"Sorority N.Y.L.?" I asked myself. "That does sound strange..." I was very happy that I had received the letter of admission to my top-choice college, but this sorority - I had never heard of it. "Alpha Kappa Alpha" or "Alpha Gamma Delta", those I was familiar with, for example. But "NYL"? Was Y even a proper Greek letter? In any case, this was the one suggested by the college and when I read the more detailed description, it did sound attractive to me. Their "special thing" was that they required a dress code from their members, not necessarily in the dorm itself but outside and in particular when attending classes or any other campus activities with the exception of sports events.
The code said that the standard outfit would be blouse and skirt, not shorter than the knee, preferably blue but another darker color would be fine as well. Further, it required members to wear nylons, in form of pantyhose or tights. Thigh highs or knee highs were not okay. Finally, the shoes needed to be dress shoes, no sneakers, and socks were a no-go.
Although I had worn pantyhose only for rare festive occasions in the past, I did like wearing skirts over wearing pants and was not in principle opposed to this rule. After all, I thought, that way our sorority would be making some kind of "statement" in the way we looked on campus and also establish some sort of common identity. Fortunately the college was more to the North, so I was not too much worried about wearing pantyhose in summer time and getting too sweaty.
When I arrived on campus in late August, I was greeted by the housing officer and she showed me the way to the N.Y.L. dorm. My room was on the second floor and with the help of another student I carried my bags one flight of stairs up and walked over to my room.
The door was open and I said "hi" and entered while thanking the other student for her help with the bags.
"Hi there!" said a woman in the room. "I'm Brenda. Nice to meet you!"
"Nice to meet you, as well," I replied. "My name is Cathy."
"Great. Come in, I was told you would probably be showing up today. Where are you from?"
"California. That was a long trip..."
"I imagine you're probably tired. I'm from Tennessee by the way. Quite far away from here, as well," Brenda said. "Why don't you get yourself settled in and make you comfortable and I'll be back in an hour or so and we can go out for dinner?
I realized how late it was already and how hungry I was as well.
"Sounds like a great idea! See you soon."
I sat down on the bed closer to the door because I saw some PJs on the one next to the window and figured that was probably Brenda's. So many new impressions. I felt a bit scared, but even more overwhelmed and also quite tired. I thought I could lie down for a couple minutes and rest and then start unpacking. My thoughts went to Brenda who was a very attractive young black woman, medium built, probably 5'7" tall, and with short curly hair. She had a smile on almost all the time and seemed to be a cheerful and positive soul. Somehow even just by talking to her for a little bit I seemed to like her and I was very glad that I got such a great roommate.
About an hour later, a knock on the door woke me up -- Brenda was back and when she saw me barely awake on the bed and all my bags still unpacked she laughed and said "That's what I thought! Out of energy, huh? Let's get some good food!" And we took a short walk to a neighborhood Chinese restaurant.
Now I noticed that Brenda still wore her sorority uniform, maybe she had late afternoon classes and didn't bother to change. I asked her about this whole uniform thing and she smiled and explained that indeed, as I had thought, this was the sorority's special "trademark" and all NYL sisters were very proud of it and wouldn't even think a minute of not following the code.
"It also gives us some advantages with the guys by the way," she said, smiling broadly again.
"You mean..."
"Yes, many of them like girls in more traditional outfits and some of them also love the nylon aspect of it."
"Really?" I asked. This remark of Brenda made me feel a bit uncomfortable. I didn't really want to wear clothes that men were after in that sense... I was raised Catholic and decency always was a very important aspect of our upbringing. But in any case, I didn't have the time nor the energy to worry too much about this right now and instead had a great time with Brenda who was very interesting to talk to and who could tell me a lot about NYL and the college since she was in her junior year already.
