"Head...Shoulders...Knees and...SOCKS!"

I have a terrible confession to make. Please don’t hold this against me. Deep breath…here goes…

I was a sorority girl in college.

There. I said it. It’s out there. Phew!

I joined when I was a freshman. My reasons for joining were two-fold. One: Being Greek was one of the best ways to get involved in certain activities on campus. Two: I was more comfortable being in the environment of a sorority that had a lot of Jewish girls than I was at Hillel. So I joined, and was pretty active for a while. The chapter was pretty new – I was only in the third pledge class. About half the girls were not your typical “sorority chick” and I always thought of us as more of an “un-sorority.” Most of us joined because of the above mentioned Reason One. And all of my friends and family were shocked by this decision. This wasn't a very Socks thing to do.

Then things took a downturn. Our fourth pledge class was small, and our fifth was tiny – and they all de-pledged. Part of the problem was that another larger sorority returned to campus that year and girls were waiting to meet with them. The other problem is that we were labeled as “The Jewish sorority.” During Rush, one girl told us that she was told “You don’t want to pledge there – they are the Jewish sorority.” Now this was only partially true. While we were founded by a bunch of Jewish girls back in 1917 our chapter was mostly non-Jewish. I liked it because they were very accepting of everyone, we had a Christmas tree AND a Chanukah menorah. We hosted our own Passover Seder, but also an Easter brunch. Everybody played, everybody won.

Once we lost our pledge class, things went downhill fast. By the end of the year, it was decided by us and National that we would fold the chapter. The house was sold (ironically) to a fraternity that put a cross in the front yard. A couple years ago, Spouse and I were back down there and I was so excited to show him the house. It was gone. Now it’s part of the faculty parking lot that was next door. I was so devastated. Spouse just stood in one of the empty parking spots and said “Look honey! I’m in your room!”

In fact, by the time my class graduated, none of us were talking to each other even though we would see each other occasionally on campus, and two of us had the same major and were in the same school.

So why bring this up now? Because I received a letter today from National informing me of the “exciting news!” that they are reforming the chapter on my campus. It’s been a little over ten years. It’s a good thing for the campus probably – if they can make it work. They have asked for contributions, and invited alumnae to join them for the kickoff weekend of pledge events. I will already be out of town that weekend and not able to attend, but probably wouldn’t go down anyway, even though it would be interesting to see how things go and how people are. They’ve also included a space on the reply form for “Suggestions” for the new chapter. I was thinking of something like “Don’t fold after five years.” But I guess that would be too cynical. But I’ll probably send in a small contribution, offer my artistic services, and wish them luck.

The strange thing is – I’m not sure why I’m feeling nostalgic for those days. They weren’t all great, and I didn’t really like all of my “sisters.” Perhaps this time around I’m hoping that things go different, and that the new girls have a much better experience than I did.