Sorority Charades

I was a freshman at the University of Utah in 1969. I joined an LDS sorority called Gamma Chi. As part of the initiation process all the pledges to the sorority were kidnapped from their homes in the early hours of one September morning. Parents were contacted and asked to leave an outside door unlocked so the kidnappers could enter the house to find unsuspecting pledges asleep in their beds. Imagine being awakened early in the morning to masked sorority sisters who scooped us out of our beds in our finest bedtime attire. We were blind folded and put into cars and whisked away to an unknown destination. The unknown destination turned out to be the the Salt Lake Airport. Still blindfolded we were led into the airport and deposited on the huge tile airport logo. After all of us had been settled onto the floor, the blindfolds were taken off. We found ourselves surrounded by a crowd of very surprised departing passengers. There we sat, all of us girls dressed in our baby doll pajamas, slippers, rollers in our hair and cold cream still on our faces. To say the least it was quite the humiliating experience, which it was intended to be. To add to our embarrassment we were told to sing. I can’t remember exactly what we sang–it might have been the “Star Spangled Banner” or the University of Utah school song! It was an experience that I will never forget. I wonder if there are those to this day that remember being serenaded by these silly girls as they departed on their trips from the Salt Lake Airport!

– Paula L.