Pass the Pledge, Please?
July 22, 2009 at 5:41 pm 3 comments
For decades social clubs were celebrated and desecrated. They played a unique role in the Howe social scheme.
What were their names? Where did the names come from? What were the different clubs known for? Did you pledge? What did you have to do? What did you make your pledges do?
NOTE: PLEASE SAVE INITIATION DETAILS FOR ANOTHER POST! THANK YOU!
Entry filed under: Social Clubs. Tags: initiation, pledge, Social Clubs.
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The Turley Manhattan 
1. Janis Gonzalez | July 29, 2009 at 12:47 am
Hmm.. am I first to comment? Okay, here goes..
“Trendz” was my club. I had a big sister that had picked this club, so, naturally I followed her footsteps. I can’t remember when it started (history, etc.). “Trendz” came from “trends.” I remember pledging as a freshman. I had to ask some senior boys to sign my leg, which I had been forbidden to shave. Many years later, one of those seniors became my husband! He says he doesn’t remember signing my leg, he just signed all the girls when they asked!
“Trendz” was supposedly known as the “party club,” Which wasn’t exactly true. We partied, but it was the seventies, and we didn’t party any more than any of the other clubs! We were also known for the hayrides. We had a couple per year!
My husband was in “Blitz” but it wasn’t around when I started Howe.
2. turleymanhattan | August 1, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I pledged “TAWNZ” in 1978. TAWNZ was a 4-year club, meaning that it only opened to new freshmen girls as when the existing members were seniors. I don’t know that it was known for anything particular, but it seemed to include girls who were active in many extracurricular activities.
I remember that I had to wear the same clothes (a top and skirt – no hose) for at least one, maybe two weeks straight and could not shave my legs either. I remember that on the last day I also had to get so many senior guys’ signatures on my legs. The funniest one was Matt Langenbacher, who used a blue marker and must have misspelled his name at least 6 times and had to start all over. Unfortunately, Janis, I didn’t marry him (sigh…).
The other thing I remember was “air raids.” When one of the members saw us in the hall, and said “air raid,” we had to face the lockers, drop our books, grab our ankles, shake our hips and go “Woo! Woo!” One morning I was walking outside in the rain on my way to the stadium for World Civ class and Cindy Coe called out “air raid!” Well, I was pretty intimidated by Cindy Coe but I wasn’t about to drop my books in a big mud puddle so I told her so and I got to stay in the club. 😉
Lori Smith
3. Jack Boeldt | August 5, 2009 at 10:55 am
In the mid-1950s there were the STEPZ, TRUMPS, KITZ, STAGS, DELTAS, CHEX, CHIX, BLOTZ, JUDS, PHI THETAS, LAMS, and LARX to name a few. I belonged to the DELTAS and the TRUMPZ. The TRUMPZ included guys from Howe and Cathedral. The squires existed to gather and raid the debs. Not much pledging among the guys, but we did make a new underclassman swallow a live goldfish. The DELTAS did agree to wear white bibbed overalls to school one day. By room period that day we were all sent to Mr. Stirlings office where we were informed that sub deb and squire clubs were illegal as school activities, and the guys with the overalls were sent home to change into proper school clothes. We were allowed to wear Howe letter sweaters.