Gone are the days of men vacating their fraternity houses for their dates, the chaperones, the masses of women hailing from surrounding women's colleges and the formal dances. The passing years have brought significant changes to the kind of fun had at the big party weekends such as Green Key.
The biggest differences lie in that men "import" far fewer women than they used to as the pressure to have a date for the big party weekends has disappeared.
"There were a lot of women up for the weekend. It was known as a good thing to do. They came from Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and Colby Junior College. Men made sure that they had dates," Alexander Bass '63 said.
"Everybody had their best girl, and they came up," said Trumbull Huntington '42.
At Winter Carnival a Queen was named. She was chosen along with eight or nine other women to be on the court.
"They just asked women if they would try out for the Queen. Looks were everything; nobody cared about talent," Huntington said.
During more conservative times, the women would stay in the fraternity houses, and their dates would find other accommodations. Chaperones lived in the houses with the women, and the brothers were not allowed back into their houses until the women had left.
"There were definitely chaperones. The guys did not know how to be hosts. To them being a good host meant getting you a beer and a room. They didn't know any better," Olin said.
"There were two good things about bringing women in" from the surrounding junior colleges, Bass said. "First, the junior college girls were not rocket scientists, but they were fun. Second it was right next to New York, and the drinking age there was 18."
Women were not allowed upstairs in the fraternity houses as long as the men were still staying in the houses. Because of this, certain houses had "sex rooms" in which mattresses lined the floors.
Male students could also be seen heading with their dates and a blanket in the direction of the secluded golf course during the evenings.
"There were virtually no instances of women in the dorms. If you got caught with women in the dorm you were gone from school," Bass said.
While many men had girlfriends, some men were also set up with blind dates.
"When we got off of the bus at White River Junction, all of the boys were standing there holding signs with our names written on them," Kathy Olin, wife of Jerome Olin '63, said. "My date had his fraternity brothers check me out first to make sure that I was acceptable."
As for the Olins, their blind date turned out to be a fortuitous match. They have now been married 36 years.
As alumni recalled their experiences at the big weekends, they overwhelmingly responded that there was significantly less drinking than there is now.
"The drinking never got out of hand. They were getting drunk, but not to the extent that they do now," said Olins.
Older alumni also noted that there were far fewer open parties than occur today. The fraternities would each have their own parties.
Many also recalled more formal dances and events than exist now.
"Each fraternity would have it's own party on Friday night. On Saturday night there was usually a dance down at the gym with big time bands," Robert Kaiser '39 said.
"We used to have parties at a pond just before the Skiway," Bass said. Parties also occurred at the various off-campus vacation houses of students.
Other events included athletic team competitions, drama performances, and outdoor activities such as canoeing in which anyone could partake.
"We would go out and spend the day at a swimming hole. There were always bands and outdoor parties," James S. Hughes '64 said.
"They would usually have some special events that would provide entertainment in the way of popular music groups or theatre or dancing. There was a bike race in front of Tuck School. It was a lark," said Hughes.
"There would be Whiskey Sour parties at or around major athletic events. The athletes partied as well," Bass said.
Others remember the weekend for other reasons.
"The weather was gorgeous and there were lots of things happening outside. My best memories are of Green Key, it was always consistently the most fun weekend," Bass said.
Huntington summed up the weekend best when he said, "There was just a lot of malarkey."
