What qualifies as 'Old money'?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here again. I also have to add that EDUCATION was of primary importance and everyone went to the best schools and played sports and was very active alumni, blah blah blah. The bragging points in the family were the educations, not much more!

Even that can be tacky.

[Anonymous]

Coming from one of the oldest families in Europe, with a title and land that dates back more than a thousand years, I find this discussion of the american definition of Old Money very interesting.

[Anonymous]

20:33 -STFU.

The funny thing is, people from D.C. judge others at lightning speed.

What they don't know is that *old money* does NOT talk about their credentials OR money. They know they don't have to. That is why people here are so hostile toward old money, and think they get it when they clearly do not. D.C.'ers wouldn't know old money if it hit them off the head.

There wasn't money in this area way back when, don't take it so personally.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't bother asking people from this area about old money.

[Anonymous]

You're old money when your net worth is inversely proportional to the age of your Volvo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're old money when your net worth is inversely proportional to the age of your Volvo.

I am NOT old money, but I aspire to this with my new (Little) money. My broke SIL who lives with her FIL and has a huge rock on her finger that her husband is still making payments on loves to make fun of how long DH and I keep our cars. Keeping up with the Jones's (sp?) is a hard treadmill to get off...

[Anonymous]

I do agree old money is much harder to find in Washington, but only if you're looking for 3rd or 4th generation Washington families. I'm something of old money, but mine was Pennsylvania old money. The point is, there are plenty of old money people here in Washington. They're just not Washington old money.

[Anonymous]

22:43 - I see your point. But it is also HOW you act.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I dated a man whose great gradfather made lots of money in trnsportation back in the 1800s.

....transportation money. How vulgar. I can almost smell the engine oil and burning coal...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All American money is new money.

This. No such thing as old money in America. Everyone with money in America is nouveau riche no matter how you try to spin it.

Agree. The wealthy here just have even larger TVs than the poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

22:43 - I see your point. But it is also HOW you act.

Agreed. My father would have considered it positively gauche to mention things like a "country house" (which people here seem to try to insert into conversations within 10 minutes of meeting you). Nor would you have ever had any of the flagrant displays of wealth at a child's birthday party (all of my parties were held on the back lawn). You absolutely can tell who is NOT old money by the fact that they will continually find ways to mention their wealth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:11:55 you have no idea what you're talking about. Drive around Georgetown and tell me again there are no homes here over 100 years old. I am third generation Washington and while not old money myself, know LOTS of people who are. You don't see them b/c they don't care about your "lists" and what all of the new glossy magazines seem to consider society. Go to Miss Simpsons cotillion; the Chevy Chase Club, and the Metroplitan Club. Your stereotypes about enjoying themselves and "living life" are hilarious and naive. Money doesn't buy happiness, and a lot of people who are "old" money don't really have that much of it. People like the Salahis are very, very new to this area and those of us who have been here more than 15 years wish the IT and lobbying booms had never come b/c of the way they all have commercialized what used to be our nice, small city - we don't count the people who come and go with politics.

This poster is most accurate (see also Sulgrave Club and the green book) and 11:55/12:49 sounds clueless. White House dinners have very little to do with old Washington society. Its been quite a while since we had that kind of a president. Those Washingtonians in their 70s and up, who still call Kenndedy patriarch Joe a low life criminal upstart, could clue you in 11:55. Old blue-blood waspy families certainly exists in Washington, maybe not at the same quantities as parts of the northeast, but they are here. Anyway, so called "Old Money" is not about money and only the nouveau riche describe them that way. Clearly 11:55/12:49 is NOKD.

Sulgrave Club? I hope you're kidding.

My elderly G'town neighbors who live in lovely homes all bought their homes for $20k or less in the 1960s and 1970s, and the reason why they called Joe Kennedy derogatory names is because they are anti-Catholic (and anti-semitic, and so on and so on.)

And you can not compare DC to the Northeast in any way. Are you seriously comparing DC to the Upper East Side or Greenwich, or Darien or Westport? There is no comparison.

This thread is hysterical. Especially LOVE the Sulgrave Club reference! Thank you for the great laugh!!!





This thread is nuts. Yep, DC is the Hollywood for the ugly - and the clueless.

[Anonymous]

WTF is a "country house"? Why would someone want one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

WTF is a "country house"? Why would someone want one?

Nowadays, for new money Washington, a country house is a house out in Germantown, Maryland. Or some 2 bedroom condo on the Eastern Shore. The point is that it is not here, and it sounds great to say country house.

Old money doesn't even recognize the term country house. They simply say, 'We're going up to the Cape' or somesuch thing. It's understood, the house is owned.

[Anonymous]

"....transportation money. How vulgar. I can almost smell the engine oil and burning coal..."

WHO the f*** does THIS chick think she is?!?!?! BWHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!.......