March 17, 2007
Sweet Cherry Dresses and Country Club Dreams
*That's* what little girls are made of! In today's New York Times, a fascinating story-behind-the-story of the smocked cherry dresses made (since time immemorial, evidently) for the Woman's Exchange, along with a social history of such exchanges and their specialties and functions in American urban lore (The New York exchange "made a specialty of smock dresses, bittersweet chocolate cakes and cod balls. (The exchange fell victim in 2003 to soaring real estate prices.) The Baltimore exchange became renowned for sock monkeys. St. Louis had the cherry dress.") Writer Guy Trebay also makes note of the Lou's "unusually robust country club scene," though Miss Cherry should note that she herself is quite fond of lunch now and again at the Exchange...and knows of no country club in this town that would have her.