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A Hawaiian Porch Luncheon
O NE woman entertained her club at their last meeting of the year with a little porch luncheon. Hawaii had been one of the subjects of study, so the Hawaiian note was dominant throughout.
Each guest was welcomed with a lei, the Hawaiian paper flower garland which signifies friendship. Hung about the neck, these decorations excited much fun.
The Hawaiian features of the refreshments were Hawaiian pineapple salad and little imitation volcanoes which were in reality cones of vanilla ice-cream in the center of which holes had been scooped and then filled with hot caramel sauce, which of course overflowed the sides in true lava fashion.
The favors were tiny dolls, each dressed in a short bright-fringed paper skirt, orange, green, blue or pink, to match the color of the lei [59] which each lady had already received as a souvenir.
During the luncheon the hostess played several Hawaiian musical selections on her phonograph. If any of her friends had owned or played a ukelele, doubtless the plaintive music would have been a feature. [60]
A club luncheon on a porch, themed to one of the subjects the club had studied that year. It is a short page, and almost every element in it was bought rather than made.
- The club had a syllabusThis was the last meeting of the year of a women’s club, and Hawaii had been one of its subjects of study. Clubs of this kind worked through a reading programme across a season and built the closing social on whatever they had been reading. The theme is a graduation, not a whim.
- Volcanoes that actually workCones of vanilla ice cream with a hollow scooped in the top, filled with hot caramel so that it runs over the sides. Shape and hollow the cones, then freeze them hard for several hours before the sauce goes near them, or they slump instead of erupting.
- Hawaiian pineappleIn this period pineapple reached a mainland porch in a tin, and the word Hawaiian on a label was doing commercial work as much as geographical. The salad was in all likelihood built on tinned rings.
- The phonograph stands inThe hostess played Hawaiian records, and the page adds that a friend with a ukelele would have been better. Recorded music was the second-best option at a party, not the default, which is worth holding in mind when reading any entertainment of this date.
- The leiThe book calls it a paper flower garland signifying friendship, and reports that wearing it caused much fun. A lei is a living practice with its own meanings, made of real flowers and given for real reasons. A modern host borrowing the idea should know it is not a party favour.
What this page documents is a theme assembled out of purchasable parts: tinned fruit, paper flowers, phonograph records, and small dolls in fringed paper skirts colour-matched to the garlands. A place thousands of miles off had become a decorating scheme that a woman could order in and lay out on her own porch for an afternoon. The study programme gave it a respectable reason and the shops supplied the props.