yep.
Taking a break from Underworld.
Some choice questions from Amy Vanderbilt's Everyday Etiquette (copyright 1952)
My wife tells me that a man accompanying a lady on the street always walks on the curb side. Is this still true when he is walking with two ladies? Does he offer his arm?
In America it is customary for a man to walk on the curb side when accompanying a lady on the street, but the rule is not so hard and fast as it used to be. In Europe the man walks on the woman's left, which may be the inside. When a man is accompanying two ladies he may walk between them, or, conservatively, on the outside, moving to the center position to assist both across the street. He does not offer his arm to a lady, except to an elderly or infirm one, in the daytime, although he does so at night or in bad weather. He offers his arm to assist her across the street but does not propel her by the elbow. He may never taker her arm except to help her in and out of vehicles, to guide her across the street, etc. In this latter case, incidentally, a woman should bend her arm so that the man may pilot her efficiently.
My boy friend and I work together in this city, but we are going to my home, several states distant, to be married. Is it all right for us to travel together in the train without a chaperone? It is an overnight trip.
Yes, but preferably you occupy quarters in separate cars, and of course you observe all proprieties. The other people in the train are now considered proper chaperones to you.
In passing a woman in a narrow corridor of a train, what should I do so that she may pass without coming into close contact with me?
You step into an empty compartment if there is one, or, if there isn't, you flatten yourself, face inward, against either wall.
My son, fifteen, is in boarding school. When I write him, do I address him as "Master," "Mister," or as plain "Robert Brown"?
As plain "Robert Brown." He is "Master" until the age of twelve, and today "Mister" beginning at age eighteen. Previously, socially, a man did not use the title, "Mister," before the age of twenty-one, but with draft age eighteen, it is now accepted that a boy reaches manhood at that age and is certainly entitled to a "Mister."
When I take out my girl who is considerably shorter than I and it begins to rain, should I let her carry the umbrella and I walk out in the rain, or should I attempt, in spite of the disparity of our heights, to hold it over here?
You hold it over her unless you are so burdened with packages that this seems impossible, in which case she walks under the umbrella and you walk outside of it.
and finally, the question that started it all:
I am a girl of fifteen. My mother says nice girls don't call up boys. I think this has changed, don't you?
Yes, it has changed somewhat. A girl should really have some excuse for calling up a boy unless she wants to seem to be chasing him. Perhaps she needs to call him about homework or to invite him to a dance or, under certain circumstances, to some entertainment at her own home. If she knows the boy very well and sees him all the time, she could call him just to talk as she might any other friend, but she should be very careful not to overdo it.
p.s. this is a book i picked up in stratford, canada junior year. jess, amy and i had a lot of fun with it on the way home and there are several edits from amy, including: "they are pygmies", "*only applies to pygmies", "LUNGBUTTER!", "ratfink!" "for pigrunts! DON'T GARDEN ANYMORE.", "hussy." (crossed out) and "that's common sense, BIZNATCH." the only one i specifically don't remember is "lungbutter" and i'm so confused but i love it all the same.
maybe i'll post more of these some other time.
Some choice questions from Amy Vanderbilt's Everyday Etiquette (copyright 1952)
My wife tells me that a man accompanying a lady on the street always walks on the curb side. Is this still true when he is walking with two ladies? Does he offer his arm?
In America it is customary for a man to walk on the curb side when accompanying a lady on the street, but the rule is not so hard and fast as it used to be. In Europe the man walks on the woman's left, which may be the inside. When a man is accompanying two ladies he may walk between them, or, conservatively, on the outside, moving to the center position to assist both across the street. He does not offer his arm to a lady, except to an elderly or infirm one, in the daytime, although he does so at night or in bad weather. He offers his arm to assist her across the street but does not propel her by the elbow. He may never taker her arm except to help her in and out of vehicles, to guide her across the street, etc. In this latter case, incidentally, a woman should bend her arm so that the man may pilot her efficiently.
My boy friend and I work together in this city, but we are going to my home, several states distant, to be married. Is it all right for us to travel together in the train without a chaperone? It is an overnight trip.
Yes, but preferably you occupy quarters in separate cars, and of course you observe all proprieties. The other people in the train are now considered proper chaperones to you.
In passing a woman in a narrow corridor of a train, what should I do so that she may pass without coming into close contact with me?
You step into an empty compartment if there is one, or, if there isn't, you flatten yourself, face inward, against either wall.
My son, fifteen, is in boarding school. When I write him, do I address him as "Master," "Mister," or as plain "Robert Brown"?
As plain "Robert Brown." He is "Master" until the age of twelve, and today "Mister" beginning at age eighteen. Previously, socially, a man did not use the title, "Mister," before the age of twenty-one, but with draft age eighteen, it is now accepted that a boy reaches manhood at that age and is certainly entitled to a "Mister."
When I take out my girl who is considerably shorter than I and it begins to rain, should I let her carry the umbrella and I walk out in the rain, or should I attempt, in spite of the disparity of our heights, to hold it over here?
You hold it over her unless you are so burdened with packages that this seems impossible, in which case she walks under the umbrella and you walk outside of it.
and finally, the question that started it all:
I am a girl of fifteen. My mother says nice girls don't call up boys. I think this has changed, don't you?
Yes, it has changed somewhat. A girl should really have some excuse for calling up a boy unless she wants to seem to be chasing him. Perhaps she needs to call him about homework or to invite him to a dance or, under certain circumstances, to some entertainment at her own home. If she knows the boy very well and sees him all the time, she could call him just to talk as she might any other friend, but she should be very careful not to overdo it.
p.s. this is a book i picked up in stratford, canada junior year. jess, amy and i had a lot of fun with it on the way home and there are several edits from amy, including: "they are pygmies", "*only applies to pygmies", "LUNGBUTTER!", "ratfink!" "for pigrunts! DON'T GARDEN ANYMORE.", "hussy." (crossed out) and "that's common sense, BIZNATCH." the only one i specifically don't remember is "lungbutter" and i'm so confused but i love it all the same.
maybe i'll post more of these some other time.