RETRO Ole Miss Rush Story...

[OldOleMiss]

Okay I have half been goading into this (you know who I am looking at ☺) As the title states this is a RETRO story so a lot of the practices have changed. I pulled out my old journal I kept freshman year in college to aid my memory ☺ This is also rather long- I typed it out first and tried to keep it short- but it was impossible- therefore I will post it over the next two or three days. (sorry!)—so here it goes….

I was a freshman at Ole Miss in 1990. My father had been in a GLO at a large Southern School, however my mother had gone to an all girls college so I knew very little about rush, let alone competitive SEC rush going into it. Thank goodness or I may not have gone through!!☺ At the time Ole Miss had 11 NPC sororities:

ADPi
AOPi
Chi-O
DG
Tri Delt
KD
KKG
Theta
Phi Mu
Pi Phi
ZTA

For my story I will use large department stores (hey I like to shop ☺) so in no particular order we had

Barneys
Bergdorf Goodman
Bloomingdales
Neiman Marcus
Saks Fifth Avenue
JC Penny’s
Macy’s
Marshalls
Nordstroms
Sears
TJ Maxx

The first day of rush (it was rush back at this time, not recruitment) we all gathered and met our RC’s. We were divided into groups by last name and each group had 2 RC’s. I was really happy because a girl I had met and really liked at orientation during the summer was in my group! Yay I knew someone!!! KYrushee was equally as happy to see me as I was to see her!!! She confided in me she was nervous. I was way too dumb to be nervous. I had recs for all of the houses except Macy’s and Nordstroms, which I had never really heard of and didn’t know any alum. I had two cousins who had been GLO- one had been a Marshalls and one a TJ Maxx, but not at this school so I didn’t figure that would help me too much.

My first house of the day was Macy’s. I was in no way at all prepared for them all to run out of the house singing and clapping at the top of their lungs. WTF!? I have to admit it scared me a little. After their performance the actives started calling out names and grabbing rushees from the group. This scared me even worse than singing!!! My heart nearly stopped when I heard my name called and this GORGEOUS—I mean the most beautiful person in the world that I have ever seen gorgeous- came jumping up to me grabbing me and talking 90 miles a minute. Her name was uber-peppy sorority girl and she was VERY EXCITED to meet me! I was honestly too stunned to speak. I don’t know what I had thought rush was going to be like, but honestly it wasn’t this! Uber-peppy yanked me into the house and held my hand THE ENTIRE PARTY. (nearly 24 years later this still skeeves me out a bit)- She explained that this party was where she took me around to meet as many of the sisters as she could in the allotted time period. Uber peppy was VERY GOOD at this. We set off like a tornado as she flung me in front of girl after girl. It was all very chaotic as the other sisters were trying to get face time for their rushees as well. In the course of the party she let it slip that she had been in Miss America the year before and she was so happy to be done with all of that. YIKES! Seriously she was gorgeous . I felt so overwhelmed and so seriously out of place (I’m cute, but I was seriously out of my league). I don’t think I said 5 words the entire party I was THAT shell-shocked!!! I also don’t think I breathed the entire time because I remember taking the biggest gulp of air ever when I was finally released and let back go into the wild. She had been super sweet but OMG I felt out of place.

Next up was Nordstroms. When I had come for my campus visit senior year, I stayed with a girl who was in Nordstroms. I was relieved when she was the one who came out and grabbed me. Again, like Macy’s we were taken around and introduced to as many girls as possible, It was chaotic but at least I felt more prepared.

After Nordstroms I began to relax. I was no longer shocked by the door songs and was in the groove of saying my name over and over again. All of the houses went by in a blur with the notable exception of Bergdorf where the girl rushing me didn’t take me around to nearly the number of people that the other houses had and asked me if the ruby ring I was wearing was real…. ICK!!!
After the last house our RC’s told us that unless we were contacted between midnight and 6am then we were to show up at official rush hall to pick up our invites and if applicable decide on which ones to accept. We could go back to a max of 9 houses for the next round. I should add here that my roommate did not participate in Rush and had not moved in yet…

In the middle of the night I was awoken (not that I slept that great) by a knock on the door. Seriously!!!??? My heart dropped. I wondered if it would all go away if I just didn’t answer the door. I had been cut by everyone???!!! What was wrong with me??? I almost started crying before I answered the door but I didn’t. I answered to door and there stood a RC I had not seen before. She looked oddly at me and asked if I was Suzie Rushee. I WAS NOT!!! I WAS NOT!!! I WAS NOT!!!! Suzie Rushee lived next door!!!!!! I had NOT been cut. But wait crap.. not only had Suzie been cut from everything round one, which is bad enough, I was awake to witness her humiliation. That made me feel really bad… and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Suzie. I liked her, she was super cute and seemed to be so much fun. I think I may have been as devastated as she was going to be. I went back into my room and heard her crying, and heard her roommate trying to comfort her. The next morning getting ready in the shower room things were not as happy and upbeat as the morning before. Apparently 7 girls on our hall had been released. Wow I was not prepared for that, I kept my midnight visit to myself as I got ready to go to official rush hall.

more to come later.... [/SIZE]

[Lovethesand]

I'm rooting for Nordstrom (my fav), Bloomies, or Saks. We really have to wait 2 to 3 days for the entire story? Bummer.

Love what you said about Macy's. I think that is exactly how my Debbie felt at her first house but couldn't articulate. Like she said, "I didn't know what to expect but it wasn't THAT."

Poor Suzie. Can't even imagine being cut from everything after round 1. Brutal.

[KDCat]

More!

This is hilarious!

[MaryPoppins]

Ooh i can't wait! I LOVE all stores, these on this list the very most of all. Come on OldOleMiss, lets go to Nielson's progressive sale?

[PersistentDST]

Yup...
I'll be consumed with this story! I'm kinda rooting for Marshalls because I really do some great shopping in there!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Whoa, 7 women on your floor released in the first round of invites? Whoa.

[OldOleMiss]

wow! Do you know how long it has been since I have thought about Nielson's progressive sale... and YES DeltaBetaBaby- I was whoa like you- seriously had no clue how brutal rush could be until that first night... anyway back to the story...

- so After the night from HELL where I had ridden the emotions of been scared to death I had been cut by everyone to elated I was still there to sadness for my next door neighbor being relased--I made my way to official rush hall—(which after an afternoon of racking my brain I finally remembered was Fulton Chapel- funny I didn’t record the name in my journal… ) and was greeted by my RC who handed me a card. I was told that inside were the houses that had asked me back and I was to select up to 9 to go back to. My heart beating wildly I opened my card expecting the worst and saw I had been invited back to ALL of the houses!!! Are you kidding me? I was so stunned I couldn’t believe it… I had even been asked back to the 2 I did not have recs for and all of the tent talk the night before was that with no rec you would be released right away…. WOW so I had to decide who I didn’t want to go back to. I didn’t know enough about any of them to feel one way or the other so I cut Bergdorf.. who had asked if my ring was real (honestly I still can’t believe someone was tacky enough to ask me that!) the other one I “let go” was Macy’s. I did not have a rec for them and uber-peppy and beautiful sorority girl really intimidated me, she was too pretty, too sweet, too too…. So with that, I turned my card in and went back to prepare for the parties that night. (I have since wondered how many girls rank their first house they visit as a last choice because they were / are so overwhelmed…)

This round you got to spend a little longer at them and THEY SERVED YOU COKE!!!! (uhm quick clarification here- Coca-Cola--.:-) and back in those days I was a “coke fiend” so I was super excited!) I didn’t note it, and memory is fuzzy but I think “coke round” as it was called back then was split into 2 days… anyway-- I won’t go into a lot of details here but will share some notables- At the conclusion of Coke I was IN LOVE with Neiman Marcus. And I did not care for JC Penny’s- the girl who picked me up here was EXTREMELY NICE… let me say this again EXTREMELY NICE, but she was also not very attractive (shallow I know but at 18 this mattered to me) and she smelled slightly of BO. Okay it WAS 100+ degrees outside, we probably all smell like BO but I still remember this. Also my “funniest” rush convo (actually people meeting in general) happened to me at Barneys where one of the girls rushing me squealed with delight and said “oh you’re one of the yankees coming through!!!” !!???? Uhm seriously??? I’m from South Carolina!!?? I decided just to laugh to myself instead of giving her a geography lesson! Finally Coke was over and I was faced with another sleepless night. (and I am going to have to leave you with a sleepless night as I need to get off GC and leave work :-) and go home for the day!) Thanks for being patient!

[Katmandu]

I LOVE THIS!!!

[KDCat]

Poor Macy's! They must have really wanted you. They sent Miss America to rush you and it didn't work. Oh, man...

[AnchorSouth]

Originally Posted by KDCat

Poor Macy's! They must have really wanted you. They sent Miss America to rush you and it didn't work. Oh, man...

I just have to know if she was wearing pink hose with sequins and was there a "thing"......?

[KDCat]

Originally Posted by AnchorSouth

I just have to know if she was wearing pink hose with sequins and was there a "thing"......?

There was a Pi Phi Miss America from Ole Miss in 1986, according to Wikipedia, and two Chi Os from the late 50's, early 60s.

[LXA SE285]

My first thought was that she was talking about Susan Akin (Pi Phi), but then I saw the year, and if I'm reading correctly, OldOleMiss said that Peppy Perky Patty Pageant was in Miss America, not Miss America herself.

ETA: It was Suzanne Sugarbaker!

[MaryPoppins]

Ole Miss has had a significant number of women compete in the Miss America Pageant over the last 60 years, but only three have won the Miss America Pageant in that time. I've heard Ole Miss referred to as a "pageant school," so I assume that there are others that exist?

[barbino]

This one is going to be good ...

[cinder1965]

More, please more!!!