big 1foml!y
ZBT housemother cares for brothers like they were her own sons
By SUSAN HUDSON
Who can find a virtuous woman? For her
price is far above rubies. . . She lookethwell
to the ways of her household and eateth not
the bread of idleness. Her children arise up,
and call her blessed.
Proverbs 31: 10, 27, 28
"I'm just like a mother at home. But in
stead of three or four, I have forty children,"
said Elsie Shapiro, housemother for the Zeta
Beta Tau fraternity.
She is barely five feet tall and her snowy
white hair and kind smile brought to mind
the picture of the perfect grandmother. Her
accent immediately revealed her Brooklyn
youth. Like some restless electron, the ener
getic woman was in constant motion.
Her eyes widened and sparkled behind
her glasses as she talked about "her" boys.
"They're just like my own sons," she said.
The brothers of ZBT should seem like
Shapiro's family because she's been their
housemother since 1964. The ZBTs had just
built a new house on Finley Golf Course
Road and their housemother had left. They
needed a new housemother before the house
could be opened.
Shapiro's son, then president of ZBT, talk
ed his mother into taking the job temporarily.
September 17, 1981, was the anniversary of
her seventeenth year at the ZBT house. "He
sold me a bill of goods," said Shapiro of her
son.
"At first I acted as a chaperone," she said.
"But there are not strict rules as to what I
do." .
Discipline is no longer Shapiro's function.
"All my boys are so good, why should I dis
cipline them?" she asked earnestly. "Some
times you call a boy down for something,"
she said, but she insisted that most discipline
comes from the officers of the fraternity.
Shapiro is in charge of the ZBT kitchen.
Her job includes drawing up menus, pur
chasing food and even cooking during emer
gencies. But she does more than any job descrip
tion could imply. ZBT brothers trooped in
and out of her room at the front of the house
all day. One came to use her phone. Another
wanted a sheet of paper. Some came in just
to say hello and to give and receive a friend--ly
hug.
"I'll be in PTA ail my life," Shapiro laughed
as she described her role as mother to rough
ly forty boys who are perpetually between
the ages of 18 and 23. She lovingly displayed
the brown paper bags in which she packs
lunch for those ZBT brothers who cannot
make it to the house for lunch.
Shapiro said she tries to keep up with the
brothers of ZBT. She usually joins them at
their parties and rush functions. "When I get
tired, I say goodnight and close the door,"
she said.
AT LAST THE FILM THAT IS ON ALL THE "10 BEST" LISTS
(THE CAROLINA TfiEflflSjl ZTsu' '
I t&JmM mim fcdoH939j 1:35,3:30,5:20
V !".--'" JJ Discount Mats. Wed.
If:
II
!
If
ii
5
r
i
V
ii.
IS
L
sC -
Elsie Shapiro
.ZBT Housemother
OTHAI Steele
And she always goes with the brothers to
the Homecoming football game. If she's a
little slow, the boys tease her as they would
their own mother, she said. "I just tell them
that I'm coming and so's Christmas."
Last spring the brothers of ZBT surprised
Shapiro with a free trip to Israel. "It was a
total surprise," she said. "One of the boys
said, 'Can you see Mrs. Shapiro on a
camel?'"
So Shapiro made sure the boys would see
her on a camel. She had some of the pic
tures of her taken riding a camel, planting a
tree and visiting famous religiobs and histor
ical sites in Israel mounted and framed for
the brothers at ZBT.
Since 1964 Shapiro has seen many ZBTs
come and go. "There's a change in the way
they dress," she said. "They used to have
patched dungarees and long hair. Now
they're well-groomed." She showed pictures
of the brothers through the years to illustrate
her point
"But the boy itself is the same," she said.
"There's no change in the mannerisms of the
boy. They're the same gentlemen, the same
sweet boys in 1981 as in 1964," she said.
As she gazed fondly at the old pictures,
Shapiro said, "The greatest thrill in the
whole wide world is to see a freshman grow
up. I'm so proud of them," she said. "They're
just like my own sons."
And that's why Elsie Shapiro has become
an institution at the ZBT house she cares.
"Ifs a dedication. It couldn't be the pay or
hours. They're not attractive," she said. "Be
ing a mother to a boy away from home
that's my reward."
Susan Hudson is the Features Editor of The
Daily Tar Heel.
CD
FfSHT
AGAINST
2:30
4:50
DEATHTRAP
JSETI
BARGAIN MATINEES $2.00
'TILL 6 PM MON.-FRI. ALL SCREENS
7:10 MICHAEL CAINE CHRISTOPHER REEVE
9:30 O
OYAN CANNON
2-45
"gg Walter Matthau Ann-Margaret
705 Neil Simon,s (pQ)
9:15 I Ought to be in Pictures
2:15
4:45
7:15
9:45
Julie Andrews James Garner
CL BLAKE EDWARDS'
-VICTOn
RICHARD
MON.-FRt. TILL 6 PM ADULTS $2.00 I 7:15 9:15
Fri.-Sat. Midnight All seats $2.00
Rocky Horror Picture Show (R)
LU SUNSET STRIP Cw
3:15 5:15 BDVAfl
LRJI ON THE
SPECIAL ADVANCE '.SHOWING!'
Friday 49 7:20 p.m.
"The Most A udacious
American Movie of the Year."
Jonathan Cott, Rolling Stone
v -Vv..
MM
directed ty
wnnen by. and starring
FRIDAY 49 ONLY:
See "Andre" at 7:20 pm
then stay to see "Victor, Victoria" at 9:25 pm
for one admission!
I
Spotlight, April 8, 1982