Photo by Muffy Aldrich
The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy

Sunday, February 28, 2021

On Today's Walk

Photo by Salt Water New England

15 comments:

  1. Perfectamundo. Grazie.

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  2. Superb! Thank you!

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  3. I love everything about this.

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  4. Muffy - you are the epitome of good taste !!

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  5. What is most impressive here is the subtle evolution of the Prep-palate. In Prep School, Muffy's blouse would have been solid, not striped. The sweater (sorry, the Jumper) would have been one of three available shades of green (and the one pictured here ain't one of them). The scarf would not have been in the picture as scarves were not then part of Prep-layering. Finally, the Barbour would have been replaced by either a Duffle Coat, her father's Chesterfield or a down parka. And they say people never change! By the way, the pearls would be the same. Every Prep Girl gets them at 15 and shows them off at the oddest times, such as when she leaves her Prep School dorm late at night in a Lanz nightgown to go drinking at a day-student's house.

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    1. ^ You killed me with the Lanz nightgown. :-)

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    2. Dear Sartre, once upon a time, there was a women's college in Newton, Massachusetts affectionately known as Pine Mattress (Pine Manor) College. It was there where I first saw the Lanz affectation. The night was far from young and we were at the stage where many were looking for a ride back to New Haven when, lo and behold, a bevy of new hosts arrived at the dorm wearing their nightgowns and carrying cocktail glasses, albeit empty. Filling cocktail glasses was something we knew how to do and within a half hour the party was quite lively. Many of us fell in love that evening. Alas, I settled for falling asleep in an arm chair with one of these nice women snuggled against me, pearls and all. In the morning, one of the more recovered among our hosts explained the choice of attire for the prior evening. Nightgowns, she related, were not sexual and were more a suit of armor designed to prevent the results of our amorous attempts. Upon reflection, I realized she was profoundly correct. We Yalies were more charmed than aroused by our hosts but nonetheless enjoyed their company very much, perhaps, looking back, more than had they arrived in traditional evening attire.

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    3. I couldn't help but chuckle a bit with the Pine Mattress reference during its salad days.

      I'm not sure when the shift happened but the school became more of a community college somewhere in the early 2000's. As you know, the school traditionally admitted girls who had the right backgrounds but the wrong test scores and grades. Sort of like a Babson or BU but for girls.

      Boston College purchased Pine Manor recently for pennies on the dollar. I'm sure they'll convert it to one its schools.

      However, I'm sure the Pine Mattress monicker will come up again in conversations about late nights at Daisy Buchanan's on Newbury Street (also defunct) and other smoky, putrid watering holes in Kenmore Square.

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    4. Dear Anon March 3 12:45 PM, thank you for the modern history lesson. Narrating the decline of one of the bastions of Prep Life in the 1960's-1970's, however, is not for the faint of heart. I for one see Pine Mattress as a metaphor for what has occurred to our little place in the world, we the few, the cultured, Princes of New England.

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  6. You are able to beautifully pull off mixing two plaids and stripes. Looks very British! Thumbs up!

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  7. I am reminded of a quote about Mrs. Catherine Gardner of the Bluebird Valley Ranch in Alberta, as related in "Ranch" by Moira Johnson: "I'll bet she wears her pearls on a roundup."

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