Ah, yes, back in the days when everyone showed some f*cking class

[Miss Authoritiva]

Ah, yes, back in the days when everyone showed some f*cking class

By Grace Nearing at Scriptoids

Vanity Fair has one of those quasi-obligatory decline-of-culture articles -- “When Washington Was Fun” by Maureen Orth -- focusing on what a double-wide trailer the White House has become since the days of Camelot. And you know what that means: a retrospective of the National Photo Album pages that feature Jackie Kennedy looking like the newly crowned America’s Junior Miss of 1962.

<snip>

Back then, apparently, no one was partisan. Everyone knew how to behave, even when beyond being drunk and inconveniently seated next to a spouse’s current lover. Everyone had excellent table manners because no one had yet been raised since birth on sporks, Slushies, and fast food. And no one, unlike Elizabeth Hasselbeck of ABC’s The View, would ever mistake a rosewater finger bowl for dessert, as she did at the recent state dinner for Queen Elizabeth.

<snip>

In this subgenre, there is always much historical lusting after French Cultural Minister André Malraux. That‘s understandable. There was much to lust after in real-time as well, for the man was an author, adventurer, statesman, soldier, resistance fighter, and outspoken anti-colonialist. But let’s remember that in 1962 the top-rated television shows in the US included the Beverly Hillbillies, the Red Skelton Show, Bonanza, Candid Camera, and Gunsmoke.

The closest thing to André Malraux appearing in popular American culture at the time was Dick Van Dyke as Rob Petrie, if one generously equates being the fictional head writer of the fictional Alan Brady Show with being the French Cultural Minister.

Continues at Ah, yes, back in the days when everyone showed some f*cking class

[madrchsod]

1. after reading this article today this song is fitting

"When the city of atlantis stood serene above the sea,
Long time before our time when the world was free,
Those were the days.
Golden cymbals flying on ocarina sounds,
Before wild medusas serpents gave birth to hell
Disguised as heaven.
Those were the days, yes they were, those were the days.
Those were their ways, miracles everywhere are they now?
Theyre gone.
Those were their ways, yes they were, those were their ways.
Those were the days, yes they were, those were the days.
Tie your painted shoes and dance, blue daylight in your hair
Overhead a noiseless eagle fans a flame.
Wonder everywhere."

"those were the days" by the cream

[monmouth]

2. Pearl Mesta was "the hostess" back in the day. She threw some

great parties and people who were not invited would conveniently say they were "out of town" at the time of the event. The Who's Who of DC would be there, Sally Quinn used to cover it pretty well and give some good inside dope. When the Dems are in office, it's party time in DC. They're interesting, progressive people, and the hostesses know who to invite.