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A Kitty Shower
IT sounds odd, but the engaged girl for whom it was given was so very fond of pussy cats that her chum knew that a kitty shower would just exactly suit her.
The invitations, written on cats cut from heavy paper, read this way:
Since Elizabeth Ann is so fond of the kitty Don't you agree that 'twould be a great pity If we missed a good chance now for making a bit By each bringing her some kind of a kit?
The bride-to-be suspected nothing when she was asked to a kitty luncheon at her chum's house.
The table had as decorations a centerpiece of pussy willows and yellow tulips, and the candle shades were made of yellow parchment paper with black silhouettes of cats running around them. [122] At each girl's place was a tiny china cat with a yellow ribbon bow on its neck to which was tied the place-card.
There was no attempt to carry out the kitty idea in the menu, but it was yellow throughout. The first course was grapefruit, then followed scalloped oysters garnished with lemon slices, chicken and mayonnaise salad, individual baked custards, and sunshine cake. Upon withdrawing from the table, it was announced that "Pussy was in the well," and forthwith a deep cylindrical waste-basket trimmed with pussy willows was brought in and set before the guest of honor, who was requested to be the one to "pull pussy out."
With a dawning understanding of the meaning of this, the bride-to-be reached in and drew one by one from the waste-basket the "kits" which had been placed there for her.
Each one was tied with yellow ribbon and had a black cat pasted on it.
The gifts were all very clever. There was a traveler's sewing kit, a small blacking kit, [123] a wee laundry kit for motoring, a handy kit containing baggage tags, rubber bands, and the like, an emergency kit with safety pins and threaded needle for her handbag, a guest towel with a cross-stitch kitty on one end, a cream pitcher and sugar bowl with a kitten border, a quaint kitten door stop, a painted wooden kitten twine holder, a pair of Angora skating gloves, an odd little sewing apron with linen cats appliquéd on the corners, and a knitting bag of cretonne which pictured Pussin-Boots prominently among other Mother Goose People.
When the excitement of the shower was over, a guessing contest was played, each answer being a word in which the syllable "cat" figured. This very jolly afternoon ended with a really hilarious game of Pussin-the-corner. [124]
A bridal shower built entirely on a pun: the guest of honour liked cats, so every present was a kit. The food is a separate scheme from the theme, and the page says so outright.
- It is not a cat menuThe author notes there was no attempt to carry the kitty idea into the food. The menu is yellow instead — grapefruit, scalloped oysters with lemon, chicken and mayonnaise salad, baked custards, sunshine cake. A colour-themed luncheon was a convention of its own, and the two themes run side by side without ever touching.
- Sunshine cakeA light yellow sponge, named for its colour, which is why it closes a yellow menu. It belongs to the angel-food family and depends on well-beaten egg and a scrupulously clean tin rather than on anything out of a packet.
- Scalloped oystersOysters baked under buttered crumbs, served at a ladies’ luncheon as an everyday casserole. Nothing about the dish is difficult. What has changed is the price, which has moved it from ordinary to extravagant.
- Grapefruit firstA halved grapefruit eaten with a spoon and usually sugared opened a great many luncheons of this period, and here it also sets the colour for everything that follows it.
- The kitsA traveller’s sewing kit, a blacking kit, a laundry kit for motoring, baggage tags and rubber bands, safety pins and a threaded needle for a handbag. Read as a list it describes what leaving the house used to require, and nearly every item has since been absorbed into something else or has stopped being necessary.
- Pussy willows and tulipsThe centrepiece dates the party. Pussy willow catkins and forced tulips put it in early spring, and both still arrive in florists at the same time of year and still cost very little.
A shower was a way of equipping a bride, and what she was being equipped for shows in the list. Almost every gift here is portable — a sewing kit for travelling, a laundry kit for motoring, a kit of baggage tags, an emergency kit for a handbag — set beside the cream pitcher, the sugar bowl, the door stop and the knitting bag for the house she was about to run. The hostess’s own labour is just as visible: invitations cut from heavy paper in the shape of cats with a verse written for them, candle shades made of parchment paper with black silhouettes drawn round them, a place card tied to a china cat for every guest. And the structure of the afternoon is a surprise. The bride-to-be was invited to a kitty luncheon and suspected nothing until a waste-basket dressed in pussy willows was set down in front of her and she was told to pull pussy out of the well.