00:00:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Dirty Rush, the truth about sorority life with your hosts, me, Gia Giudice.
00:00:06
Speaker 2: Daisy Kent, and Jennifer Fessler. Hi, guys.
00:00:12
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Dirty Rush.
00:00:13
Speaker 2: I am Jen Fessler. So today I am joined by a very special guest, actually an icon. So you may know her from The Real Housewives of Orange County. I bet that you do. But today we are going to hear what her life was like during college recruitment. So please welcome my friend, the beautiful Shannon Storms Bedore. Hi, my Shannon.
00:00:36
Speaker 1: Hello, Jen. Hello.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: I am so excited. You know, I've been chasing you for a while for this. I know.
00:00:43
Speaker 1: And I feel really bad. I'm sorry. I moved so that I might have been a little bit overwhelmed, but I'm.
00:00:49
Speaker 3: Glad to be here.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no. Believe me, we know how life is. But I'm telling you, we have wanted you on Dirty Rush because I think that we, when I say we, I think me, my producers, you just seem like the ultimate sorority girl. Like, and I mean, I, and we're going to get into the specifics, but I can, you know, certain women, you look at them and you think, huh, I can't sort of picture them. I think people sort of, sort of look at me sometimes and they're surprised that I was in University of Texas sorority girl. I feel like you, I can see it very easily.
00:01:23
Speaker 1: It's funny that you say that. I mean, there's a story behind it because I did not have a good sorority rush. In fact, I dropped out the first year and then I went again the second year. I am not the kind of girl, because at USC, they plan the parties and you meet every single, all the girls in all the houses. And so there was like, hi! And I'm the kind of person that's like, hey, hi. Shh. And so I didn't do well. And I had like shaggy hair, like punk rock 80s. So no, it is funny because, yeah, I'm looking at myself in the Zoom going, yeah, that's right there.
00:02:03
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly. But I mean, I also picture your personality.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: I don't know.
00:02:07
Speaker 3: And it's funny.
00:02:07
Speaker 2: I don't know how many people from the show know that you went to USC, you little brainiac.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: Oh, no, everyone does. I'm saying fight on. Go Trojans. My dog's name is Troy.
00:02:16
Speaker 2: Everyone knows. Fair enough.
00:02:17
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: I just didn't realize, but listen, I mean, I, I want to hear what happened the first time around. Cause I think that's like, especially well for our podcast, of course, but it's such an intense thing, right? Going through rush and we're not the age, obviously of a lot of the, the young women that we talked to and certainly was different than different, what it is now. Tell us a little bit about your experience the first time and then the second time. Okay.
00:02:44
Speaker 1: Okay. So my mother went to USD, which was a Catholic school in San Diego. So they didn't have the sororities and fraternities and everything like that. So she didn't really know how to prepare me. And I didn't know how to do it either. But at USC, it was like, I'd say most of the kids were in the sororities, fraternities. It was the total social part of the school. I mean, in fact, as the years went on, when you were out at the 9-0 or one of those local bars, And a guy came up to you. The first question is, what house are you in? And the answer to that question was the determining factor whether that conversation was going to continue or not. So it was just a lot, a lot of pressure. It was very preppy, pearls, Laura Ashley dresses. I didn't have any of that. So in fact, one day, and this is like the summer, August in downtown Los Angeles. It's never cold there. One day I wore a wool jacket. laser and pinstripe pants I don't know what I was thinking and I know they were all writing my name down like no get her out so I and I was always popular so it was hard to go into this big school I had 36 kids in my senior class so I wasn't used to all this big stuff so so it was hard I got rejected and um and it's not it's not fun to be rejected so I thought well let me Drop out, you know, kind of get the lay of the land, become friends with people, and then I'll try again next year. So the second time around, I got the right outfits and I knew, you know, what to do. And I had best friends in the top sororities. But on the last day, I got dropped by all of them. And my friends like sent me flowers and they called me crying. And they said, we fought for you, Shannon. And God had a plan. I was in a not so great. house.
00:04:34
Speaker 3: I mean, it was, this is so interesting to me.
00:04:37
Speaker 2: I'm telling you right now, first of all, like, especially for all our listeners, I know, I mean, we're talking about sororities, but so many of the girls that listen to dirty rush are going through it, have gone through it, have been rejected, know how intense it is, you know, feel shitty about it. And then even saying, you know, I got into a house and it was not one of the pop houses. And I just think it's like, I'm so thrilled in a way to hear you say it because, you know, people know who you are.
00:05:08
Speaker 3: It's going to be, I feel like people will know. I mean, I truly mean it.
00:05:12
Speaker 2: Like a lot of these girls know who you are and I, I love your sharing this experience. So you didn't get in the first time and you were, or you just, you were dropped or you were just, you just bowed out.
00:05:22
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. That, I mean, I, I understand why I was dropped.
00:05:26
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm stripes and right.
00:05:28
Speaker 1: Wool wool in august downtown la but the but the second time around i did well until the end and you know the reason and i feel bad to say because i did develop some close friendships not not a ton but some close friendships from my sorority but um when i say mediocre i go back to my statement of if i'm in the bar and i say what house i heard that yeah conversation didn't go much farther for me Because of the house that I was in. So it was a bummer. But, you know, in the end, I became Rush chairman and then I ran for president. I know.
00:06:08
Speaker 2: And then you became the president.
00:06:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was very good for me because it was kind of an early lesson in politics and how things work, etc. So, you know, that's clearly why I was, you know, placed where I was placed.
00:06:25
Speaker 2: Did your friends that sent you flowers, did they explain it to you? I'm trying to picture a scenario where beautiful Shannon Storm's wearing the right outfit, the Lily Pulitzer of it all. I mean, I know that you had to approach it sweet and bubbly and whatever. Maybe you said you were not that bubbly at that time, but did.
00:06:42
Speaker 3: They give you a reason? Did any of your friends say?
00:06:45
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know what? I mean, gosh, I don't know if this is going to get me in trouble, but there was.
00:06:50
Speaker 2: You have, honey.
00:06:51
Speaker 3: You got it.
00:06:52
Speaker 2: I don't think that we're going to worry about you getting in trouble over sorority nonsense.
00:06:55
Speaker 1: There was back in... So I went through sorority rush in 1983. So back then, things were a lot different than they were. There wasn't a lot of inclusivity. So I don't want to say that there was a bit of anti-Semitism going on at the school, but I had my nose done in my sophomore year. I had a huge nose and people... thought that I was Jewish. Come on. I'm not kidding. Yeah, I'm not kidding.
00:07:26
Speaker 2: I could just throw up. I mean, I am Jewish.
00:07:28
Speaker 1: I mean, then you have to understand, two years later, you know, it was a very different world.
00:07:35
Speaker 2: No, but I appreciate, I appreciate your bringing that to light because we haven't really talked about that a lot on Dirty Rush. I was in a Jewish sorority because it was formed at the University of Texas because Jewish girls had a hard time getting into other sororities. So there you go.
00:07:52
Speaker 1: And I suppose I don't have actual data or statistics, but it's just kind of what was an unwritten or unspoken, yeah, that's how it is. And interestingly enough, so I pledged my sophomore year, and on that Christmas vacation, I had a nose job.
00:08:11
Speaker 2: Wow. I know.
00:08:12
Speaker 3: Wow.
00:08:29
Speaker 2: Okay. So you pledge, you get in, you said it wasn't a quote unquote top tier. So funny. Cause like my daughter, I know you have one daughter.
00:08:37
Speaker 1: Do I say the name?
00:08:38
Speaker 3: We didn't say that back then.
00:08:39
Speaker 2: Yeah. If you don't mind, that's Alpha Chi Omega. Alpha Chi Omega. Back then we didn't say this is a top tier sorority. We didn't have, well, we didn't have, you know, we didn't have social media, so we didn't have, you know, rankings and all the other crap that comes with that. Right. Like what made it top tier for me back in the day? It was like, well, in terms of the stories I was looking at, this one has the most pretty girls. You know, I don't know what makes it, if that's right. And that was like, it wasn't, unfortunately, it was not about where do the smart girls go or the nice girls go. I don't know if it was like that for you too.
00:09:11
Speaker 1: It was, it was the pretty girls and then it was also the wealthy girls.
00:09:15
Speaker 2: And the wealthy girls, right.
00:09:17
Speaker 1: So there were girls that weren't as maybe attractive, but, you know, and, and, you know, at USC, it was such an important part of the social life. there were people that knew they were going to rush. So they got to know some of the girls and they'd fly them on the jet for a vacation or, you know, stuff like that, just to kind of be well-known before they went in. Yeah. But, you know, I didn't have the jet. Who knows what I may have tried to try that tactic. Yeah, exactly.
00:09:45
Speaker 3: But I mean, you were, you, you became the president.
00:09:47
Speaker 2: So clearly you were very involved. You must have, you know, when you look back on it, did you, do you feel like you enjoyed it? you know, your sorority experience and do you feel like it would have been different if you had pledged a different sorority, if you had gotten in somewhere else? Or do you feel like you got in, you know, the right one for you?
00:10:07
Speaker 1: I mean, now that I look back on it and all the things that I learned, like for instance, we had chapter every Monday night and you would have your Monday night dinner and then you go down to the chapter room and oh goodness, they would drag on and on and on and on. And then people started to make excuses for not coming to the meeting. So when I became president, I had like a timing thing. If you did not come to my room and put your announcement on the agenda, I'd go, sorry, I know we have a... pledge active party this Saturday, but she didn't come to my room. The advisors would love to have the floor so they could talk, talk, talk. I go, you're three minutes is up. And so people came to chapter because they got the information quickly without people talking, talking and, and they got out. So I feel as though I was able to do things like that. And it was, I've thought about this this morning when I was graduating and we had the election for the new girls that were running for president, I wanted to make sure that we did it completely by the book. So with the advisors, I looked in the bylaws and we sat at a table and we divided it up between the executive board and we counted the votes and then piled it together. Like we did it all by the book and there was a girl that didn't win. And she came to my room one night and said, can I see the bylaws?
00:11:28
Speaker 2: And I go, sure.
00:11:29
Speaker 1: And I handed her the book and she went to Kinko's And she had the whole book copied. Her parents gave it to their attorney. And they did an investigation thinking that potentially I had rigged the election. Come on. No. And you know what they found out at the investigation? For the first time it was done by the book. Me.
00:11:52
Speaker 2: For the first time. Yeah.
00:11:54
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:11:55
Speaker 3: Who does that?
00:11:56
Speaker 2: Like, I also think, yeah, I think that would happen today, actually. That is how, and I don't know if we took sororities as seriously back then we took it seriously for sure. But now with, I mean, I don't remember having Panhellenic being so involved and I was, but not like it is now. There's so many bylaws and rules and all of that.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: Right.
00:12:17
Speaker 2: I think we were a little more loosey goosey back then, but maybe, maybe not you guys.
00:12:21
Speaker 1: No, I mean, it was to an extent, but no hell weeks, hell weeks were hell weeks.
00:12:26
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:12:27
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that in today's world, you do need to have, all of those rules. Um, cause I know, I know that USC is completely different today. And I went back when I was in law school, I went back to, to help with rush for, I don't know, one of the days. And it was very different. Like girls were wearing shorts and it wasn't, there weren't as many people going through us because people were more individuals then, and they didn't want to conform to the story. So I don't really know what it is now, but I do remember on the house tours day in my actual sorority, I think her name was Jenny Lynn or something like that. The girl in Three's Company. She was from my house. So I wondered.
00:13:09
Speaker 2: Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:13:09
Speaker 3: Jenny Lynn?
00:13:10
Speaker 2: Which one was she?
00:13:11
Speaker 1: Jenny Lee.
00:13:12
Speaker 3: So not Suzanne Somers, not Joyce DeWitt. The other curly haired one?
00:13:16
Speaker 1: She took over for Suzanne Somers when she left.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: Right.
00:13:20
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: Okay. Okay. Yeah.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: Not.
00:13:21
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Wow. Look at your little claim to fame.
00:13:27
Speaker 1: So I wonder, I have wondered. I don't even know if the house is still there because I know there was issues if they're going to stay. But did they put my picture on the wall?
00:13:38
Speaker 3: You don't want to know that? How have you not headed back? It's not that far. I mean, that's so important.
00:13:44
Speaker 2: Well, they have my picture on the wall at mine, but it's simply a composite. There are no tributes to Jennifer Fessler, a friend of a housewife. No, no, stop.
00:13:54
Speaker 1: Stop it. You know, Jeff Lewis, when he was filming Flipping Out, not the new one, I came up with the idea you should do a sorority. And so we went to Alphacai Omega and we filmed it and we toured the house. But somehow they decided not to work with him, which was such a bummer. So I did get to go back.
00:14:17
Speaker 2: What a dumb move on their part. I know.
00:14:19
Speaker 1: You go through it with Jeff.
00:14:20
Speaker 2: This is a complete aside, but you've been friends with Jeff for that long? I didn't realize.
00:14:24
Speaker 1: I met Jeff when two months into filming my first season. So we've been friends since 2013.
00:14:31
Speaker 2: Got it. Got it. That makes sense.
00:14:33
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:14:34
Speaker 2: So you're the president and you're leading this house full of best friends. You know, you were in that leadership role. Was it hard to juggle it? I mean, for all those presidents out there listening, was it hard to maintain those friendships while still having to, you know, kind of keep everyone in check?
00:14:52
Speaker 1: I mean, no, no. And I never really thought of that, but I was kind of more of a kind of a fun person. So I didn't really get down on it. And I wasn't in charge of standards. That was the first vice president. So that's where the disciplinary stuff happened. I will say if I saw Pledge on Campus and I was, you know, good enough to remember their name, it's like, hi, hello, Lindsay. And they didn't say hi or like, oh, no, there was a respect that I deserve. Damn it.
00:15:24
Speaker 2: Shannon, I think about how there are so many correlations here. Like I know my listeners are dying. Like Shannon, the sorority girl, Shannon, the real housewife. There's just so much like overlap. So funny because like I always think, you know, they say once you're, you know, in this in the housewife world, we're like a sorority.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: Do you feel like that?
00:15:48
Speaker 1: Absolutely. You meet someone one time that does what you do and it's an instant connection. I remember sitting next to you, Jen, in the bus and I was like spilling my guts. You were.
00:16:02
Speaker 3: It was so great. It was a tough year for me.
00:16:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were having a tough year. You even cried a little. I remember thinking, wow, we got closed very quickly.
00:16:10
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, there's something that's amazing about you because there's just this goodness in you that it's just you feel it. And so I felt very comfortable to share it with you.
00:16:22
Speaker 2: I feel the same way about you. But, you know, it's also, listen, and being in a sorority is also can be competitive, cutthroat, right? There's, I mean, these are your quote unquote sisters. It doesn't always feel like that. I'm sure. I mean, all of us can look back and it's, it's, do you still keep in touch with your sisters?
00:16:43
Speaker 1: No. They're busy. But no, no. I mean, I was roommates with two. So I have two very close friends.
00:16:49
Speaker 2: Oh, good.
00:16:49
Speaker 1: From the house. But I just don't know if that's my makeup. Like, I don't have a huge circle of friends today. I just keep a small group around me. So I don't know. We had 140 girls in our sorority. So, like, I don't know if I'm built for that many friendships. I like intimate, close relationships. Yes.
00:17:09
Speaker 2: Especially as I get older. Putting people out left and right. But... But so I'm picturing them though, coming for you. Like if it's me and you are, you are in my sorority. Oh, I'm DMing. I'm, I'm finding you. We're going to, we're having coffee.
00:17:25
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:17:26
Speaker 2: See, we didn't have any of that. We didn't even have the cell phone. Nobody's coming after you. I know, but nobody's DMing you or from. No.
00:17:33
Speaker 1: So I had a boy, I had a boyfriend for eight years. I never went to one fraternity party other than his, which is the weirdest thing. So there were some girls because we went out for eight years total and we were engaged, but then we broke up.
00:17:48
Speaker 2: You started going out freshman year and then it continued after you graduated?
00:17:51
Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. And there were girls that inappropriately tried to make advances.
00:17:58
Speaker 2: They had no idea who they were dealing with.
00:18:02
Speaker 1: Well, I still remember their names.
00:18:08
Speaker 3: Feel free to spill them here.
00:18:10
Speaker 1: Seriously. Don't be coming to me for any favors, ladies. I know who you are.
00:18:14
Speaker 2: Oh, my God.
00:18:15
Speaker 3: Can you imagine how pissed they are now?
00:18:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
00:18:19
Speaker 3: I could have been in the audience and watched What Happens Live.
00:18:22
Speaker 2: Screw that stuff.
00:18:25
Speaker 3: All right.
00:18:26
Speaker 2: So you've gone back and you were united with your little, I know that. We didn't call them littles. I hate that. They were little sisters then.
00:18:33
Speaker 1: Oh, that's what Sophie. Sophie was a Catholic at Baylor. She calls it her little and her big. And a grand big.
00:18:40
Speaker 2: And a grand big. I can't. I know. And they don't know any different. But like for me, it's like that always gets on my nerves. But you reunited with your little tell me a little bit about that was like.
00:18:50
Speaker 1: OK, so when Jeff and I went back, my little sister was the head advisor to the whole group. So, yes, I saw her there. And a poor thing I've heard. She she lost her home in the Palisades fire. And I just saw a post recently that I guess she's starting to rebuild. So she's had a tough time, but yes, I saw her.
00:19:12
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:13
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:19:14
Speaker 2: It's weird, right? It's like worlds collide like that. I've been back to my sorority house. I mean, it's in Austin, Texas. So I haven't been back that many times when I took my son to see UT and whatever. It's a very strange feeling. I mean, the person that I was back then, you know, in my late teens, early twenties is It's so different from who I am today. And even though those years in a sorority were so much fun, I was a ball of insecurities. Like, I don't know, you know, I'm a 58-year-old woman now. Obviously, it's different. But do you feel, you're the president. I mean, you took on these leadership roles. How did you feel about yourself back then?
00:19:51
Speaker 1: I mean, there were times where I thought it was tough when certain girls didn't agree with me. But at the same time, I thought– I saw an opportunity for a house that, you know, had issues that there were– things that I could do to possibly make it better or improve it. So I kind of went in.
00:20:07
Speaker 3: And that was the drive. It wasn't like, I want this on my resume, but you.
00:20:09
Speaker 1: Know, no, no, not at all. And I, you know, I, I wanted to make positive change and I, I hope that I did. I'll tell you, I graduated in December. So I wasn't around for the second half of, because I was a four and a half year senior. So, but when I went back for initiation in like April, I, I memorized the whole thing. And there was a lot of Greek words. And, oh, but you know what I had them do? They had a throne that you could sit on. I had them bring dry ice in. Oh, yeah, I did.
00:20:44
Speaker 2: I'm so not surprised by that. I mean, that is, it's perfect. These stories to me are perfect. If I'm listening to this, this is what I want to hear from you right now. Because I.
00:20:57
Speaker 3: I'm of course, like looking at.
00:20:59
Speaker 2: The connection between the you that I know, not just personally, but also on the show and the you then, you know, and I love that you're saying that you didn't do it just to put it on your resume. Cause I feel like even on the show, like you don't do shit just to like, like there's, there's never some covert reason. And I've heard, you know, you had a bet, but I feel like you're just, you do your shit that you want to do that makes sense for you in your life. No apologies for it.
00:21:25
Speaker 1: Also, I was the dumbass that thought when you graduated and got a job, they expected you to know how to do everything. So I was scared to graduate. It's like, what am I going to do? So when the opportunity came to potentially run for president, because the term ran from January through the end of the year, I thought, well, I'll just split up my schedule and I'll stay an extra semester and I'll run for president.
00:21:48
Speaker 2: Okay, my friends, that is it for this episode of Dirty Rush, but there is a part two. So tune in to hear more from the lovely Shannon Storms Bedore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Dirty Rush, the truth about sorority life with your hosts, me, Gia Giudice.
00:00:06
Speaker 2: Daisy Kent, and Jennifer Fessler. Hi, guys.
00:00:12
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Dirty Rush.
00:00:13
Speaker 2: I am Jen Fessler. So today I am joined by a very special guest, actually an icon. So you may know her from The Real Housewives of Orange County. I bet that you do. But today we are going to hear what her life was like during college recruitment. So please welcome my friend, the beautiful Shannon Storms Bedore. Hi, my Shannon.
00:00:36
Speaker 1: Hello, Jen. Hello.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: I am so excited. You know, I've been chasing you for a while for this. I know.
00:00:43
Speaker 1: And I feel really bad. I'm sorry. I moved so that I might have been a little bit overwhelmed, but I'm.
00:00:49
Speaker 3: Glad to be here.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no. Believe me, we know how life is. But I'm telling you, we have wanted you on Dirty Rush because I think that we, when I say we, I think me, my producers, you just seem like the ultimate sorority girl. Like, and I mean, I, and we're going to get into the specifics, but I can, you know, certain women, you look at them and you think, huh, I can't sort of picture them. I think people sort of, sort of look at me sometimes and they're surprised that I was in University of Texas sorority girl. I feel like you, I can see it very easily.
00:01:23
Speaker 1: It's funny that you say that. I mean, there's a story behind it because I did not have a good sorority rush. In fact, I dropped out the first year and then I went again the second year. I am not the kind of girl, because at USC, they plan the parties and you meet every single, all the girls in all the houses. And so there was like, hi! And I'm the kind of person that's like, hey, hi. Shh. And so I didn't do well. And I had like shaggy hair, like punk rock 80s. So no, it is funny because, yeah, I'm looking at myself in the Zoom going, yeah, that's right there.
00:02:03
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly. But I mean, I also picture your personality.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: I don't know.
00:02:07
Speaker 3: And it's funny.
00:02:07
Speaker 2: I don't know how many people from the show know that you went to USC, you little brainiac.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: Oh, no, everyone does. I'm saying fight on. Go Trojans. My dog's name is Troy.
00:02:16
Speaker 2: Everyone knows. Fair enough.
00:02:17
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: I just didn't realize, but listen, I mean, I, I want to hear what happened the first time around. Cause I think that's like, especially well for our podcast, of course, but it's such an intense thing, right? Going through rush and we're not the age, obviously of a lot of the, the young women that we talked to and certainly was different than different, what it is now. Tell us a little bit about your experience the first time and then the second time. Okay.
00:02:44
Speaker 1: Okay. So my mother went to USD, which was a Catholic school in San Diego. So they didn't have the sororities and fraternities and everything like that. So she didn't really know how to prepare me. And I didn't know how to do it either. But at USC, it was like, I'd say most of the kids were in the sororities, fraternities. It was the total social part of the school. I mean, in fact, as the years went on, when you were out at the 9-0 or one of those local bars, And a guy came up to you. The first question is, what house are you in? And the answer to that question was the determining factor whether that conversation was going to continue or not. So it was just a lot, a lot of pressure. It was very preppy, pearls, Laura Ashley dresses. I didn't have any of that. So in fact, one day, and this is like the summer, August in downtown Los Angeles. It's never cold there. One day I wore a wool jacket. laser and pinstripe pants I don't know what I was thinking and I know they were all writing my name down like no get her out so I and I was always popular so it was hard to go into this big school I had 36 kids in my senior class so I wasn't used to all this big stuff so so it was hard I got rejected and um and it's not it's not fun to be rejected so I thought well let me Drop out, you know, kind of get the lay of the land, become friends with people, and then I'll try again next year. So the second time around, I got the right outfits and I knew, you know, what to do. And I had best friends in the top sororities. But on the last day, I got dropped by all of them. And my friends like sent me flowers and they called me crying. And they said, we fought for you, Shannon. And God had a plan. I was in a not so great. house.
00:04:34
Speaker 3: I mean, it was, this is so interesting to me.
00:04:37
Speaker 2: I'm telling you right now, first of all, like, especially for all our listeners, I know, I mean, we're talking about sororities, but so many of the girls that listen to dirty rush are going through it, have gone through it, have been rejected, know how intense it is, you know, feel shitty about it. And then even saying, you know, I got into a house and it was not one of the pop houses. And I just think it's like, I'm so thrilled in a way to hear you say it because, you know, people know who you are.
00:05:08
Speaker 3: It's going to be, I feel like people will know. I mean, I truly mean it.
00:05:12
Speaker 2: Like a lot of these girls know who you are and I, I love your sharing this experience. So you didn't get in the first time and you were, or you just, you were dropped or you were just, you just bowed out.
00:05:22
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. That, I mean, I, I understand why I was dropped.
00:05:26
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm stripes and right.
00:05:28
Speaker 1: Wool wool in august downtown la but the but the second time around i did well until the end and you know the reason and i feel bad to say because i did develop some close friendships not not a ton but some close friendships from my sorority but um when i say mediocre i go back to my statement of if i'm in the bar and i say what house i heard that yeah conversation didn't go much farther for me Because of the house that I was in. So it was a bummer. But, you know, in the end, I became Rush chairman and then I ran for president. I know.
00:06:08
Speaker 2: And then you became the president.
00:06:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was very good for me because it was kind of an early lesson in politics and how things work, etc. So, you know, that's clearly why I was, you know, placed where I was placed.
00:06:25
Speaker 2: Did your friends that sent you flowers, did they explain it to you? I'm trying to picture a scenario where beautiful Shannon Storm's wearing the right outfit, the Lily Pulitzer of it all. I mean, I know that you had to approach it sweet and bubbly and whatever. Maybe you said you were not that bubbly at that time, but did.
00:06:42
Speaker 3: They give you a reason? Did any of your friends say?
00:06:45
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know what? I mean, gosh, I don't know if this is going to get me in trouble, but there was.
00:06:50
Speaker 2: You have, honey.
00:06:51
Speaker 3: You got it.
00:06:52
Speaker 2: I don't think that we're going to worry about you getting in trouble over sorority nonsense.
00:06:55
Speaker 1: There was back in... So I went through sorority rush in 1983. So back then, things were a lot different than they were. There wasn't a lot of inclusivity. So I don't want to say that there was a bit of anti-Semitism going on at the school, but I had my nose done in my sophomore year. I had a huge nose and people... thought that I was Jewish. Come on. I'm not kidding. Yeah, I'm not kidding.
00:07:26
Speaker 2: I could just throw up. I mean, I am Jewish.
00:07:28
Speaker 1: I mean, then you have to understand, two years later, you know, it was a very different world.
00:07:35
Speaker 2: No, but I appreciate, I appreciate your bringing that to light because we haven't really talked about that a lot on Dirty Rush. I was in a Jewish sorority because it was formed at the University of Texas because Jewish girls had a hard time getting into other sororities. So there you go.
00:07:52
Speaker 1: And I suppose I don't have actual data or statistics, but it's just kind of what was an unwritten or unspoken, yeah, that's how it is. And interestingly enough, so I pledged my sophomore year, and on that Christmas vacation, I had a nose job.
00:08:11
Speaker 2: Wow. I know.
00:08:12
Speaker 3: Wow.
00:08:29
Speaker 2: Okay. So you pledge, you get in, you said it wasn't a quote unquote top tier. So funny. Cause like my daughter, I know you have one daughter.
00:08:37
Speaker 1: Do I say the name?
00:08:38
Speaker 3: We didn't say that back then.
00:08:39
Speaker 2: Yeah. If you don't mind, that's Alpha Chi Omega. Alpha Chi Omega. Back then we didn't say this is a top tier sorority. We didn't have, well, we didn't have, you know, we didn't have social media, so we didn't have, you know, rankings and all the other crap that comes with that. Right. Like what made it top tier for me back in the day? It was like, well, in terms of the stories I was looking at, this one has the most pretty girls. You know, I don't know what makes it, if that's right. And that was like, it wasn't, unfortunately, it was not about where do the smart girls go or the nice girls go. I don't know if it was like that for you too.
00:09:11
Speaker 1: It was, it was the pretty girls and then it was also the wealthy girls.
00:09:15
Speaker 2: And the wealthy girls, right.
00:09:17
Speaker 1: So there were girls that weren't as maybe attractive, but, you know, and, and, you know, at USC, it was such an important part of the social life. there were people that knew they were going to rush. So they got to know some of the girls and they'd fly them on the jet for a vacation or, you know, stuff like that, just to kind of be well-known before they went in. Yeah. But, you know, I didn't have the jet. Who knows what I may have tried to try that tactic. Yeah, exactly.
00:09:45
Speaker 3: But I mean, you were, you, you became the president.
00:09:47
Speaker 2: So clearly you were very involved. You must have, you know, when you look back on it, did you, do you feel like you enjoyed it? you know, your sorority experience and do you feel like it would have been different if you had pledged a different sorority, if you had gotten in somewhere else? Or do you feel like you got in, you know, the right one for you?
00:10:07
Speaker 1: I mean, now that I look back on it and all the things that I learned, like for instance, we had chapter every Monday night and you would have your Monday night dinner and then you go down to the chapter room and oh goodness, they would drag on and on and on and on. And then people started to make excuses for not coming to the meeting. So when I became president, I had like a timing thing. If you did not come to my room and put your announcement on the agenda, I'd go, sorry, I know we have a... pledge active party this Saturday, but she didn't come to my room. The advisors would love to have the floor so they could talk, talk, talk. I go, you're three minutes is up. And so people came to chapter because they got the information quickly without people talking, talking and, and they got out. So I feel as though I was able to do things like that. And it was, I've thought about this this morning when I was graduating and we had the election for the new girls that were running for president, I wanted to make sure that we did it completely by the book. So with the advisors, I looked in the bylaws and we sat at a table and we divided it up between the executive board and we counted the votes and then piled it together. Like we did it all by the book and there was a girl that didn't win. And she came to my room one night and said, can I see the bylaws?
00:11:28
Speaker 2: And I go, sure.
00:11:29
Speaker 1: And I handed her the book and she went to Kinko's And she had the whole book copied. Her parents gave it to their attorney. And they did an investigation thinking that potentially I had rigged the election. Come on. No. And you know what they found out at the investigation? For the first time it was done by the book. Me.
00:11:52
Speaker 2: For the first time. Yeah.
00:11:54
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:11:55
Speaker 3: Who does that?
00:11:56
Speaker 2: Like, I also think, yeah, I think that would happen today, actually. That is how, and I don't know if we took sororities as seriously back then we took it seriously for sure. But now with, I mean, I don't remember having Panhellenic being so involved and I was, but not like it is now. There's so many bylaws and rules and all of that.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: Right.
00:12:17
Speaker 2: I think we were a little more loosey goosey back then, but maybe, maybe not you guys.
00:12:21
Speaker 1: No, I mean, it was to an extent, but no hell weeks, hell weeks were hell weeks.
00:12:26
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:12:27
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that in today's world, you do need to have, all of those rules. Um, cause I know, I know that USC is completely different today. And I went back when I was in law school, I went back to, to help with rush for, I don't know, one of the days. And it was very different. Like girls were wearing shorts and it wasn't, there weren't as many people going through us because people were more individuals then, and they didn't want to conform to the story. So I don't really know what it is now, but I do remember on the house tours day in my actual sorority, I think her name was Jenny Lynn or something like that. The girl in Three's Company. She was from my house. So I wondered.
00:13:09
Speaker 2: Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:13:09
Speaker 3: Jenny Lynn?
00:13:10
Speaker 2: Which one was she?
00:13:11
Speaker 1: Jenny Lee.
00:13:12
Speaker 3: So not Suzanne Somers, not Joyce DeWitt. The other curly haired one?
00:13:16
Speaker 1: She took over for Suzanne Somers when she left.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: Right.
00:13:20
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: Okay. Okay. Yeah.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: Not.
00:13:21
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Wow. Look at your little claim to fame.
00:13:27
Speaker 1: So I wonder, I have wondered. I don't even know if the house is still there because I know there was issues if they're going to stay. But did they put my picture on the wall?
00:13:38
Speaker 3: You don't want to know that? How have you not headed back? It's not that far. I mean, that's so important.
00:13:44
Speaker 2: Well, they have my picture on the wall at mine, but it's simply a composite. There are no tributes to Jennifer Fessler, a friend of a housewife. No, no, stop.
00:13:54
Speaker 1: Stop it. You know, Jeff Lewis, when he was filming Flipping Out, not the new one, I came up with the idea you should do a sorority. And so we went to Alphacai Omega and we filmed it and we toured the house. But somehow they decided not to work with him, which was such a bummer. So I did get to go back.
00:14:17
Speaker 2: What a dumb move on their part. I know.
00:14:19
Speaker 1: You go through it with Jeff.
00:14:20
Speaker 2: This is a complete aside, but you've been friends with Jeff for that long? I didn't realize.
00:14:24
Speaker 1: I met Jeff when two months into filming my first season. So we've been friends since 2013.
00:14:31
Speaker 2: Got it. Got it. That makes sense.
00:14:33
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:14:34
Speaker 2: So you're the president and you're leading this house full of best friends. You know, you were in that leadership role. Was it hard to juggle it? I mean, for all those presidents out there listening, was it hard to maintain those friendships while still having to, you know, kind of keep everyone in check?
00:14:52
Speaker 1: I mean, no, no. And I never really thought of that, but I was kind of more of a kind of a fun person. So I didn't really get down on it. And I wasn't in charge of standards. That was the first vice president. So that's where the disciplinary stuff happened. I will say if I saw Pledge on Campus and I was, you know, good enough to remember their name, it's like, hi, hello, Lindsay. And they didn't say hi or like, oh, no, there was a respect that I deserve. Damn it.
00:15:24
Speaker 2: Shannon, I think about how there are so many correlations here. Like I know my listeners are dying. Like Shannon, the sorority girl, Shannon, the real housewife. There's just so much like overlap. So funny because like I always think, you know, they say once you're, you know, in this in the housewife world, we're like a sorority.
00:15:47
Speaker 3: Do you feel like that?
00:15:48
Speaker 1: Absolutely. You meet someone one time that does what you do and it's an instant connection. I remember sitting next to you, Jen, in the bus and I was like spilling my guts. You were.
00:16:02
Speaker 3: It was so great. It was a tough year for me.
00:16:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were having a tough year. You even cried a little. I remember thinking, wow, we got closed very quickly.
00:16:10
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, there's something that's amazing about you because there's just this goodness in you that it's just you feel it. And so I felt very comfortable to share it with you.
00:16:22
Speaker 2: I feel the same way about you. But, you know, it's also, listen, and being in a sorority is also can be competitive, cutthroat, right? There's, I mean, these are your quote unquote sisters. It doesn't always feel like that. I'm sure. I mean, all of us can look back and it's, it's, do you still keep in touch with your sisters?
00:16:43
Speaker 1: No. They're busy. But no, no. I mean, I was roommates with two. So I have two very close friends.
00:16:49
Speaker 2: Oh, good.
00:16:49
Speaker 1: From the house. But I just don't know if that's my makeup. Like, I don't have a huge circle of friends today. I just keep a small group around me. So I don't know. We had 140 girls in our sorority. So, like, I don't know if I'm built for that many friendships. I like intimate, close relationships. Yes.
00:17:09
Speaker 2: Especially as I get older. Putting people out left and right. But... But so I'm picturing them though, coming for you. Like if it's me and you are, you are in my sorority. Oh, I'm DMing. I'm, I'm finding you. We're going to, we're having coffee.
00:17:25
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:17:26
Speaker 2: See, we didn't have any of that. We didn't even have the cell phone. Nobody's coming after you. I know, but nobody's DMing you or from. No.
00:17:33
Speaker 1: So I had a boy, I had a boyfriend for eight years. I never went to one fraternity party other than his, which is the weirdest thing. So there were some girls because we went out for eight years total and we were engaged, but then we broke up.
00:17:48
Speaker 2: You started going out freshman year and then it continued after you graduated?
00:17:51
Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. And there were girls that inappropriately tried to make advances.
00:17:58
Speaker 2: They had no idea who they were dealing with.
00:18:02
Speaker 1: Well, I still remember their names.
00:18:08
Speaker 3: Feel free to spill them here.
00:18:10
Speaker 1: Seriously. Don't be coming to me for any favors, ladies. I know who you are.
00:18:14
Speaker 2: Oh, my God.
00:18:15
Speaker 3: Can you imagine how pissed they are now?
00:18:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
00:18:19
Speaker 3: I could have been in the audience and watched What Happens Live.
00:18:22
Speaker 2: Screw that stuff.
00:18:25
Speaker 3: All right.
00:18:26
Speaker 2: So you've gone back and you were united with your little, I know that. We didn't call them littles. I hate that. They were little sisters then.
00:18:33
Speaker 1: Oh, that's what Sophie. Sophie was a Catholic at Baylor. She calls it her little and her big. And a grand big.
00:18:40
Speaker 2: And a grand big. I can't. I know. And they don't know any different. But like for me, it's like that always gets on my nerves. But you reunited with your little tell me a little bit about that was like.
00:18:50
Speaker 1: OK, so when Jeff and I went back, my little sister was the head advisor to the whole group. So, yes, I saw her there. And a poor thing I've heard. She she lost her home in the Palisades fire. And I just saw a post recently that I guess she's starting to rebuild. So she's had a tough time, but yes, I saw her.
00:19:12
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:13
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:19:14
Speaker 2: It's weird, right? It's like worlds collide like that. I've been back to my sorority house. I mean, it's in Austin, Texas. So I haven't been back that many times when I took my son to see UT and whatever. It's a very strange feeling. I mean, the person that I was back then, you know, in my late teens, early twenties is It's so different from who I am today. And even though those years in a sorority were so much fun, I was a ball of insecurities. Like, I don't know, you know, I'm a 58-year-old woman now. Obviously, it's different. But do you feel, you're the president. I mean, you took on these leadership roles. How did you feel about yourself back then?
00:19:51
Speaker 1: I mean, there were times where I thought it was tough when certain girls didn't agree with me. But at the same time, I thought– I saw an opportunity for a house that, you know, had issues that there were– things that I could do to possibly make it better or improve it. So I kind of went in.
00:20:07
Speaker 3: And that was the drive. It wasn't like, I want this on my resume, but you.
00:20:09
Speaker 1: Know, no, no, not at all. And I, you know, I, I wanted to make positive change and I, I hope that I did. I'll tell you, I graduated in December. So I wasn't around for the second half of, because I was a four and a half year senior. So, but when I went back for initiation in like April, I, I memorized the whole thing. And there was a lot of Greek words. And, oh, but you know what I had them do? They had a throne that you could sit on. I had them bring dry ice in. Oh, yeah, I did.
00:20:44
Speaker 2: I'm so not surprised by that. I mean, that is, it's perfect. These stories to me are perfect. If I'm listening to this, this is what I want to hear from you right now. Because I.
00:20:57
Speaker 3: I'm of course, like looking at.
00:20:59
Speaker 2: The connection between the you that I know, not just personally, but also on the show and the you then, you know, and I love that you're saying that you didn't do it just to put it on your resume. Cause I feel like even on the show, like you don't do shit just to like, like there's, there's never some covert reason. And I've heard, you know, you had a bet, but I feel like you're just, you do your shit that you want to do that makes sense for you in your life. No apologies for it.
00:21:25
Speaker 1: Also, I was the dumbass that thought when you graduated and got a job, they expected you to know how to do everything. So I was scared to graduate. It's like, what am I going to do? So when the opportunity came to potentially run for president, because the term ran from January through the end of the year, I thought, well, I'll just split up my schedule and I'll stay an extra semester and I'll run for president.
00:21:48
Speaker 2: Okay, my friends, that is it for this episode of Dirty Rush, but there is a part two. So tune in to hear more from the lovely Shannon Storms Bedore.
