Privilege Blog

High WASP Wedding – Country Club

Frequently High WASPs get married at country clubs. The photos here are in part from the Menlo Circus Club, a long-established club in my neighborhood. When we were little, we asked my Dad if we could join. He said no, they didn’t allow Jews or blacks (that’s what we said then as opposed to African-Americans) to join. So neither would we. We were allowed to have a summer membership at the Wianno Yacht Club however. I don’t know if that was due to more liberal policies or parental desire for a peaceful summer on the Cape.

The Circus Club has changed now. Like America, it’s more democratic. So here’s to country club weddings, the glasses of iced tea on the terrace, the gin and tonics circulating on silver trays at 5pm promptly, string quartet for the ceremony and big band for the reception. The crack of polo mallets can be heard from time to time as the bride dances in her short dress. And her skirt swings out.

This is for MM who could be getting married at a country club but isn’t.

3 Responses

  1. Why, thank you! I really enjoy the collage you posted. What a lovely dress. Oh, if only I were drinking a G&T at this moment….

  2. I was raised with money but no one would have known it by looking at us. We learned to respect what we had and not take it for granted. We learned to work and be grateful. I’ll always be thankful for those hard lessons.

  3. I was very disappointed when my former boss told me that sure, he would consider joining the country club in Memphis, despite the possibility (I am not sure if this is true) that it did not admit black persons as members. I had thought him a man of higher principles than that.

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