Iffy Starts School

When I was a girl, my mother had a close friend who had many unusual things in her home. Her father was an estate lawyer, and occasionally, when he settled estates after clients' deaths, he was made welcome to take home things no one wanted. His daughter was the recipient of many of these things. One that we had fun with was a receipt book from Miss Fine's School in nearby Princeton, NJ. The legendary Miss May Fine started a college preparatory school for girls in1899, at a time where very few girls (or very few people at all) went to university. In the 1960s, Miss Fine's School merged with the Princeton Country Day School (for boys) to become the co-ed Princeton Day School. 

Doris and Mabel went to Miss Phyne's School and recommend enthusiastically it to the Ackermann sisters. Iffy is impressed with the girls' sports program, and especially admires one girl who wears a feather tucked into a headband. 

New Year's Eve with Dolly and Minerva

Do we "ring" in the New Year or "bring" in the New Year? Both are correct, as this article explains. Dolly and Minerva have organized a small party at their new house, mainly to avoid another raucous baccanale at a night club. 

Doris and Mabel Arrow are there, with Willard and a few of his friends from work. Lizzie, their maid from the Ackermann home, keeps champagne on ice and records on the gramophone, with the assistance of Iffy, who knows all the latest tunes. Willard seems in a bit of a funk as he watches Minerva work her charms on Harold. She's actually convinced that Harold would be a perfect match for Dolly, and regales him with anecdotes about Dolly's adventures in a wide variety of publications. Harold seems puzzled when told that they have met Jane Austen.