Skip to main content

Flashback Friday

Last month I wrote a short essay on my experience in a fraternity.  One of the fringe benefits was having an association with one of the local sororities.  Naturally, I don't remember a great deal of these pictures, but they had something to do with an initiation of their newest ranks into our ranks.  

You will see mostly smiles in these pictures.  It was an annual event and the only requirement was to have fun.  Good clean fun.  Maybe a little beer, maybe some trepidation from the new ones, but that;s part of these things.  Good, safe, clean fun.  




The Beta's were our sister sorority, and when they had new recruits they had an initiation kind of like our Hell Week.  Sometimes these things are done unannounced and participants don't even have time to take their curlers out.   In the above picture we are trying to keep the ladies in the room but RB and Nick are having some trouble getting that accomplished.  Of course it doesn't hurt when you send out Betty, who could have been a linebacker for the IWC Tigers football team.  Betty, one of my favorites on campus was one of the sweetest, funniest girls I've ever been around.   

  


One of the more juvenile aspects to these things (I didn't say we weren't above acting like children) was the ever-popular sleight of hand with food.  A little pasta masquerading as worms, a few potato chips disguised as glass, and so on.  




More attempted escapees?

The old vets and the newer initiates then having a fun celebration and a welcoming into the brotherhood and sisterhood.  

I'd also like to say at this juncture, my fraternity Hell Week was the old fashioned, old school type.  The next years after they were modified, and yes, diluted into more fan-friendly type rituals.  In fact, the name itself was changed from Hell Week to Help Week.  I'm sure I had an opinion at the time, but it is lost now in the ether of time.   But looking back I'm sure I was delighted with the change and opportunity for constructive character development.  But there is always a price for change.  Always.  On one hand you gain the opportunity to shape, yet lose tradition and the best of the past.  Progress isn't always progress, and change isn't always good.  

We couldn't see it back then, but the end was just around the corner for us all.  Administration moves to bring all Greeks back onto campus was just the first blow.  Dwindling enrollment and a change in attitudes for Greek system all contributed to the demise.  The Phi Delts, my fraternity, was the last one to survive, and it closed in 2009.  Go to the IWC website and under Greek Life you will see a this statement:


"The Iowa Wesleyan Greek community has a long, rich tradition of supporting student involvement and development.  We are currently in the process of rebuilding, offering four opportunities for Greek Life at this time.  We have a national sorority, Alpha Xi Delta, which is the oldest active chapter of their organization, and three local chapters, Theta Sigma Rho and Pi Delta Chi, local sororities, and Zeta Psi Mu, a local fraternity." 



I don't know what that means, really.  But OK.  I don't know what "process of rebuilding" means.  In my day there were 8 National fraternities and sororities.  Now there is one.  And I haven't a clue as to what a local fraternity is.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Summer Swim

It's Monday and the start of another work week.  Except for me.  I have the week off because the parents of my daycare charges are taking the week off, too. This is one of those wordless posts I love on Mondays so I can put my laziness in full view of loyal readers.  These pics need no words.  Why muddy the waters?   They were taken at the pool at Sinkhole Estates aka Death Valley.  The nice thing about this pool is it is heated in winter.  If one must find positives in one's situation, I suppose that is one.  But, please, no more.   

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the facts of the murder and attempted murder are most unpleasant