Indiana University - Arbutus Yearbook (Bloomington, IN)

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We had stylish parties, too. Somebuddy would go to the city and come back with a new idee and we ' d all try it awhile. One time it wuz lap-boards that wuz so fashionable. Thev wuz jest square pieces of board, smoothed off and beveled edges which we passed out when we got ready to serve the refreshments, and ever- buddy held them on their laps and spread their napkins on em and then put their plate and cup and sasser on ' em and reely set the table, proper, but they didn ' t last long as a style because they wuz oncon- venient and liable to accident. They wuz so smooth that when they started to slide they slid and they wuz no stoppin ' them. And then we ust to receive informally — whatever that wuz — and onct we put Coffee at ten on our invitation cards. We got all these idees from the city. Onct the Kappas sent out painted plaques for invitations. Next party the Thetas gave they couldn ' t make up their minds whether to send out plaques, same as the Kappas did or just plain cards. They wuz afeared the Kappas would say they wuz copvin ' , so they sent plain ones. That wuz all there wuz then fer the girls — jest Kappas and Thetas — and they wuz dear old enemies — always tryin ' to beat each other and yet good friends, too. We had good things to eat at our parties because we made them ourselves. Some of us would give cakes and some favors and some decorations and some spoons and some napkins and everybuddy had to help buy the ice cream. It wuz some work to get up a party, I kin tell you, but we showed everbuddy a good time at them. The stu- djents acted awful, sometimes. Onct when we went out to chapel — we bed to go in them days — at eight o ' clock every morning — we found every bench gone — plum gone — even the perfessors bed to stand up — and Doctor Jordan give out, Arise, my soul! — and we sung it and laffed, fit to kill. And senior serenade! The seniors would try and serenade the perfessors and all the rest of the studjents would try and keep them from it and drown out the music with dish-pans and horns. My! but the noise wuz hidjeous and nobuddv could sleep, that night. [29]

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We had lots of frolics, too. Out to Weed-patch Hill, the highest pint in the county, I ' low, and out to the Cascades, we called ' em, though ' pon my word, it wuz like some one pourin ' water outen a pitcher fer all a water-fall it wuz. We called it takin ' a tramp, and we went in couples together as fer as Hunter ' s Hill, where the town stopped, and then we sorter sfniiiir along the pike, not separated and not together either, eggsactly, you see. And lectures. Perhaps thev don ' t appear like frolics to vou, but we liked them. We girls felt left out if we didn ' t have a beau to the whole lecture course, and we generally did, and a new hat, mebbe, and we never listened to the lecture and we sauntered home after- wards, gittin ' icecream in the summer time and oysters in the winter, on the way back, so it wuzn ' t so dull. One night we made a party to see the eclipse of the moon through the telescope. We went along getherin ' up the crowd as we went. We stopped at one girl ' s door and knocked and her mother put her head out of the window and hollered, What do vou want? We told her we wanted Trudie to go with us to see the eclipse of the moon, out to the College. She said, Well, Trudie can ' t go — she can go some other night. And one of the bovs said, Oh, yes, the moon will eclip for Trudie, tiny night. ' ' And serenades. The Betas wuz always great hands fer serenadin ' . We always knew when they wuz comin ' — it would be whispered about — 1 reckon thev started it themselves, more ' n likelv, and tlie girls kept a-hoping they would be serenaded and would go and bake cakes, in a hurry. There wuz a regular wav of doin ' when vou got a serenade. When they got through playin ' the first piece, we made a light upstairs. At the end of the second piece we made a light down- stairs. At the end of the third piece, we invited them in to cake. Sometimes when we didn ' t have cake or time to bake one, we threw our cards out of the window, but that wuz a shiftless way. I ' ve cut and served manv a cake — hoi hut tliev didn ' t know the difference. 1015 [28]

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Df Cji; V«,l .-A Vl VttVS But that wuz all a long time ago — way back in ' 90 — and here I am, with my hair all gone — wearin ' spectacles — hard o ' hearin ' — and only two teeth left — and it ' s thankful 1 am that they hit — and noth- ing is like it ust to be. The wild things in the campus have fled before the tread of man — the beech nuts aint big enough to eat — the May apples are plum gone — and I reckon even the book larnin ' we got then is out of style now and they do tell that the purty little arbutus flowers we ust to gether aint as plentiful as they wuz, onct — Oh, bygum days! Oh, dag-gone times! Et tu, Arbutus! J. P. S. ' 90. iffl 1015 T5