How you guys doing? Chris Wildton, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated, bootcamp beta zeta mage spring 05. I'm about to interview my auntie and she's going to tell you about her history as a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated. Alright, auntie could you tell them your name for the record? Oh.
My name is Delores West Alexander. Delores West Alexander. Alright, and how long have you been a member of Zeta Phi Beta Swirling? Since 1960. 1951 or 1952? 1952 I think.
It's been so long. Okay. Because Zeta. I was Zeta born, Zeta bred. When I die I'll be another Zeta daily.
Alright. So tell me a little bit about your process and how did you come about or knowing about Zeta Phi Beta? I knew about Zeta Phi Beta from... A teacher at Hamilton School, her name was Helen Waterford.
And then later I was introduced to a very, very Zeta, Zeta, Zeta, Zeta lady named Collada Stewart. She worked at, I think she worked at New Washington at the time, she was a Zeta. And my girlfriend of life, Plead Zeta, but she never asked me to plead Zeta.
She's Hamiltonian too. And Mrs. Waterford never asked me to plead Zeta. They did what they did in, I guess, slick ways. They were just nice to me.
And I had an opportunity to go Delta. I had an opportunity to go AKA. But I did not accept scholarships from either because I knew what I was going to do.
And I just went with it. I did get a later scholarship. Okay. And I made a deal with them.
I accepted the scholarship. I told them I would accept their scholarship if they would let me have half of it the first semester and give it to my girlfriend the other half so that she could go to school. somebody else with a Zeta Scholarship go to college with you?
Half of mine. Okay. And I knew by the end of that year that my mama would have picked something else out so that this girl could go to school.
Okay. And when did you graduate from Booker T. Watchton? Never. I'm Hamilton born, Hamilton bred.
When I died, I'd be another Hamiltonian dead. So when did you graduate from Hamilton? 1949. 1949. And you entered what college? Le Moyne.
Okay. Not Lemoyne Owen, Lemoyne, it was just Lemoyne. Okay, so it was just Lemoyne College? Mm-hmm.
All right, what did you major in at Lemoyne? Education. Education?
Mm-hmm. Okay. Elementary education. All right, so tell me about your process in becoming a Zeta and becoming an initiate into Zeta Phi Beta. Okay, well, I pledged, went in September, and I think we pledged in January.
And then the next year. No. We went on the line, 11 sharp, smart, good-looking ladies. We went on the line. There were 11 of us.
We had the biggest number on the line that year, and we were the sharpest. We had royal blue skirts, white blazers, navy blue shoes. We had royal blue blazers, white skirts, and, of course, the shoes were the same. But we... We dressed every day.
We dressed. We were sharp. And we went through the initiation.
They did things that they were scared of. They carried us to the cemetery. And the lady that was leading me led me into a tombstone, cut my leg. She was scared and all the rest of them were scared, too.
So I was hurt. Just could not walk. Okay. Well, they wanted to go to the cemetery, so we just, you know.
We were out. make them stay there a while okay so after a while my girlfriend they and they would do things to me wanting her to say something but she never said you know anything so she said is your leg really hurting that bad i said no but they want to be in the cemetery be in the cemetery let them keep them let's keep them up in here a while and let's get them to the cemetery so you play tricks on them as well yeah good feet I used to go over in Elmwood. And study on my break sometimes.
Just sit on one of those tombstones and study sometimes with my girlfriend and I. So finally she came up to me and said, let's let them go. they were ready to get out of here. So we did.
Then we went to the funeral home. They said the body was a man in there in the castle. They said he was dead. Uh-huh. So I said, well, we'll find out.
So I hit him with my powder, because you know if you're dead, you don't feel anything. You hit him with your powder? Yeah.
Okay. He got up out of there, too. He sure did.
He got up out of there. Yeah. That's one of the things we had fun with. Another thing I had fun with, I had two friends, one was Delta and the other was AK.
We met up one night, so we decided to make them sweat. So we are... Went in a restaurant and set up their wife.
They were looking for us. They finally found us. Who cared? We didn't care. Did they pat you on when they caught you?
I think the Delta said, Lorena, I don't know what they gave you. I don't remember. But they punished me with some worms or something crazy.
I don't feed nobody no worms. Screaming and going, oh, nothing but some spaghetti. And, well, I was always punished for something. You've always got a snitcher who's scared and tells everything.
And it's so ironic, that snitcher. Me and that snitcher, we the only two of the 11 living. Really?
She lives in Ohio, she has cancer, but she's doing well though. Okay. But that was one of the things we did. And one night, who were we doing that night?
I think that might have been the night we were eating the worms. No, that night we ate the shredded wheat. There was supposed to be some, I don't know, something stupid they called it.
But anyway, I knew they were going to eat it. Somebody told that I said, oh, I know what I'm going to say. I'm going to eat all this.
I'm going to put this down in my bra. And so I said, you're putting it in your bra. And somebody told me. And of course, I got a whipping that night. But that was something that that girl wanted to do anyway.
So. You know, I took the whipping until I got tired of her. And I thought she'd hit me again, I was going to beat the hell out of her right in the neck.
So she said I was insubordinate to a big sister. And I was off the line. Okay. So the next day I had my clothes on. Really?
Okay. So they want to wear your clothes. So she said I was off the line. But we didn't vote on it. I said I don't know about no voting and all like that.
All she said to me was that I was off the line. So I got off the. So I just wore my clothes. They said, well, you're going to have to get permission to go home and change clothes.
I ain't going to get permission to go home and do nothing. She told me I was off and I was off. And everybody was going to do it. They put you off. please come on but but so you know i was on you know the next day okay those are just some of the things that happened to us and but it was nice and then after after my after we were made the next group oh god that was the worst group i ever seen remember i was about 12 of them uh-huh drunkish that's what they were oh we would we were down on Provine one night.
And we were at the beer garden on the corner of Mississippi and Provine. We sent them to the, somebody sent them to the store for something and they went up in the beer garden and got drunk. Did y'all get them?
Yeah, we did, we got them. We punched them, some of them got two or three nicks. I never used the paddle, I still believe in that.
Mmkay. I just believe in it. Cause it's too easy to.
to go wild with a pattern. So I just didn't have other ways. Then I had a girl last year. She came to the Hamilton Gala. And she was laughing.
She said, I remember when I was You had me over to your house. What kind of meat is that? Beef brisket.
Beef brisket. She said you told me to come over to your house and clean up your room and mop your kitchen. She said when I got over there, I told them to stay on my mother.
I didn't feel good. So she told me to go in and lay down. She said, you were so made, you didn't know what to do.
You were so purple, so she wouldn't even let you come in the room where I was. But I enjoyed my college life. Rosetta was a part of it.
Even after I got on campus, I was honored. I had the president's wife sent to me one day and my English teacher told me that the Miss Price wanted me to pray. She wanted to talk to me about the Pledge of Adultery.
I was always very truthful about But I told them I wasn't interested. And I wasn't because I had made up my mind what I was going to do. And it's like I told a little girl at church one Sunday.
Her cousin came up to me and said, Miss, I was thinking, did you see Tonya and all that red? I said, yeah, I did, but I didn't pay anything for it. He said, she preached Delta.
She made Delta. I said, oh, my God, poor child. He said, you say, man, are you Adele? I said, nope.
I'm a member of the same sorority your auntie is a member of. I said, you see, I had made two mistakes. Three strikes, you're out. I said, so now I didn't praise Adele because three strikes, I would have been out. That would have been third mistake.
That would have been out. That would have been out. But we had fun. I enjoyed it. And I've never regretted it.
And my girlfriend called me the other day and she said, you know, this is our centennial year. And she said, this is my girlfriend, she lives in San Antonio, Texas, and we've always been friends in childhood. She said, if I treat you and pay all of your expenses, will you go to the boulevard this year? I said, no, because you know I ain't flying nobody. I'm not flying nobody.
She told me go to the blue lady, she said she's gonna pay all my expense. I told her no, no, no, no, no. But I enjoyed it. I've never tried to influence anybody to do anything, because I think you ought to do what you want to do.
And I think you ought to do what's gonna make you happy. Okay, I'm on my way down there now. Okay. I have friends.
My aunts who have joined sororities since they've been grown and they're about the biggest fools I've ever seen in my life somehow. My attitude is if you don't want me when I was in the morning, you can forget me once I got out of there. I just wouldn't.
And then I had a very nice thing that happened to me. I was at a girlfriend's house one night. my baby no she called me and she said um do you have any um material and i said no but i can probably get you some from somebody and then i called i'll call colada stewart to see she can tell me somebody who might have some you know material i said who you getting it for she's not getting it for myself that's a you're a pledge and she said, yeah.
She said, I'm pledging. I said, you pledging to say that? She said, after being your friend all my life, where else do you think I would pledge? But, and I had never asked her to pledge and I just thought that was a real compliment.
I thought that was a real compliment. But I enjoyed my, I enjoyed my college life. Okay. As I said, we were great.
We had a lot of smart kids in there. I wasn't the smartest, but I passed. I was the soloist, choir soloist.
We just had fun. It was good. The gumbo was real good.
Oh, thank you. Thank you. That's a really good job, don't you?
Mm-hmm. I appreciate that. I may be back.
Okay, I may be back later, but I'm going to go down here and check on Mama. Come on, okay. See how she's doing.
I'll see y'all later. Y'all be good. All right.
Y'all be good. Where's little Ed? He's gone back there in the back. All right. He's been on the...
So what would you tell these young souls? Because you've been in since around 1951. Because you came in two years before Mama Park, Charlene Parker. And she came in Delton in 53. You were there two years before her.
is that right yeah and she went to she was this million sister okay now what you say so yeah if you were a zeta two years before she was a dozen and now it's 50 right now i never knew she was a delta until a couple of years ago oh okay yeah so i'm a deal in that stuff oh okay you do what you want to do we might not be the largest uh but we're the best yes ma'am so what would you tell younger sorors that are now coming I mean, I was a to reach in 100 years. What would you be you advice to them is final women Take a time Like I clicked I'm sorry I'm making that spicy next time. I was doing spicy food. Real hot.
My advice to them is to make up your own mind. If you have a friend who decides to do it another way, if it's a true friendship, it doesn't matter what sorority we're in. We stand for the finer woman who will be there. Be true to yourself, be true to Zeta, and be true to God.
And you'll be okay. Alright, well thank you so much, Auntie. The Lord's West Alexander, everybody.
Go Mop.