Calling card image from Wikimedia Commons. Mine... I'd have to hand to you...For a Modern-Preppy's lifestyle, there remains an almost overwhelming abundance of things, services, experiences, choices and such readily available 24/7 however, there are a few once-cherished elements of the past within traditional preppy lifestyles which this particular preppy does indeed miss including:
Non-tickey-tackey neighborhood Tea Rooms where ladies gathered for serene afternoon repasts.
The beautiful boutique-like stores of Smith and Hawkin, Waverly, Laura Ashley...perusing around them was such a pleasure...
Full-service gas stations where attendants even hand-swept out your car's floor mats.
Elevator attendants in department stores who wore uniforms and seemed so serious.
Wearing short white gloves and pretty hats to church every Sunday, not just at Easter.
Men wearing sharp hats with their suits and many sporting bow ties during the day too.
Being handed other people's calling cards... I still make use of mine which is such fun when people think you're handing them your business card instead.
People answering their house phone with, "This is the ____ (insert last name) residence, ____ (first name) speaking..."
Personal bookplates pasted inside the front covers of books friends passed around to share.
Using dumb-waiters, laundry chutes and actual bell pulls in one's house.
Putting charges "on account" by simply saying-so at the yacht club, city club, country club when one could easily do so as a really young child without being questioned at all by the staff.
Long, deep and hot-water-heat-holding bath tubs in expansive, small-tiled bathrooms.
The smell of pipes being smoked leisurely...how, where and when did that go away?
Those wooden-sided station wagons; gosh we had ours for so many years.
Actual letters and cards received in the mail, some with sealing wax stamps on the back.
And so forth n' so on. It's fun to think back to what once-was in appreciation of what it was to experience within a lifetime even if not for a complete lifetime. So much more of this kinda' stuff to list here but now tonight's insomnia is ebbing so, time to post this and head off to slumber.
If you would like pretty mail you should sign up for High Heeled Life's pen pal exchange...she does it every month and everyone makes an effort to send pink mail!
ReplyDeleteThere is a big dept store on Toronto and for years they had a doorman who was just fabulous! Last year they let him go...I havn't been back since.
I love calling cards...in fact I might have mine redesigned. People are always surprised to see my title is Suburban Princess ;o)
I think all gas stations in NJ are full serve...didn't I read something about it being illegal to pump your own gas there?
Happily, YES..!
DeleteIt's illegal to pump your own gas in NJ..!
Not a clue why, but I'm properly grateful.
I love this post! I think I'd love to see all the above brought back.
ReplyDeleteHi Suburban Princess and MLK :) I'm so glad that ya'll enjoyed this post and thanks for the kind idea about the pink mail!
ReplyDeleteMy late mother absolutely refused to pump her own gas and it was good, but too-soon timing of course, that she passed on before the last gas station in our town stopped their full-service. OR I guess she would have had to move to NJ??? ;)
Best, Lachlan
Oh Lachlan, Where are you? Please say good bye if the blog has come to an end. If life is difficult and keeping you away I shall wish for a uplifting outcome.
ReplyDeleteHI there Anonymous and thanks for your concern :) I appreciate it and am "back" slowly but surely....
ReplyDeleteLast year (from last June to this June) was a huge transitioning-time for my family and I am just now surfacing from it all. All good-stuff but almost completely overwhelming in the planning, coordinating, doing of it all. Wheh! So very glad I'm on the back-side of alla' that at this point: tired but happy.
Best to you and I'll be posting-again real soon, Lachlan