BABY BOOMER REVERIE: 1960

IT WAS GREEK TO ME

Pledging in the early 1960s was hell for baby boomers. The final stretch of the fraternity pledge semester is still called “Hell Week.” For boomer girls, it was more like heck.

I  got an inside earful from a Phi Sig I dated. Natalie never stopped complaining. The litany of sorority pledge horrors seemed mild compared to fraternities. In addition to yelling and criticism, the girls were made to act as maids and servants for the actives. They ran errands, washed cars, waited on tables, cleaned the house and scrubbed the bathroom with toothbrushes.

Coming from privileged baby boomer backgrounds, for many it was their first exposure to any work or chores. The sorority said it was good training for marriage, but most of these girls would marry men rich enough to afford a maid.

When Natalie mentioned her treatment during a phone conversation home, her mother was aghast: “I didn’t send you to college to learn housework!”

I pointed out that I had it a lot rougher.

“But you’re a guy.” When she talked too much, I would try the new French kiss technique, hoping it would tire her tongue.

“I really feel sorry for the overweight girls,” Natalie moaned. She was 5′ 5″/105 pounds, dripping wet. Unfortunately, this was before the fabled boomer sexual revolution. I never saw her dripping wet. “They make them take off their clothes in front of everyone and parade around and do exercises. And then they put them on special liquid diets. One pledge sister has to wear a big scratchy burlap bag until she’s down to a certain weight. They’re getting us ready for that big event with your house where we all dress up like Playboy bunnies.”

Ah yes, the Bunny Party. The popularity of Playboy Magazine had inspired a new boomer  fraternity/sorority “mixer.”

“When they really want to be mean they threaten to send us to class without any make-up.”

I must have looked unimpressed.

“You probably don’t understand.”

Actually, I did and said so.

“Damn straight,” she said. I never heard Natalie swear before, something she must have picked up at Phi Sig. Her mother would be aghast. “What we do—and you can’t breath a word of this—a bunch of my pledge sisters rented a locker at the Student Union and put make-up in there. Do you what they did last week?”

It was time for a kiss diversion, but it didn’t work. She was on a roll. “This is really sneaky. Each pledge was asked to pick out the worse piece of clothing from another pledge—something you wouldn’t be caught dead in, and you were told it would be thrown out. Well, the piece is thrown out but only after the one who picked it has to wear it to class.

I was trying to take all this seriously, but it was hard. “Ever been paddled?” I asked.

“It was banned two years ago in our sorority, but they do it once in a while.

How hard can a girl swat? I wondered.

“Oh, you’d be surprised. There’s a senior who has muscles like a guy. She works out with weights. She’s the swatter. Everyone thinks she’s…you know.  Yesterday, they made us walk backwards all day and we couldn’t talk.” Natalie began to cry. “Sometimes it seems like the actives aren’t happy unless they make us cry. Then they leave us alone.”

“Do your paddles have air holes?” I asked.

“What difference does that make?”

“It enhances the pain,” I explained.

For sure, psychological and emotional hazing can be as traumatizing as physical punishment. One advantage of the pure physical is that it contains its own closure. A paddle swat delivers the message: you did this and here’s the result. Harsh words or harassment may linger as to meaning. The romantic male notion that a fight “clears the air” isn’t all fantasy.

The author

BOOMER TRIVIA QUESTIONS

►The most popular boy’s name in 1960?

William
Mark
Richard
David

►The most popular girl’s name in 1960?

Donna
Linda
Mary
Lisa

►Which college has the most fraternities and sororities?

University of Miami
University of Southern California
University of Illinois
University of Texas

Answers to Boomer Trivia Questions at end of post

NOTABLE QUOTABLES: Boomer Bon Mots

Show me someone who never gossips, and I will show up someone who is not interested in people. ~Barbara Walters

Show me a woman who doesn’t feel guilty, and I’ll show you a man. ~Erica Jong

On the one hand, we’ll never experience childbirth. On the other hand, we open all our jars. ~Bruce Willis

Fighting is essentially a masculine idea; a woman’s weapon is her tongue. ~Hermione Gingold

THIS DAY IN BABY BOOMER HISTORY

1992: The U.S. Post office announces the new Elvis stamp picked by popular vote: the young Elvis picture beats older Elvis.

1991: The first lesbian priest is ordained in the Episcopal Church.

1990: Greyhound Bus files for bankruptcy.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian assists an Oregon woman to commit suicide. The controversial act sparks a national debate over the right-to-die.

1988: Phantom of the Opera wins the Tony Best Musical award.

1985: The Supreme Court strikes down Alabama’s “moment of silence” public school prayer law.

1984: Arnold Palmer fails to make the U.S. Open golf tournament for the first time in 32 years.

Bruce Springsteen releases Born in the USA.

DNA is successfully cloned from an extinct animal.

1977: Apple II, the first personal computer, goes on sale.

1972: New Left Black activist Angela Davis is acquitted of killing a prison guard.

1967: The Emmys award Outstanding Drama to Mission Impossible, Outstanding Comedy to The Monkees, and Outstanding Variety to The Andy Williams Show.

1965: The Rolling Stones release Satisfaction.

ANSWERS TO BOOMER TRIVIA QUESTIONS

► David and Mary were the favorites.

►The University of Illinois ranks #1 with 83 Greek houses. The above experience happened there.