“Playing bridge in the sorority house any time of day or night,” is what a sorority alumna friend told me she remembered about living in a University of Missouri sorority house during the 1940s.
Card parties were used as fundraisers when sorority women were raising funds for their early philanthropic endeavors during the World War I years. During the Depression, card games were a cheap form of entertainment. Couples could play together so it made for a cheap date. Games were organized between fraternities and sororities. There was also the mental challenge of playing bridge.
Until the late 1960s/early 1970s, female students also had curfews and playing bridge (and singing songs) were two activities which took place after the women were safely ensconced behind locked doors. Ask any sorority alumna from the 1940s or 1950s and she will likely tell you stories of singing and playing bridge after hours.
A Princeton alumnus remembered December 7, 1941 and what was happening that day on campus, when Princeton was an all-male institution, “Some of us were studying, some of us were nursing hangovers and others were playing bridge.”
In looking at obituaries of Mount Holyoke College alumnae from the classes of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, the phrase “enjoyed playing bridge” appears over and over.
“You don’t see girls sitting in the parlor playing bridge anymore,” said a Northwestern University House Director who was interviewed in the early 2000s.
Playing bridge in a sorority house, circa 1942.
Playing bridge in the sorority suite, circa 1955.
I’d love to add some personal reflections to this post. (Can you tell I liked these two photos and tried to create a post for them?)
© Fran Becque, www.franbecque.com, 2014. All Rights Reserved.
