[Tax-chick]

Oh, I don’t know. Sounds like your grandmother had better taste (and more money) in 1953 than I’ll ever have.

[AnAmericanMother]

Oh, she was a clothes horse, hair and nails done every week, always perfectly groomed (she must be having ten fits if she can see me sitting in front of my computer in an old dog club Tshirt and raggedy jeans . . . . even when she was gardening she was well dressed -- in pedal pushers, a nice blouse, a cotton sweater and white tennis shoes)

It's one of those typical Southern sagas -- she was "old blood and no money" -- her family was well connected Charleston and Tidewater VA, but had fallen on evil days when her great-grandparents died of yellow fever. She grew up in a little shotgun house on the poor side of Augusta GA.

She married the boy next door and he worked hard, became an engineer and eventually an executive for Westinghouse. So as an executive's wife she had to dress like that, part of the job description. Plus I think it was a reassurance to her that she had re-established the family fortunes.

BTW, they never would let my mom 'make her debut' because they didn't want her running with the idle rich.