at depauw.

More than a few years earlier than you, though.

I agree with your assessment above (tiny cornfield town and U with nothing to do - greeks were probably 80% of students back in my time.)

[Tafiti]

57. No shit?!

Wow, that's actually the second time I came across a DePauw grad here at DU. That's crazy to me, considering how small it is.

Was it so many years ago that you'd rather not say? Just curious.

[salin]

60. Let's just say

that there have been more than a few graduating classes between you and I.

I am not surprised there are other dpu folks here because of size, but instead am surprised by the... er... general dpu population's proclivity for more conservative thought (at least it was that way when I was there...)

[Bunny]

29. GDI all the way!

It was very fashionable in my circle (during the mid-late 70's) to be scornful of the whole Greek system. So naturally, I scorned. In retrospect, the Greeks were harmless, and if you've made lifelong friends - more power to you!

[trof]

38. Yea Bunny.

Goddam Independent.
:thumbsup:

[greatauntoftriplets]

49. We were in the same sorority!!!!

I graduated from Northwestern in 1971. It was popular among some of us in the late 1960s - early 1970s as well.

:hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

40. Yep. I was - and still am - a Lambda Chi Alpha

Still support the fraternity, too. It was a damn good chapter I was in, and nationally, it's a damn good fraternity. One of the best ones out there. I was very much attracted to it because of its national "no hazing" policy and that it let Associate Members (there are no "pledges") hold office and vote as well.

If not for the fraternity, I probably wouldn't have made it through college, and wouldn't have made some of the life-long dear friends that I have now.

[koneko]

42. Chi Omega

Marietta College
Class of '92

[Ramsey]

43. We didn't have a Greek system

We had Eating Clubs! Same idea, just less selective, at least most were.

[FuzzySlippers]

44. Does Phi Beta Kappa count?

:shrug:

[Blue-Jay]

46. Depends. Did you ever go to a Phi Beta Kappa kegger?

[FuzzySlippers]

47. No. But we have a special handshake. n/t

[yellowdogintexas]

45. Alpha Omicron Pi

back in the late '60's

[salin]

51. Delta Gamma

who knew? Most of my friends find it mildly amusing.

[Worst Username Ever]

55. Love the DGs. One of my best friends married one. n/t

[Exultant Democracy]

56. Pi Kappa Alpha

Now here is the sad thing, of everything I learned in college, what I learned in the house has ended up helping me more in my career then anything I learned in a class.

[democracyindanger]

58. Sigma Phi Epsilon

A SPEnis, to those so inclined to call me that.

[Wapsie B]

59. Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia

Beta Nu Chapter. Music fraternity. We put on a variety show every fall and a Jazz competition every spring. And a keggar every weekend. ;-)

[Misunderestimator]

61. There were none at the conservatory I attended.... so no.

[ikojo]

62. You were a Deke? Isn't that the same fraternity as the

chimp in chief?

No, I was not in a fraternity nor in a sorority...I saw them as friendship buying organizations and not for people from the working class. In hindsight, I can see why wealthy people encourage their kids to join them because it all but guarantees they will interact only with people of their same socio-economic class as well as network with people who may help them later in life.

As for why wealthy people encouraged their daughters to join sororities, in the past I think it was done to assure she would marry someone from her same social class. In the past girls were sent to school, not to get a BS or any type of degree but to get that MRS.

[trof]

64. Guilty. And GWHB too.

It ain't something I put on my resume'.
DKE was founded at Yale in 18something.

[Feathered Fish]

65. Good god, No

I had a few girlfriends that were in a Sorority. The humiliation is completely intolerable. Hazing rituals included having all you physical flaws pointed out to a fraternity, having to get rid of your friends outside the sorority, because they just didn't treat you the same if you kept them and generally being made to feel small and ugly. Post secondary education is a beautiful thing, not a chance to get drunk and pass out on the floor under the influence of roofies.

[grace0418]

66. I never understood why I should pay to have friends

At a university with 40,000 students, I found plenty of friends for free. And I didn't have to wear stupid-looking patches on my ass to do it.

Sorry to those who were, but at U of I especially they seemed awfully silly.

[trof]

68. "Pay for friends" - Interesting interpretation.

I never realized that's why I pay annual dues to belong to my local Democratic Party.
I'm buying friends.
Who knew?
:eyes:

[grace0418]

73. So you're equating the greek system with the

Democratic Party? Because I don't pay my dues there to make friends, I pay them because I believe in the work they're doing.

[brainshrub]

67. Alpha Kappa Psi

Co-ed business fraternity.

I was invited to join an all-male traditional fraternity, but I have ethical dilemmas against joining a group that excludes anyone else.

[RetroLounge]

69. University of Illinos, Chicago Circle Campus

1979. Alpha Pi Epsilon. APE's. We did that on purpose. It was just a bunch of us who knew each other from High School and thru others. The frats got a nice reserved place to sit in the cafeteria, booths and tables, their own bulletin board, etc. So we found a frat that did not exist on campus, started a chapter, and then spent the next 2 years making a mockery of the greek frat thing.

We had legendary everclear parties. Sex booze and drugs. Got booted eventually from the cafeteria for drinking and fighting. One member was a notorious dealer of speed. One member was a radio DJ on campus, and played whatever we wanted him to (Ramones!) Got tossed from the greek olympics for winning just about everything, plus adding white-castle-eating contests as a sport.

All in all, a big joke, as was my college career. Finally graduated 10 years after I started...

RL