Ok, so I’m not from the era of hip cats, drive-ins, and drag races (which takes on a whole new meaning today!) Anyway, I take it “getting pinned” meant going steady, but what is this “pin”? A fraterity pledge pin?
Also, did this equal “wearing my school ring on her chain”? Or, was the pin college life and the ring was high school life? Lastly, any WAGs about when all this became passe? I’d guess once the sexual revolution hit full force, huh? (Sexual Revolution, huh? More bad puns come to mind, but I won’t go there!)
Oh yeah, for extra credit, let me also ask:
a) What were bobby socks?
b) Were girls so vane to wear fake pony tails as depicted in the opening sequence to “Happy Days”?
I know what you’re thinking already, Pops. If you have to ask…
I don’t know about other places, but the custom was alive and well on the midwestern college campus where I spent 5 years (teaching, not trying to graduate.) Yes,it’s a fraternity pledge pin.
The pinning thing was still going on when I was in college…graduated '94. Basically, if you’re in a fraternity and have a fairly serious girlfriend, you give her a lavalier, which is a little charm that goes on a necklace that depicts your fraternity’s letters. In the fraternities that I knew, it also meant that the girl was allowed to wear the fraternities letters in the form of a sweatshirt/tshirt/etc. I guess it gave the girl bragging rights to whatever fraternity guy she dated.
If the relationship gets even more serious, the girl gets pinned. There’s a whole ceremony that most fraternities have that include all the guys serenading her, giving her flowers, etc. The pin is the official fraternity pin (by the way, the sororities have lavaliers and pins, too, they just don’t give them to the guys).
Next step would be engagement…you know what she would get, then.
Yeah, I was in a sorority. This whole thing sounds very archaic, I know, but it’s based in the traditions of the greek system. I never knew any girls who had their “eyes on the prize” of the lavalier/pin thing or only dated a guy for that reason, but it was kind of a nice little thing.
As far as I know, bobbysocks are those little white anklets that girls used to wear with poodle skirts, or that little girls wear with mary janes.
Yeah, what C3 said. I’d forgotten about the lavaliere. It was still going on as recently as '97 where I was. When I had to go to evening staff meetings we would hear all the greeks whooping it up over the latest pinning. I always thought it must make it very embarassing if you broke up after all that fuss.
And yes, they did wear fake ponytails. They were called “falls” and were – along with wigs (whole head) and wiglets (partial head)-- part of any popular girl’s fashion accessories.
