Old picture of young girl

 

I bought this picture at a tag sale; I have no idea who she is, but judging by her hairstyle she was photographed in the Roaring Twenties, when girls first started "bobbing" their hair. I think she's lovely, particularly her hands. It's sad that no-one from the family wanted her picture.

A tag sale of somebody's belongings tells you a lot about what their lives were like. This family reminds me of my Uncle Doc and his wife--the same sterling silver, linens, petit point, and crochet. You just know that Mrs. Tag had her women friends over for tea and cards. She probably served little cucumber sandwiches and tarts filled with cream, along with tea poured from her sterling silver teapot into her bone china cups. Her silver sugar tongs were used to serve lumps of sugar. The fingertip towels in the guest bathroom were made of real linen stiffened with starch. Her husband was probably a doctor, and they attended dances at the country club where they played golf with their friends.

My aunt and uncle were the Jewish equivalent of this Roman Catholic couple. They just went to different country clubs and celebrated different holidays. My aunt actually had a room--a small one--filled with shelves to house her sterling silver belongings. Of course the household help polished the silver.

Nowadays these sterling silver teasets are in thrift shops and antique stores. The good ones are valuable, because of the workmanship and the value of the silver, but silver-plated ones are available cheaply at the Good Will. No one wants to polish this stuff any more. The women who would have been hostesses are doctors themselves nowadays, or lawyers. Or they work in "development." All my female cousins work in "development" nowadays and instead of hosting teas with rich buttery desserts they are spending their few spare hours working out.