Customer Reviews

A Southern Belle Primer: Why Princess Margaret Will Never Be a Kappa Kappa Gamma

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After finishing my freshman year at Duke University, I was a little confused as to why most of the people I met were surprised when they found out that I had already chosen my silver pattern (Francis I) and that I was actually looking forward to Rush Week. And when I came back to the dorm incensed one afternoon because I had had to stand up on the bus while young men were sitting down, these same friends just stared blankly at me. After coming home for the summer and complaining to a fellow belle about my confusion and their inablility to sympathize, she told me to read this lovely book. After doing so, I felt once again that all was right with the world. Mrs Schwartz ratifies my southern belle credo like nobody's buisiness. She also presented many things that I had always known but was never aware that I had known, like why it was WRONG to wear red during rush, and why I was scandalized to see women going to class in pyjamas. Many of my yankee girlfriends considered my outlook on life to be somewhat superficial, but after reading this book I realized that this is because they were never taught to "sparkle" and because they were not raised to believe with all their hearts that they were princesses. A SOUTHERN BELLE PRIMER is a must-read for anyone looking for re-affirmation of his or her southern views, or for anyone confused about what that southern heritage actually is.

Mrs. Schwartz hit the nail on the head! She talks about how a girl learns to sparkle, silver patterns, the importance of the Junior League, and so much more.

As a northern Belle (Detroit), I was completely tickled when I read this book. She confirmed so many of the things my mother and grandmother (both Alabama Belles) taught me when I was growing up, such as why I had to take ballet class. Turns out ballet class is the perfect place for a girl to learn to sparkle, and boy did I learn! (Ballet is also a good way to get girls accustom to wearing hosiery.)

Mrs. Schwartz explains the personality behind the silver pattern a girl chooses. I've read the section a million times, however, I'm still torn! My mother is a "Grand Baroque" girl. Grand Baroque girls have a sense of the dramatic, but also have a literary bent. My grandmother is an "Eloquence" girl. Eloquence girls like nice things and are extremely loyal. I'm a little of both, but I dare not mix silver patterns, that would just be tacky. Though I can't pick which one I should get, I've known since I was four years old that those two are the only patterns I'd ever consider. And don't tell my Grandmother, but the older I get, the more I learn toward "Grand Baroque."

"Southern Belle Primer" explains the Junior League's role in the South. Specifically, the Junior League is a volunteer organization. It flows directly into the vein of selflessness and consideration that Belles are taught to give everyone, thereby making life better for all they come in contact with.

I'll say this last little bit, then I'm finished. For Belles born outside the South, Mrs. Schwartz said "...sometimes the stork gets off course and deposits Southern Belles in Detroit, Hollywood, Washington, Las Vegas, even London and Paris." This is important to me because I consider myself a Belle despite my native land (Detroit). Make no mistake I love Detroit, but it's hard when your folks are from the South and you were born up North. It makes for an identity crisis. Being reared in Detroit to have Southern ways is a daily challenge! (If you've ever driven in Detroit, then you know what I mean.) But somehow you make it and books like "Southern Belle Primer" make it fun.

I liked this book for its honest humor and its gentle but no-holds-barred look at Southern womanhood, its traditions and manners. I particularly enjoyed the section on weddings and all of the traditions involved in a Southern wedding, including the sip-and-see and the substitute bride. The section on sororities and their importance in the scheme of life in the south was an interesting one too.

I chuckled at the first chapter's title "Who Are Your People?" because although I have lived my life barely straddling the Mason-Dixon line, this is still an often-asked question!

While some may put down these kinds of traditions, I found many of them to be touching. And in today's on-the-move society, isn't it nice to have the stability of tradition in one's life?

For all you ladies who have dreamed of becoming southern belles, Ms. Schwartz has written a book to explain exactly why you may never succeed. It is not something you can achieve through training, it is something given at birth, like a legacy. However, this book will help you to RECOGNIZE a southern belle, in the event that you wouldn't know one without a hoop skirt. It also teaches the importance of Junior League, a proper chicken salad and finding a husband whose mother's tastes in silver don't clash with your own. For anyone whose love affair with the south didn't end when Rhett walked out, and anyone who love a good laugh, served with canned cream of mushroom soup and velveeta cheese.

at long last! Finally, written proof for my Yankee friends, that I really am telling the truth when I tell them tales of silver pattens (including the silver pattern zodiac), Southern Sorority Rush, cotillions, cooking with co-cola, and many other instutitions of Southern Gentility. For years, my Yankee friends have laughed when I have sent sub-standard iced tea back in restaurants, served deviled eggs, and tried to explain the difference between "darlin;", "cute", "sweet", "precious" and "nice". I'm going to buy a copy of this book for each and every one of my friends not fortunate enough to be born South of the Mason-Dixon line!

My mother and I, both raised in the South, laughed and laughed while reading this book. It was so funny to us because ever single word in it is true. From the iced teas pitchers and deviled eggs platters to the silver pattern I selected for my wedding registry and joining the Junior League.

I am giving this book as a gift to my friend, who is a Brit marrying into a very southern family. She will hardly know what hit her otherwise.

I often look for books and magazines about southern life, This is the best I've seen yet. I was raised in the south, And relate to this book. The rules of the south have been unwritten for years. Every Belle is taught the traditions by her family. This book reminds me of stories and chat that I have heard from granny. Every Belle needs this book YOUNG AND OLD!

This book is quite a jewel. I am a Southerner, born and bred, and yet I can laugh at myself as well as the next person. Each culture has its own idiosyncracies, and this book explores the unsaid rules of the South that slyly keep outsiders at arm's reach. For example, how was Princess Margaret to know that ladies didn't smoke, chew gum in public, or wear white shoes after Labor Day? I certainly am not the extremist pictured in the book, but I did attend the University of Georgia and rushed a sorority, and got to witness girls talking about being in the New Orleans Day parades, and attending the Old South ball, and yes, I was a baton twirler (although according to the book, that would never win you Miss America). It very accurately personifies a particular eschelon of Old South behavior that still exists, and makes some of it seem as rediculous as it really is. Definitely worth a read!!

Now you can't come from anywhere more southern than I do...Victoria, Australia..any more south and you'd be at the South Pole! I have dear girlfriends from both Louisiana and Texas and they all declare that I'm a perfect southern belle in my outlook, which some people call old fashioned, and my values. I simply adored this funny book and yes, I do have and use, devilled egg plates, although I had to beg friends to raid their mother's china cabinet to find them. To those people who scorn the refinements of the style of southern women, I must tell them that it's an attitude of kindness, self respect and respect for other people's feelings that show the good breeding needed to qualify as a belle..the parts about the silver patterns just don't apply here in Australia and are taken as just a bit of fun. I've read this funny little book several times now and love it for its tongue in cheek humour and what is basically a lesson in good manners and common sense. ps..not only would I not want to be seen wearing white shoes after labour day, I wouldn't want to be seen wearing white shoes EVER!

Princess Margaret,hm? At least I'm in good company. Since I'm black, I'll never be a KKG, either. I read this book, and it was exactly as I expected: bittersweet, and amusing. I found myself calling my mother -- who confirmed that I did indeed have a silver pattern (and did I want to use it for Thanksgiving?), and that I could use the devilled egg platter too, if I wanted. My mother was never call herself a 'Belle' -- 'belles' were the women in whose tea rooms and kitchens my aunts worked in -- but she believed (as I do) in the same strong femininity that is espoused here. I attended a private southern university, too, and got to see a lot of the beauty queen/rush week behavior I read here -- and found a lot of it terribly silly. I feel about this book the way I mostly do about the place I call home: conflicted, but nowhere else (well, maybe the British countryside) would ever do.