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CO-EDiquette, by Elizabeth Eldridge
...published 1936. An advice manual for the modern, forward-thinking girl heading off to college in the 1930s.
Pages 43-101 inclusive cover that most important of all college experiences, pledging a sorority. It begins with a history of the old and venerable Greek institution, and continues:
If you are not a Greek you are a BARBARIC COMMUNIST.
There is a chapter where she offers kind and encouraging words to the unlucky co-ed who does not receive any bids to join a sorority, explaining that she may be on a waiting list, that due to the complicated system of requests and bids she may not ever see a bid from a sorority if it's not on her Top Three list, that there's really only a small number of spaces open in a sorority any semester, that the sorority sees so many freshmen during rush week that they all blend together and if she didn't stand out they may not have noticed her, and, finally, that she may just not yet be ready to join. But no fear! One can rush any year one attends college; in fact Eldridge herself failed to achieve any bids her freshman year, rushed successfully her sophomore year, and six years later was the national president of her sorority!
She also roomed with a junior her freshman year, who finally managed to achieve sisterhood in a sorority, and who gratefully cried herself to sleep that night.
Elsewhere in the book, she addresses the wardrobe a new co-ed will need to bring to college, and advises:
Pages 43-101 inclusive cover that most important of all college experiences, pledging a sorority. It begins with a history of the old and venerable Greek institution, and continues:
Of course, the fraternity system did not always escape attack by the radical members of the student body. Sometimes, they were sincere thinkers; sometimes they were hurt rushees who had not received bids. They gathered in the back rooms of the college joint and drank beer and discussed Life earnestly. They agreed that marriage was a moth-eaten institution and football the curse of the American college. They believed in Socialism and the style of Ernest Hemingway. And they railed against the fraternity system because it was undemocratic. It glorified money above brains. It preferred a man whose father was born on the right side of the tracks and who dressed well and danced correctly, to one who hashed his way to Phi Beta Kappa.
Yet, their revolt never got very far. That was partly because they were thinkers, and thinkers are in the minority. It was partly because they did not state the whole case. Fraternities, in spite of their flaws, did accomplish good. They took ill-at-ease youngsters without poise and taught them social graces; they compelled them to study; they gave them a comfortable home in which to live; and they spoke a great deal about ideals and group consciousness. The fraternity system had glamour; the communistic thinkers had none. And when the barbarians produced a strong leader, the fraternities saw in his strength fraternity material. They offered him a bid, and another rebellion surrendered weak-kneed.
There is a chapter where she offers kind and encouraging words to the unlucky co-ed who does not receive any bids to join a sorority, explaining that she may be on a waiting list, that due to the complicated system of requests and bids she may not ever see a bid from a sorority if it's not on her Top Three list, that there's really only a small number of spaces open in a sorority any semester, that the sorority sees so many freshmen during rush week that they all blend together and if she didn't stand out they may not have noticed her, and, finally, that she may just not yet be ready to join. But no fear! One can rush any year one attends college; in fact Eldridge herself failed to achieve any bids her freshman year, rushed successfully her sophomore year, and six years later was the national president of her sorority!
She also roomed with a junior her freshman year, who finally managed to achieve sisterhood in a sorority, and who gratefully cried herself to sleep that night.
Elsewhere in the book, she addresses the wardrobe a new co-ed will need to bring to college, and advises:
Avoid carefully any extreme negligees with too much maribou and too many satin ruffles; for although they are beautiful in trousseaus, they are ridiculously out of place in a college boarding house. Your pair of lounging pajamas or robe must cover you without any chiffon lapses so that you can wear it down to breakfast in the morning if your house permits such luxury.I think "I'm having a chiffon lapse" will be my new excuse for anything I want to get out of. "I'm so sorry. I can't attend the meeting. I'm having a chiffon lapse."
[...]
If you are the average co-ed, you will "do your washing" unless the water is so hard it is necessary for you to mail it home. The linens and the heavier pieces, of course, will go to the campus laundry; but you will have to take care of your silk hose, your delicate undies, and your better handkerchiefs.
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And quite a lot of the time it makes me grateful that I'm not living then. XD
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I remember being told at dinner one night (in college) that Way Back When, You Had To Dress For Dinner. That was when we wore our jammies and robes to breakfast the next morning.
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* For daughters and granddaughters of Masons. My grandfather would have paid my housing there, had I chosen to go to U.T.
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MAIL your laundry home?! How...would that work exactly? I'm envisioning a giant laundry bag covered in stamps, and I am relatively sure that can't be right.
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