The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1959-06-19
GL M p S E S
T II E p A ST
By CAROLYN LLOYD

Styles in social entertainment
have changed with changing
world. Everything is more informal
now, including bridge parties.
Time was when it was nothing UNI
usual for a hostess, or perhaps
two or three together, to cancel
their social obligations" by having
ten or fifteen table party. Some
of these parties were so formal
that the guests wore evening
gowns. There were many complica-
tions attending affairs of such
magnitude. Few homes were big
enough to accommodate them, so
they were usually held in some
public building. That meant that
the hostesses had to spend at least
a day transporting tables and
chairs, china, glassware, and silver
and the day of the party readying
the kitchen for serving. In addi-
ton. the formal gowns created a
problem, for it was difficult to
squeeze billowing skirts between
chairs.
These parties were usually held
in the summer when there was
not the additional problem of heat
ing the building, though it was
necessary to set up fans wherever
there were outlets available. Look
ing back, one might wonder if any
one really had a good time at those
affairs. By the time the party be-
gan, the hostesses were worn out,
and it didn't take long for the
guests to become uncomfortable inl
their unaccustomed state of dress.
There were all kinds of bridge
players present-good, bad, and in
different. Occasionally there would
be a guest who had never played a
hand of brige but to whom the
hostesses were obligated. She was
assured that it didn't really matter
and that someone would help her
with the first few hands. She would
accept because Everybody" was
going and it wouldn't do for any
body to think she had been socially
sighted. This player usually wound
up at the table with the towns
bridge fiends-and the rest may be
left to the imagination. 1t took a
pretty good player to be able to
concentrate, anyhow, in room
with at least forty people bidding
and chatting.
At refreshment time the hostess
ses would begin frantically I'M
packing the block ice cream, which
was inevitably too hard or too soft.
If it was hard, the first served
found theirs skiing off across the
floor as they tried to cut it with a
fork, and the last served found
theirs making colorful little pud-
dies on the lace doilies. Any big
time party goer can testify that
paper doilies do not taste good,
even when decorated with COM
bination of chocolate, strawberry,
and vanilla.
Progressions over, the losers
would exclaim with strained
smiles over the prizes of the win
ners; and after little last minute
gossip, everybody would go home.
Everybody but the hostesses, that
is. For them the worst was yet to
come. The place had to be cleaned
up and all the borrowed things
returned. They could at least sigh
with the relief that, for another
season, their obligations were TAX
en- care of. AS for the guests, they
went home with the realization
that they had just incurred another
obligation and went to sleep men
tally counting sliverware and max
ing out lists.
Nowadays an extra table at the
bridge club meeting seems even
tually to take care of everything.
In the summer the guests are
more likely to arrive weaing shorts
than evening dresses. 1t all adds up
to less elegance but more fun for