Preppy/"Old" Money DC - tell me everything

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

If every crude observation you made here were about blacks, you would be censored and booted off this board. Why is it OK in your view to talk like this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

If every crude observation you made here were about blacks, you would be censored and booted off this board. Why is it OK in your view to talk like this?

In fairness, WASPs love being talked about like this. it makes them feel like being a WASP is still relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

My dear interlocutor,

Your inquiry reads like the field notes of a well-intentioned ethnographer who has wandered, quite by accident, into a habitat populated by that curious American subspecies: the Modern Metropolitan WASP, a creature neither as endangered nor as monolithic as the folklore would have one believe.

You observe, quite astutely, that these individuals do not conform to the old “Cave Dweller” archetype—those laconic Brahmins who once glided between Kalorama, the Cosmos Club, and the Wilson administration without ever disturbing a single pleat of their seersucker. No, today’s iteration is far more diffused, and—dare I say—more democratic in its pedigree, though they will never admit as much.

The money, as you ask, tends to emerge from the same three tributaries that have nourished this class since the Coolidge administration:

Legacy wealth, discreetly laundered through trusts so ancient they predate the Internal Revenue Code;

“Quiet” corporate success—defense contractors, regional banking families, clever people who own unpleasantly lucrative logistics companies; and

The New Southern Gentry, who discovered sometime in the Reagan era that Washington was the perfect place to winter both their fortunes and their children.

As for how they were raised, one must picture the sort of childhood in which manners are taught before multiplication tables, and where the great moral transgressions of youth consist not in rebellion per se, but in wearing boat shoes before Memorial Day or failing to write a prompt thank-you note to Aunt Eloise for the monogrammed stationery she bestowed.

They were reared on a diet of Episcopalian restraint, tennis lessons, laconic summer camps in Maine, and a vaguely stoic orientation toward life that insists one never—ever—acknowledge ambition while privately tending to it with horticultural precision.

And how they spend their time now?
Well, were you to plot their existence on a calendar, the coordinates would be familiar:

September through November: school admissions events, performed like ritual courtship dances;

Weekends: lacrosse or squash, depending on latitude;

Holidays: dutiful pilgrimages to the ancestral home, often a clapboard structure in the Carolinas containing more portraits of stern-looking ancestors than modern appliances;

Summers: a rotation between Nantucket, the Outer Banks, and a lake somewhere in New Hampshire whose name you would never know unless born into it.

They are not apolitical, mind you; they are post-political. To them, politics is something that happens on C-SPAN, not the dining room table. Their chosen parties are not elephants or donkeys but rather the Chevy Chase Club, the Sulgrave, and—for the truly cosmopolitan—the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

In sum, these are people who navigate life with the serene confidence of those who assume—often correctly—that the world will continue to be upholstered in their preferred fabric.

I admire your curiosity. Observe them closely. They are, after all, one of America’s last reliably performing cultural ecosystems.

You sound maybe older? The current reputation of Chevy and Met is not elite. They are known to be Maga havens and the families I know that belong there are all from Texas, Midwest, Florida etc... I can not think of anyone from New England or Northeast elite families.

The Cosmos is intellectual and elite and has a lot more old money WASP families.

Sorry your view is not just accurate or realistic.

You don’t know enough people and are not a member of any of the clubs. Don’t speculate from the sidelines, it’s pure foolishness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

My dear interlocutor,

Your inquiry reads like the field notes of a well-intentioned ethnographer who has wandered, quite by accident, into a habitat populated by that curious American subspecies: the Modern Metropolitan WASP, a creature neither as endangered nor as monolithic as the folklore would have one believe.

You observe, quite astutely, that these individuals do not conform to the old “Cave Dweller” archetype—those laconic Brahmins who once glided between Kalorama, the Cosmos Club, and the Wilson administration without ever disturbing a single pleat of their seersucker. No, today’s iteration is far more diffused, and—dare I say—more democratic in its pedigree, though they will never admit as much.

The money, as you ask, tends to emerge from the same three tributaries that have nourished this class since the Coolidge administration:

Legacy wealth, discreetly laundered through trusts so ancient they predate the Internal Revenue Code;

“Quiet” corporate success—defense contractors, regional banking families, clever people who own unpleasantly lucrative logistics companies; and

The New Southern Gentry, who discovered sometime in the Reagan era that Washington was the perfect place to winter both their fortunes and their children.

As for how they were raised, one must picture the sort of childhood in which manners are taught before multiplication tables, and where the great moral transgressions of youth consist not in rebellion per se, but in wearing boat shoes before Memorial Day or failing to write a prompt thank-you note to Aunt Eloise for the monogrammed stationery she bestowed.

They were reared on a diet of Episcopalian restraint, tennis lessons, laconic summer camps in Maine, and a vaguely stoic orientation toward life that insists one never—ever—acknowledge ambition while privately tending to it with horticultural precision.

And how they spend their time now?
Well, were you to plot their existence on a calendar, the coordinates would be familiar:

September through November: school admissions events, performed like ritual courtship dances;

Weekends: lacrosse or squash, depending on latitude;

Holidays: dutiful pilgrimages to the ancestral home, often a clapboard structure in the Carolinas containing more portraits of stern-looking ancestors than modern appliances;

Summers: a rotation between Nantucket, the Outer Banks, and a lake somewhere in New Hampshire whose name you would never know unless born into it.

They are not apolitical, mind you; they are post-political. To them, politics is something that happens on C-SPAN, not the dining room table. Their chosen parties are not elephants or donkeys but rather the Chevy Chase Club, the Sulgrave, and—for the truly cosmopolitan—the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

In sum, these are people who navigate life with the serene confidence of those who assume—often correctly—that the world will continue to be upholstered in their preferred fabric.

I admire your curiosity. Observe them closely. They are, after all, one of America’s last reliably performing cultural ecosystems.

You sound maybe older? The current reputation of Chevy and Met is not elite. They are known to be Maga havens and the families I know that belong there are all from Texas, Midwest, Florida etc... I can not think of anyone from New England or Northeast elite families.

The Cosmos is intellectual and elite and has a lot more old money WASP families.

Sorry your view is not just accurate or realistic.

You don’t know enough people and are not a member of any of the clubs. Don’t speculate from the sidelines, it’s pure foolishness.

I know a lot of elite wealthy old money people and they all had a negative view of 2 of the 3 clubs above. True. In recent 10-15 years there has been a dramatic swing of Maga/GOP families - most yes from places not deemed traditionally as elite. You are holding on to the past. Things have changed. Noone views those clubs as elite anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

My dear interlocutor,

Your inquiry reads like the field notes of a well-intentioned ethnographer who has wandered, quite by accident, into a habitat populated by that curious American subspecies: the Modern Metropolitan WASP, a creature neither as endangered nor as monolithic as the folklore would have one believe.

You observe, quite astutely, that these individuals do not conform to the old “Cave Dweller” archetype—those laconic Brahmins who once glided between Kalorama, the Cosmos Club, and the Wilson administration without ever disturbing a single pleat of their seersucker. No, today’s iteration is far more diffused, and—dare I say—more democratic in its pedigree, though they will never admit as much.

The money, as you ask, tends to emerge from the same three tributaries that have nourished this class since the Coolidge administration:

Legacy wealth, discreetly laundered through trusts so ancient they predate the Internal Revenue Code;

“Quiet” corporate success—defense contractors, regional banking families, clever people who own unpleasantly lucrative logistics companies; and

The New Southern Gentry, who discovered sometime in the Reagan era that Washington was the perfect place to winter both their fortunes and their children.

As for how they were raised, one must picture the sort of childhood in which manners are taught before multiplication tables, and where the great moral transgressions of youth consist not in rebellion per se, but in wearing boat shoes before Memorial Day or failing to write a prompt thank-you note to Aunt Eloise for the monogrammed stationery she bestowed.

They were reared on a diet of Episcopalian restraint, tennis lessons, laconic summer camps in Maine, and a vaguely stoic orientation toward life that insists one never—ever—acknowledge ambition while privately tending to it with horticultural precision.

And how they spend their time now?
Well, were you to plot their existence on a calendar, the coordinates would be familiar:

September through November: school admissions events, performed like ritual courtship dances;

Weekends: lacrosse or squash, depending on latitude;

Holidays: dutiful pilgrimages to the ancestral home, often a clapboard structure in the Carolinas containing more portraits of stern-looking ancestors than modern appliances;

Summers: a rotation between Nantucket, the Outer Banks, and a lake somewhere in New Hampshire whose name you would never know unless born into it.

They are not apolitical, mind you; they are post-political. To them, politics is something that happens on C-SPAN, not the dining room table. Their chosen parties are not elephants or donkeys but rather the Chevy Chase Club, the Sulgrave, and—for the truly cosmopolitan—the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

In sum, these are people who navigate life with the serene confidence of those who assume—often correctly—that the world will continue to be upholstered in their preferred fabric.

I admire your curiosity. Observe them closely. They are, after all, one of America’s last reliably performing cultural ecosystems.

You sound maybe older? The current reputation of Chevy and Met is not elite. They are known to be Maga havens and the families I know that belong there are all from Texas, Midwest, Florida etc... I can not think of anyone from New England or Northeast elite families.

The Cosmos is intellectual and elite and has a lot more old money WASP families.

Sorry your view is not just accurate or realistic.

You don’t know enough people and are not a member of any of the clubs. Don’t speculate from the sidelines, it’s pure foolishness.

You couldn't be more wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

My dear interlocutor,

Your inquiry reads like the field notes of a well-intentioned ethnographer who has wandered, quite by accident, into a habitat populated by that curious American subspecies: the Modern Metropolitan WASP, a creature neither as endangered nor as monolithic as the folklore would have one believe.

You observe, quite astutely, that these individuals do not conform to the old “Cave Dweller” archetype—those laconic Brahmins who once glided between Kalorama, the Cosmos Club, and the Wilson administration without ever disturbing a single pleat of their seersucker. No, today’s iteration is far more diffused, and—dare I say—more democratic in its pedigree, though they will never admit as much.

The money, as you ask, tends to emerge from the same three tributaries that have nourished this class since the Coolidge administration:

Legacy wealth, discreetly laundered through trusts so ancient they predate the Internal Revenue Code;

“Quiet” corporate success—defense contractors, regional banking families, clever people who own unpleasantly lucrative logistics companies; and

The New Southern Gentry, who discovered sometime in the Reagan era that Washington was the perfect place to winter both their fortunes and their children.

As for how they were raised, one must picture the sort of childhood in which manners are taught before multiplication tables, and where the great moral transgressions of youth consist not in rebellion per se, but in wearing boat shoes before Memorial Day or failing to write a prompt thank-you note to Aunt Eloise for the monogrammed stationery she bestowed.

They were reared on a diet of Episcopalian restraint, tennis lessons, laconic summer camps in Maine, and a vaguely stoic orientation toward life that insists one never—ever—acknowledge ambition while privately tending to it with horticultural precision.

And how they spend their time now?
Well, were you to plot their existence on a calendar, the coordinates would be familiar:

September through November: school admissions events, performed like ritual courtship dances;

Weekends: lacrosse or squash, depending on latitude;

Holidays: dutiful pilgrimages to the ancestral home, often a clapboard structure in the Carolinas containing more portraits of stern-looking ancestors than modern appliances;

Summers: a rotation between Nantucket, the Outer Banks, and a lake somewhere in New Hampshire whose name you would never know unless born into it.

They are not apolitical, mind you; they are post-political. To them, politics is something that happens on C-SPAN, not the dining room table. Their chosen parties are not elephants or donkeys but rather the Chevy Chase Club, the Sulgrave, and—for the truly cosmopolitan—the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

In sum, these are people who navigate life with the serene confidence of those who assume—often correctly—that the world will continue to be upholstered in their preferred fabric.

I admire your curiosity. Observe them closely. They are, after all, one of America’s last reliably performing cultural ecosystems.

You sound maybe older? The current reputation of Chevy and Met is not elite. They are known to be Maga havens and the families I know that belong there are all from Texas, Midwest, Florida etc... I can not think of anyone from New England or Northeast elite families.

The Cosmos is intellectual and elite and has a lot more old money WASP families.

Sorry your view is not just accurate or realistic.

You don’t know enough people and are not a member of any of the clubs. Don’t speculate from the sidelines, it’s pure foolishness.

I know a lot of elite wealthy old money people and they all had a negative view of 2 of the 3 clubs above. True. In recent 10-15 years there has been a dramatic swing of Maga/GOP families - most yes from places not deemed traditionally as elite. You are holding on to the past. Things have changed. Noone views those clubs as elite anymore.

No you don’t. You are making things up. You are neither a member nor do you know members.

There has always been a mix of a lot of political stripes at all these clubs but one was started as a firmly Republican operation by the Republicans in charge at the time, Team Lincoln. The other was started by one of the more odious characters who was a Democrat.

Still, the shifts you imagine reflect no reality.

Beyond that, the only historical local wealth (not the largely transient wealth that had outposts here because it is the capital) were doctors and doctors still dominate at one of the clubs you are slighting via the opinions of your “contacts.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

My dear interlocutor,

Your inquiry reads like the field notes of a well-intentioned ethnographer who has wandered, quite by accident, into a habitat populated by that curious American subspecies: the Modern Metropolitan WASP, a creature neither as endangered nor as monolithic as the folklore would have one believe.

You observe, quite astutely, that these individuals do not conform to the old “Cave Dweller” archetype—those laconic Brahmins who once glided between Kalorama, the Cosmos Club, and the Wilson administration without ever disturbing a single pleat of their seersucker. No, today’s iteration is far more diffused, and—dare I say—more democratic in its pedigree, though they will never admit as much.

The money, as you ask, tends to emerge from the same three tributaries that have nourished this class since the Coolidge administration:

Legacy wealth, discreetly laundered through trusts so ancient they predate the Internal Revenue Code;

“Quiet” corporate success—defense contractors, regional banking families, clever people who own unpleasantly lucrative logistics companies; and

The New Southern Gentry, who discovered sometime in the Reagan era that Washington was the perfect place to winter both their fortunes and their children.

As for how they were raised, one must picture the sort of childhood in which manners are taught before multiplication tables, and where the great moral transgressions of youth consist not in rebellion per se, but in wearing boat shoes before Memorial Day or failing to write a prompt thank-you note to Aunt Eloise for the monogrammed stationery she bestowed.

They were reared on a diet of Episcopalian restraint, tennis lessons, laconic summer camps in Maine, and a vaguely stoic orientation toward life that insists one never—ever—acknowledge ambition while privately tending to it with horticultural precision.

And how they spend their time now?
Well, were you to plot their existence on a calendar, the coordinates would be familiar:

September through November: school admissions events, performed like ritual courtship dances;

Weekends: lacrosse or squash, depending on latitude;

Holidays: dutiful pilgrimages to the ancestral home, often a clapboard structure in the Carolinas containing more portraits of stern-looking ancestors than modern appliances;

Summers: a rotation between Nantucket, the Outer Banks, and a lake somewhere in New Hampshire whose name you would never know unless born into it.

They are not apolitical, mind you; they are post-political. To them, politics is something that happens on C-SPAN, not the dining room table. Their chosen parties are not elephants or donkeys but rather the Chevy Chase Club, the Sulgrave, and—for the truly cosmopolitan—the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

In sum, these are people who navigate life with the serene confidence of those who assume—often correctly—that the world will continue to be upholstered in their preferred fabric.

I admire your curiosity. Observe them closely. They are, after all, one of America’s last reliably performing cultural ecosystems.

You sound maybe older? The current reputation of Chevy and Met is not elite. They are known to be Maga havens and the families I know that belong there are all from Texas, Midwest, Florida etc... I can not think of anyone from New England or Northeast elite families.

The Cosmos is intellectual and elite and has a lot more old money WASP families.

Sorry your view is not just accurate or realistic.

You don’t know enough people and are not a member of any of the clubs. Don’t speculate from the sidelines, it’s pure foolishness.

You couldn't be more wrong.

You deal in 3rd party speculation and traffic in the unsubstantiated opinions of others.

[Anonymous]

I went to Exeter and a 7 sisters school, am Indian by heritage. The only club I semi-frequent is Costco.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

My dear interlocutor,

Your inquiry reads like the field notes of a well-intentioned ethnographer who has wandered, quite by accident, into a habitat populated by that curious American subspecies: the Modern Metropolitan WASP, a creature neither as endangered nor as monolithic as the folklore would have one believe.

You observe, quite astutely, that these individuals do not conform to the old “Cave Dweller” archetype—those laconic Brahmins who once glided between Kalorama, the Cosmos Club, and the Wilson administration without ever disturbing a single pleat of their seersucker. No, today’s iteration is far more diffused, and—dare I say—more democratic in its pedigree, though they will never admit as much.

The money, as you ask, tends to emerge from the same three tributaries that have nourished this class since the Coolidge administration:

Legacy wealth, discreetly laundered through trusts so ancient they predate the Internal Revenue Code;

“Quiet” corporate success—defense contractors, regional banking families, clever people who own unpleasantly lucrative logistics companies; and

The New Southern Gentry, who discovered sometime in the Reagan era that Washington was the perfect place to winter both their fortunes and their children.

As for how they were raised, one must picture the sort of childhood in which manners are taught before multiplication tables, and where the great moral transgressions of youth consist not in rebellion per se, but in wearing boat shoes before Memorial Day or failing to write a prompt thank-you note to Aunt Eloise for the monogrammed stationery she bestowed.

They were reared on a diet of Episcopalian restraint, tennis lessons, laconic summer camps in Maine, and a vaguely stoic orientation toward life that insists one never—ever—acknowledge ambition while privately tending to it with horticultural precision.

And how they spend their time now?
Well, were you to plot their existence on a calendar, the coordinates would be familiar:

September through November: school admissions events, performed like ritual courtship dances;

Weekends: lacrosse or squash, depending on latitude;

Holidays: dutiful pilgrimages to the ancestral home, often a clapboard structure in the Carolinas containing more portraits of stern-looking ancestors than modern appliances;

Summers: a rotation between Nantucket, the Outer Banks, and a lake somewhere in New Hampshire whose name you would never know unless born into it.

They are not apolitical, mind you; they are post-political. To them, politics is something that happens on C-SPAN, not the dining room table. Their chosen parties are not elephants or donkeys but rather the Chevy Chase Club, the Sulgrave, and—for the truly cosmopolitan—the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

In sum, these are people who navigate life with the serene confidence of those who assume—often correctly—that the world will continue to be upholstered in their preferred fabric.

I admire your curiosity. Observe them closely. They are, after all, one of America’s last reliably performing cultural ecosystems.

You sound maybe older? The current reputation of Chevy and Met is not elite. They are known to be Maga havens and the families I know that belong there are all from Texas, Midwest, Florida etc... I can not think of anyone from New England or Northeast elite families.

The Cosmos is intellectual and elite and has a lot more old money WASP families.

Sorry your view is not just accurate or realistic.

You don’t know enough people and are not a member of any of the clubs. Don’t speculate from the sidelines, it’s pure foolishness.

You couldn't be more wrong.

You deal in 3rd party speculation and traffic in the unsubstantiated opinions of others.

No 2 neighbors and my in laws belong and have all expressed displeasure with the trajectory. They rarely use it. We along with other friends - all Ivy alums and old Northeast/New England old money have all decided to join other clubs and are quite happy there. We did not apply to above clubs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

If every crude observation you made here were about blacks, you would be censored and booted off this board. Why is it OK in your view to talk like this?

Because OP’s noted groups weren’t historically and systemically oppressed, moron.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

My dear interlocutor,

Your inquiry reads like the field notes of a well-intentioned ethnographer who has wandered, quite by accident, into a habitat populated by that curious American subspecies: the Modern Metropolitan WASP, a creature neither as endangered nor as monolithic as the folklore would have one believe.

You observe, quite astutely, that these individuals do not conform to the old “Cave Dweller” archetype—those laconic Brahmins who once glided between Kalorama, the Cosmos Club, and the Wilson administration without ever disturbing a single pleat of their seersucker. No, today’s iteration is far more diffused, and—dare I say—more democratic in its pedigree, though they will never admit as much.

The money, as you ask, tends to emerge from the same three tributaries that have nourished this class since the Coolidge administration:

Legacy wealth, discreetly laundered through trusts so ancient they predate the Internal Revenue Code;

“Quiet” corporate success—defense contractors, regional banking families, clever people who own unpleasantly lucrative logistics companies; and

The New Southern Gentry, who discovered sometime in the Reagan era that Washington was the perfect place to winter both their fortunes and their children.

As for how they were raised, one must picture the sort of childhood in which manners are taught before multiplication tables, and where the great moral transgressions of youth consist not in rebellion per se, but in wearing boat shoes before Memorial Day or failing to write a prompt thank-you note to Aunt Eloise for the monogrammed stationery she bestowed.

They were reared on a diet of Episcopalian restraint, tennis lessons, laconic summer camps in Maine, and a vaguely stoic orientation toward life that insists one never—ever—acknowledge ambition while privately tending to it with horticultural precision.

And how they spend their time now?
Well, were you to plot their existence on a calendar, the coordinates would be familiar:

September through November: school admissions events, performed like ritual courtship dances;

Weekends: lacrosse or squash, depending on latitude;

Holidays: dutiful pilgrimages to the ancestral home, often a clapboard structure in the Carolinas containing more portraits of stern-looking ancestors than modern appliances;

Summers: a rotation between Nantucket, the Outer Banks, and a lake somewhere in New Hampshire whose name you would never know unless born into it.

They are not apolitical, mind you; they are post-political. To them, politics is something that happens on C-SPAN, not the dining room table. Their chosen parties are not elephants or donkeys but rather the Chevy Chase Club, the Sulgrave, and—for the truly cosmopolitan—the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

In sum, these are people who navigate life with the serene confidence of those who assume—often correctly—that the world will continue to be upholstered in their preferred fabric.

I admire your curiosity. Observe them closely. They are, after all, one of America’s last reliably performing cultural ecosystems.

You sound maybe older? The current reputation of Chevy and Met is not elite. They are known to be Maga havens and the families I know that belong there are all from Texas, Midwest, Florida etc... I can not think of anyone from New England or Northeast elite families.

The Cosmos is intellectual and elite and has a lot more old money WASP families.

Sorry your view is not just accurate or realistic.

You don’t know enough people and are not a member of any of the clubs. Don’t speculate from the sidelines, it’s pure foolishness.

You couldn't be more wrong.

You deal in 3rd party speculation and traffic in the unsubstantiated opinions of others.

No 2 neighbors and my in laws belong and have all expressed displeasure with the trajectory. They rarely use it. We along with other friends - all Ivy alums and old Northeast/New England old money have all decided to join other clubs and are quite happy there. We did not apply to above clubs.

All bs and you know it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the term was actually intended to describe this exact group: people who were old DC (or at least one spouse is) but largely apolitical. I'm not saying that is what these people are, but the term might not be far off. Here is their profile:

- Wesley Heights/Spring Valley/CCV/Georgetown
- Christ Church (Georgetown)
- Blue Igloo/Little Folks/Little Graces
- Beauvoir
- STA/NCS (but more Holton lately)
- Ivy for smarties/athletes, mid-tier northeast lib arts for the rest, UVA/UNC/Vandy/Duke for Southerners, Sewanee/Trinity for non-academically inclined
- Commercial real estate
- Met Club, Sulgrave, CCC
- MV, Nantucket, Gibson Island, Jackson Hole, Maine

Did I miss anything?

A friend belongs to one of these clubs and was invited to a “meet up” with some other ladies. She arrived and it turned out to be a meeting of women trying to get others to write negative letters about a woman applying for membership. When she asked them why they didn’t like her - none of them could give a concrete answer or example. They didn’t like her because.

This is what you are dealing with. The mean girls in middle school….

Sure this happened. Are you a member of any of them? Were you there? Otherwise. Stfu.

New poster here. I was involved with membership admittance at a club. No one is blackballing people for the sake of blackballing them or for no reason. What may have happened is a bad rumor may have gotten to one of the ladies (think affair, racist, etc.). WASP protocols dictate that you wouldn't broadcast that sort of thing, especially if it's a rumor someone told you in confidence. They may share it in confidence with someone like me, or someone else senior in the club with varying amounts of detail. Same thing for the young male that another poster mentioned with older folks being "jealous." These clubs let in good looking young males all the time, what may have happened is one of the older member's daughter's friend at *insert NE boarding school or private school in D.C.* heard that, that "good looking young guy" was rumored to have sexually assaulted a girl after a party (the assault isn't the issue to those guys because boys will be boys but rather that the girl comes from a "good family" with a parent or relative they may know) so they black ball him.

My family is WASP (10+ generations) and educated at NE boarding schools. These circles are tight and small, everyone knows everything about everyone, so if you don't know why, sometimes there's a reason why good applicants may not get in.

Wow. Just remarkable, honestly. We’re supposed to believe (with a straight face) that the great American aristocracy, the people who insist they don’t even see class, who float through life on a cloud of Vineyard Vines and inherited equity — are actually running a whisper-campaign intelligence service straight out of John le Carré…for pickleball membership?

Let’s just pause for a moment.

You’re saying...and I want to make sure I have this right, that no one is ever blackballed for no reason. Of course not. Heaven forbid. It’s always because someone heard something from someone else, rumor delivered with the solemnity of a priest giving last rites, whispered at a luncheon, over a tuna salad, by someone who “can’t say more.” And somehow this tiny group of people who insist they’re the most polite, conflict-averse population on Earth are also operating a secret tribunal that ruins people’s reputations without ever saying a word out loud.

That seems…totally normal. Not weird at all.

And then we get to the best part: the moral math. Affairs? Racism? An actual assault allegation? Nope, that’s not the problem. The problem is whether the girl involved has the right last name. Whether her great-grandfather donated an organ, not to a hospital, but to the squash court.

This isn’t etiquette. This isn’t tradition. This is what happens when a small group of people confuse “being discreet” with “being unaccountable.”

And here’s the punchline: you frame it like it’s some grand, ancient WASPian code of honor. But what you’re really describing is a closed circuit of gossip and fear that punishes anyone outside the clan — and protects anyone inside it.

If that’s the system, fine. Own it. Say: “We keep out people we don’t like because that’s how our club works.” But don’t pretend it’s noble, or principled, or that it’s about preserving standards. It’s about power — and the people who have it trying desperately to hold on to it.

And frankly? It shows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the term was actually intended to describe this exact group: people who were old DC (or at least one spouse is) but largely apolitical. I'm not saying that is what these people are, but the term might not be far off. Here is their profile:

- Wesley Heights/Spring Valley/CCV/Georgetown
- Christ Church (Georgetown)
- Blue Igloo/Little Folks/Little Graces
- Beauvoir
- STA/NCS (but more Holton lately)
- Ivy for smarties/athletes, mid-tier northeast lib arts for the rest, UVA/UNC/Vandy/Duke for Southerners, Sewanee/Trinity for non-academically inclined
- Commercial real estate
- Met Club, Sulgrave, CCC
- MV, Nantucket, Gibson Island, Jackson Hole, Maine

Did I miss anything?

A friend belongs to one of these clubs and was invited to a “meet up” with some other ladies. She arrived and it turned out to be a meeting of women trying to get others to write negative letters about a woman applying for membership. When she asked them why they didn’t like her - none of them could give a concrete answer or example. They didn’t like her because.

This is what you are dealing with. The mean girls in middle school….

Sure this happened. Are you a member of any of them? Were you there? Otherwise. Stfu.

New poster here. I was involved with membership admittance at a club. No one is blackballing people for the sake of blackballing them or for no reason. What may have happened is a bad rumor may have gotten to one of the ladies (think affair, racist, etc.). WASP protocols dictate that you wouldn't broadcast that sort of thing, especially if it's a rumor someone told you in confidence. They may share it in confidence with someone like me, or someone else senior in the club with varying amounts of detail. Same thing for the young male that another poster mentioned with older folks being "jealous." These clubs let in good looking young males all the time, what may have happened is one of the older member's daughter's friend at *insert NE boarding school or private school in D.C.* heard that, that "good looking young guy" was rumored to have sexually assaulted a girl after a party (the assault isn't the issue to those guys because boys will be boys but rather that the girl comes from a "good family" with a parent or relative they may know) so they black ball him.

My family is WASP (10+ generations) and educated at NE boarding schools. These circles are tight and small, everyone knows everything about everyone, so if you don't know why, sometimes there's a reason why good applicants may not get in.

Wow. Just remarkable, honestly. We’re supposed to believe (with a straight face) that the great American aristocracy, the people who insist they don’t even see class, who float through life on a cloud of Vineyard Vines and inherited equity — are actually running a whisper-campaign intelligence service straight out of John le Carré…for pickleball membership?

Let’s just pause for a moment.

You’re saying...and I want to make sure I have this right, that no one is ever blackballed for no reason. Of course not. Heaven forbid. It’s always because someone heard something from someone else, rumor delivered with the solemnity of a priest giving last rites, whispered at a luncheon, over a tuna salad, by someone who “can’t say more.” And somehow this tiny group of people who insist they’re the most polite, conflict-averse population on Earth are also operating a secret tribunal that ruins people’s reputations without ever saying a word out loud.

That seems…totally normal. Not weird at all.

And then we get to the best part: the moral math. Affairs? Racism? An actual assault allegation? Nope, that’s not the problem. The problem is whether the girl involved has the right last name. Whether her great-grandfather donated an organ, not to a hospital, but to the squash court.

This isn’t etiquette. This isn’t tradition. This is what happens when a small group of people confuse “being discreet” with “being unaccountable.”

And here’s the punchline: you frame it like it’s some grand, ancient WASPian code of honor. But what you’re really describing is a closed circuit of gossip and fear that punishes anyone outside the clan — and protects anyone inside it.

If that’s the system, fine. Own it. Say: “We keep out people we don’t like because that’s how our club works.” But don’t pretend it’s noble, or principled, or that it’s about preserving standards. It’s about power — and the people who have it trying desperately to hold on to it.

And frankly? It shows.

DP. Well written! This is exactly it. They are looking for reasons to keep people they don’t like out while allowing in people that have really terrible reputations. I can think of several members that have abhorrent over the top reputations and they were allowed in without a second thought.

Rumors and gossip to keep people out is the only power they have and it is actually quite sad. Let them have it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

My dear interlocutor,

Your inquiry reads like the field notes of a well-intentioned ethnographer who has wandered, quite by accident, into a habitat populated by that curious American subspecies: the Modern Metropolitan WASP, a creature neither as endangered nor as monolithic as the folklore would have one believe.

You observe, quite astutely, that these individuals do not conform to the old “Cave Dweller” archetype—those laconic Brahmins who once glided between Kalorama, the Cosmos Club, and the Wilson administration without ever disturbing a single pleat of their seersucker. No, today’s iteration is far more diffused, and—dare I say—more democratic in its pedigree, though they will never admit as much.

The money, as you ask, tends to emerge from the same three tributaries that have nourished this class since the Coolidge administration:

Legacy wealth, discreetly laundered through trusts so ancient they predate the Internal Revenue Code;

“Quiet” corporate success—defense contractors, regional banking families, clever people who own unpleasantly lucrative logistics companies; and

The New Southern Gentry, who discovered sometime in the Reagan era that Washington was the perfect place to winter both their fortunes and their children.

As for how they were raised, one must picture the sort of childhood in which manners are taught before multiplication tables, and where the great moral transgressions of youth consist not in rebellion per se, but in wearing boat shoes before Memorial Day or failing to write a prompt thank-you note to Aunt Eloise for the monogrammed stationery she bestowed.

They were reared on a diet of Episcopalian restraint, tennis lessons, laconic summer camps in Maine, and a vaguely stoic orientation toward life that insists one never—ever—acknowledge ambition while privately tending to it with horticultural precision.

And how they spend their time now?
Well, were you to plot their existence on a calendar, the coordinates would be familiar:

September through November: school admissions events, performed like ritual courtship dances;

Weekends: lacrosse or squash, depending on latitude;

Holidays: dutiful pilgrimages to the ancestral home, often a clapboard structure in the Carolinas containing more portraits of stern-looking ancestors than modern appliances;

Summers: a rotation between Nantucket, the Outer Banks, and a lake somewhere in New Hampshire whose name you would never know unless born into it.

They are not apolitical, mind you; they are post-political. To them, politics is something that happens on C-SPAN, not the dining room table. Their chosen parties are not elephants or donkeys but rather the Chevy Chase Club, the Sulgrave, and—for the truly cosmopolitan—the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

In sum, these are people who navigate life with the serene confidence of those who assume—often correctly—that the world will continue to be upholstered in their preferred fabric.

I admire your curiosity. Observe them closely. They are, after all, one of America’s last reliably performing cultural ecosystems.

You sound maybe older? The current reputation of Chevy and Met is not elite. They are known to be Maga havens and the families I know that belong there are all from Texas, Midwest, Florida etc... I can not think of anyone from New England or Northeast elite families.

The Cosmos is intellectual and elite and has a lot more old money WASP families.

Sorry your view is not just accurate or realistic.

You don’t know enough people and are not a member of any of the clubs. Don’t speculate from the sidelines, it’s pure foolishness.

You couldn't be more wrong.

You deal in 3rd party speculation and traffic in the unsubstantiated opinions of others.

No 2 neighbors and my in laws belong and have all expressed displeasure with the trajectory. They rarely use it. We along with other friends - all Ivy alums and old Northeast/New England old money have all decided to join other clubs and are quite happy there. We did not apply to above clubs.

I have been associated for years and decades through my family and there have been some changes but there are still descendants of those who have been seen as “leading families” for generations. There are also people who are descendants of Tuxedo Park and other northern establishment areas. What has changed is that there are now more Catholics and Jewish people at these places. The overall memberships are probably more accomplished and certainly more wealthy ( all of DC is) than in the past too.

What I suspect is that the pp’s neighbors and in-laws are cut from the in-bred racist cloth that did dominate those clubs years and years ago and hence the “trajectory” doesn’t work for them anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?

My dear interlocutor,

Your inquiry reads like the field notes of a well-intentioned ethnographer who has wandered, quite by accident, into a habitat populated by that curious American subspecies: the Modern Metropolitan WASP, a creature neither as endangered nor as monolithic as the folklore would have one believe.

You observe, quite astutely, that these individuals do not conform to the old “Cave Dweller” archetype—those laconic Brahmins who once glided between Kalorama, the Cosmos Club, and the Wilson administration without ever disturbing a single pleat of their seersucker. No, today’s iteration is far more diffused, and—dare I say—more democratic in its pedigree, though they will never admit as much.

The money, as you ask, tends to emerge from the same three tributaries that have nourished this class since the Coolidge administration:

Legacy wealth, discreetly laundered through trusts so ancient they predate the Internal Revenue Code;

“Quiet” corporate success—defense contractors, regional banking families, clever people who own unpleasantly lucrative logistics companies; and

The New Southern Gentry, who discovered sometime in the Reagan era that Washington was the perfect place to winter both their fortunes and their children.

As for how they were raised, one must picture the sort of childhood in which manners are taught before multiplication tables, and where the great moral transgressions of youth consist not in rebellion per se, but in wearing boat shoes before Memorial Day or failing to write a prompt thank-you note to Aunt Eloise for the monogrammed stationery she bestowed.

They were reared on a diet of Episcopalian restraint, tennis lessons, laconic summer camps in Maine, and a vaguely stoic orientation toward life that insists one never—ever—acknowledge ambition while privately tending to it with horticultural precision.

And how they spend their time now?
Well, were you to plot their existence on a calendar, the coordinates would be familiar:

September through November: school admissions events, performed like ritual courtship dances;

Weekends: lacrosse or squash, depending on latitude;

Holidays: dutiful pilgrimages to the ancestral home, often a clapboard structure in the Carolinas containing more portraits of stern-looking ancestors than modern appliances;

Summers: a rotation between Nantucket, the Outer Banks, and a lake somewhere in New Hampshire whose name you would never know unless born into it.

They are not apolitical, mind you; they are post-political. To them, politics is something that happens on C-SPAN, not the dining room table. Their chosen parties are not elephants or donkeys but rather the Chevy Chase Club, the Sulgrave, and—for the truly cosmopolitan—the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

In sum, these are people who navigate life with the serene confidence of those who assume—often correctly—that the world will continue to be upholstered in their preferred fabric.

I admire your curiosity. Observe them closely. They are, after all, one of America’s last reliably performing cultural ecosystems.

You sound maybe older? The current reputation of Chevy and Met is not elite. They are known to be Maga havens and the families I know that belong there are all from Texas, Midwest, Florida etc... I can not think of anyone from New England or Northeast elite families.

The Cosmos is intellectual and elite and has a lot more old money WASP families.

Sorry your view is not just accurate or realistic.

You don’t know enough people and are not a member of any of the clubs. Don’t speculate from the sidelines, it’s pure foolishness.

You couldn't be more wrong.

You deal in 3rd party speculation and traffic in the unsubstantiated opinions of others.

No 2 neighbors and my in laws belong and have all expressed displeasure with the trajectory. They rarely use it. We along with other friends - all Ivy alums and old Northeast/New England old money have all decided to join other clubs and are quite happy there. We did not apply to above clubs.

I have been associated for years and decades through my family and there have been some changes but there are still descendants of those who have been seen as “leading families” for generations. There are also people who are descendants of Tuxedo Park and other northern establishment areas. What has changed is that there are now more Catholics and Jewish people at these places. The overall memberships are probably more accomplished and certainly more wealthy ( all of DC is) than in the past too.

What I suspect is that the pp’s neighbors and in-laws are cut from the in-bred racist cloth that did dominate those clubs years and years ago and hence the “trajectory” doesn’t work for them anymore.

Nope. The neighbors are liberal and elite Northeastern and New England families. They don’t like the blackballing and group mentality described above to not allow certain people in while at the same time easily supporting others who have much worse behavior. They also don’t like the Maga takeover. Maga is a different sort of politic.