November 26, 1943 Thanksgiving, Hopkins and Emily Post

Dear Mother & Daddy,

"Today is Thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for--so very much.  I hope you have had as lovely a day as we have.  We went to Professor Tilton's and had a wonderful time.  There were twelve of us.  The linens were white and the centerpiece was bittersweet and evergreens in a flat white bowl.  They are very ordinary people with no servants and on the back of each place card was something for each guest to do.  I had to serve the dessert and B helped serve the main course.  It was lots of fun and made it easy for everyone.  We had bouillon first, then turkey, dressing, mashed sweet potatoes, a small mound of cranberry sauce, creamed peas and carrots in a tart shell--all on the dinner plate.  The cole slaw and more cranberry sauce and celery were passed around the table.  We had coffee with the dinner and again with the dessert--pumpkin pie.  Nuts and mints were passed with dessert.  We visited the rest of the afternoon.

There hasn't been much doing.  We saw a very funny play last Saturday night and heard a very good speaker at church last Sunday.  I've been trying to do some Christmas shopping, but can't get much done.

Last week I had a letter from Beulah and some snapshots of Charlotte.  They were precious.  She has grown out of my imagination.

B has a new job, besides the Yale job.  All he has to do for Yale this year is see that certain books are kept in the rooms where he does most of his work.  It's very easy.  Last week the University called him and said one of the boys' schools in town needed a teacher.  He went out to see about it and was given the job.  It is an exclusive private school for boys, established in 1660.  B teaches about 9 hours a week--Literature and Mathematics.  He will get about $800. for the rest of the year.  It means quite a lot more work for B so after Christmas I think I'll quit my job and help him with typing and grading papers.  I haven't given notice yet but will about the first of December.

  http://www.hopkins.edu/default.aspx

I bought an Emily Post the other day.  I've always wanted one.  It was $4.00.

We are expecting Sully down tomorrow night to stay all night.  I hope you are all feeling fine.  Write soon."

                                                   Lots of love,
                                                         
                                                              B & Bonnie                                           

“The requirement of a house of charm is that it shall be completely satisfying to live in.” So wrote American etiquette expert Emily Post in September, 1943, for the National Real Estate Journal. “Comfort …means perfect adjustment to whatever it may please you to have or to do…it means the adaptability of the surroundings that are yours, to your family and to you.”
“Beautiful objects contribute to a beautiful house,” Post wrote, “and yet, cost as a standard of beauty could not be a less accurate test. Many simple little houses that have scarcely an object of value are utterly friendly, convenient and delightful. Many great houses are so austerely unwelcoming and so obviously uncomfortable, it is a wonder that their owners can bear to live in them.”
Post also favored a house with a lived-in look. “Evidences of a family’s pursuits contribute a quality which many people fail to appreciate. The sewing basket…the book on the table, with the pair of glasses beside it…a doll in a chair…a collection of pipes. It is the ‘lived in’ and ‘taken-comfort-in’ evidences that breathe life into what is otherwise only a house, and transform it into that loveliest place in the world- the place that is really HOME.”  (Quoted directly from This Month in Real Estate History, R. Carlson, 2009.)