Читать книгу My Ten Years in a Quandary - Robert C Benchley - Страница 21

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No matter how doggy an institution may be in its beginnings, sooner or later it gets into general circulation. Now they are playing polo in Hollywood and wearing polo coats in the Ozarks.

Some of us older boys can remember back to the days when it was considered putting on the dog to have dinner at night. In New England, at any rate, what was known as "the heavy meal" came in the middle of the day, and anyone who asked you to "dinner" at supper-time would wear lorgnettes.

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It seems hard to believe now, but the grapefruit was once considered an item of diet which only the president of the Wire Works could have for breakfast. After years and years of being thrown away in Florida as inedible, the grapefruit suddenly took on class. To say to a waiter: "Just bring me a grapefruit first!" marked one as a man of the world and something of a gourmet.

The joke about grapefruit squirting in the eye came in shortly after the people who made jokes started blowing themselves to grapefruit. The joke has lasted longer than the prestige of the fruit.

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The very word "weekend" was not so long ago used only by Anglophiles. You were going British if you spoke of a "weekend" and you were downright insufferable if you went on one. One of our more classy magazines got its start as a patrician publication by having an article on "Weekending in the Country" every month. A lot of solid, God-fearing Americans wouldn't have the paper on their tables.

And, speaking of affecting British mannerisms and habits, who remembers when cuffs on a man's trousers brought down the jibe: "It's raining in London?" Only "Cholly-off-the-pickleboat" wore white ducks, and, to jump ahead a bit, several prominent citizens today are on record as having once said that they would as soon wear a skirt as a wristwatch.

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It was only a few years ago that the fussy traveler had to specify "a room with a bath," and even then did it under his breath for fear that people would think he was on his honeymoon and showing off. Incidentally, the introduction of twin beds into family life was held to be just a touch swanky and possibly an indication that the upper classes were drifting toward an effete civilization. To step into the next room for a minute, when a man threw in a casual remark about "after my shower this morning" he was quite likely to be under suspicion not only of boasting about a daily bath, but even more of trying to let people know that he was in daily touch with a shower bath. The early use of showers by athletes prevented any taint of effeteness, but the owning of a shower was more or less a matter for boasting.

In leaving these erstwhile indications of snobbery, let us ask who remembers when tomato juice in the morning was a sign that a man had been drinking the night before?

Oh, well—autres temps, autres moeurs—which, in itself, is a form of affectation. Perhaps. Someday, everyone will be using French phrases.