I pledged Zeta Tau Alpha in September, 1973; just a week into my freshman year at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. I never really planned on joining a sorority. Had never even given it any thought. However, MU was a highly "Greek" campus and my two earliest friends there (Robyn Wise & Sue Varde) were going through rush, so I figured, why not?
Now, for anyone who doesn't know about "rush," let me explain. It's a week filled with "parties" where you travel in a herd from sorority house to sorority house, meet as many people as you can at each house, try to make a good impression on them and then wait until the next day to see which houses have invited you to come back for another round of parties. On the MU campus, there were four houses so the first night you were required to visit all four. The second night, even if you were invited to all four, you could only attend three, the third night you could only attend two and after that night you "preferenced" which house you would like to join while they decided who they wanted to invite to join. It was a bit traumatic, not knowing who or if you would be invited to join. As luck would have it, twelve other young women and I became the "Formal" Rush Pledge Class of 1973.
 |
| ZTA: Tau Chapter Pledge Class 1973 I'm in the back row, far left; my good friend Robyn is front row, 2nd from the right. |
Our pledge class grew through the semester ("Sug" Lyons and Becky Chamberlain were my two favorite additional pledge sisters) and by the time it was over, we were twenty-six strong! We lost a few along the way (of the original thirteen, only Trudy Hall, Linda Flentje and Tawnie Moma were still with Robyn & I for graduation), but special bonds were created with those who made it to initiation! (Incidentally, hazing was not allowed, even though we did all receive our traditional sorority paddles. Mine still hangs on my bedroom wall. It came in very handy when I had unruly children who needed a reminder that it was so convenient.) Shortly after pledging, we each received a big sister, to help us learn the ins and outs of Zeta life. My big sister's name was Donna Blaine. Fun story about "Blaine." She visited my dorm room once and noticed that I had a frog poster and a frog stuffed toy and thought that I collected frogs. So, whenever she gave me a present, she gave me a turtle! She forgot it was frogs. Blaine had two other little sisters, Donna Libby and Joanna Remack. We were triplets! Libby and I were pretty close and actually shared an apartment after I graduated from MU until I got married.
We couldn't move into "the house" until our sophomore year, so we continued to live in our dorms, making it difficult to really grow close to our new "sisters" until we did get to move in. We weren't allowed to room with the same person two semesters in a row, but Robyn and I did manage to room together one semester each year. It was always the best if you got to live in "the old part" of the house. It only had three bedrooms and then there were ten bedrooms in the "new part" of the house. The attractive part about the old part of the house was that the rooms were huge AND had their own bathrooms! The rooms were named "Zeta," "Tau" and "Alpha," but the Zeta room was the absolute best! It even had a dressing room with a huge closet between the bedroom and the bathroom. It also had a huge window that opened out onto the roof, so on really nice spring days we could crawl out the window and sit on the roof and watch the Delta Sigs across the street. (They were the jocks on campus! But, they were also jerks whose favorite pastime was calling our house and telling unsuspecting freshman to look out the dining room window which faced their house. When they could see girls looking out, the moon suddenly shone very bright---if you catch my drift!) If you ever watch the movie "Animal House," you'll get a very good idea of the relationship between the Delta Sigs and the Zetas!
Anyway... I digress. I was fortunate enough to live in the Zeta room two semesters and the Alpha room one semester of the six I lived in the house. Rooms were granted by pin rank; rather like seniority, it worked in the order you were initiated and received your fraternity pin. Speaking of "pins," my pin is surrounded by pearls, with a ruby in each point, except for the top center of the pin. I had the highest GPA in our pledge class during that first semester, so I was awarded a diamond in my pin. AWESOME! I know, right? The pin has attached to it a guard with the letter of your chapter. The guard helps prevent the loss of your pin if it should come unpinned.
 |
| The ZTA Badge; My "guard" (at the end of the chain) was a T for Tau chapter |
In addition to the guard, you could buy charms to hang from the chain. I purchased two charms, one to symbolize the semester I was the assistant pledge trainer, the other to symbolize the two years I was Membership Chairman (planning all those marvelous rush parties!). Two of my three little sisters (Laura Phillips & Tammie Albritton) each gave me a little sister charm as well. They pledged my Junior year (one each semester). Sharon Swan, my third little sister pledged my Senior year.
Life in a sorority was fabulous! Well, sure... it wasn't ALWAYS great living with thirty other girls, but it would have been the same in a dorm. We had meetings, dances, service projects, talent shows, homecoming floats, firesides, sing-alongs, a housemother and HOUSEBOYS! We had a cook (Virgie), who was awesome and a reason why most of us needed to go on a diet every summer! Our housemother (first Mom Sherer, who was a Zeta Alum, and then Mom Hand). We had to take turns being assigned to sit at the head table with Mom Sherer. She was VERY old school and expected the ultimate in young lady manners at the dinner table. There were many times when a group of us were assigned to the "head table" that we would visit the local bar and "get up" for dinner. (Sad, but true.) But then, the houseboys! These were usually frat boys who got campus jobs serving dinner to the sorority girls. Most of the girls thought it was great and flirted with them to no end. Some of us felt quite awkward being served by them, especially after one failed date to a pledge dance with one of them. Not naming any names or anything...
A piece of trivia-- I still know the Greek alphabet-- thanks to this fun little song, sung in a round: "Zay-tuh Tau Alpha, let me hear you say, Zay-tuh Tau Alpha, let me hear you say... Alpha Beta Gamma Delta Epsilon Zeta Eta Theta Iota Kappa Lambda Mu Nu Xi Omicron Pi Rho Sigma Tau Upsilon Phi Chi Psi Omega...Let me hear you say..." Yep... I just wrote all that from memory! Of course you don't know the tune, unless you're one of my fabulous Zeta sisters reading this right now!
There is a National Zeta Convention every other year and the President & Membership Chairman are sent to represent the chapter. The year I got to go, Robyn actually paid her own way and came with us to convention in New Orleans. Quite an interesting city, but a bit scary, quite stinky and VERY hot! They warned us not to leave the hotel after dark! But, seriously, who sends a bunch of twenty-year-olds to the French Quarter & Bourbon Street with no chaperons and expects them to NOT go out at night? Really? Yeah. We went. But it WAS scary and I felt guilty every minute I sipped that fruity drink in the hurricane glass!
Men weren't allowed above the first floor of the house except on days we were moving in or moving out and we had to observe house rules for times that they had to be out of the house completely. Randy and our friend Curt became pretty regular features around the Zeta House and got to know all of the girls pretty well, but I'm afraid there were some times that our Pinochle games in the basement ran a little long and we didn't always get them out on time. But I'm sure no one EVER knew! (Especially not since we let them out the basement door that was right under Mom Sherer/Hand's bedroom window!)
My senior year, my sisters were kind enough to vote me "Zeta of the Year" and Randy was a shoe-in to be the "Zeta Hero," (an honor he worked hard for for two years), except he broke our engagement and left town. I fought to still get him the award (to be presented at our spring formal), but my wonderful, loyal sisters wouldn't even think of it.
I owe a lot of credit for the person I grew up to become to my membership in Zeta Tau Alpha, my wonderful sorority sisters and the great alumnae who worked diligently to support us, teach us what Zeta Love really is and, in spite of ourselves, learn how to become young women who could hold their own as professionals in those challenging days of women's liberation. They were there for me when my father died. They were there for me when my heart was broken. They trusted me in leadership positions and gave me the courage to come out of my shell and find my true self. In memory of those great times and great friendships and in appreciation for the nine founders at Longwood College in Farmville, Virginia (Oct 15, 1898), I proudly celebrated International Badge Day and, yes, I wore not only my badge, but my crest ring, earrings and crown necklace to work yesterday. Call me a geek, but it was fun and made me remember what it means to be a Zeta!
No comments:
Post a Comment