Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saying "please" and "thank you."
Not talking about money, religion or politics.
Promptly responding to and reciprocating invitations.
Proper hygiene and dress.

All this. Also being gracious when faced with any situation.

This 100%. My grandmother was very upper crust from an old NY family and she could be gracious in the most "down home" situation. She would never do anything to ever make anyone feel bad about themselves. Movies always get this aspect of "old money" wrong.

+1

This is so true. Everyone I know from old money has this talent. It is indeed a talent. It says so much about someone and how they were raised, and what they came from. Only trashy people try to make others feel bad about themselves, because trashy people are desperate. Classy people compete with themselves. Trashy people try to compete with others; often people who are head and shoulders above them - guess who wins? Hint: NOT the trashy people!

Trashy people are shit stirrers, who try to pretend their not. We all know who they are.

Anonymous wrote:Buy quality and keep it forever (clothes, shoes, cars).

Have nicknames for really common names like John and Elizabeth that sound like "Shep", "Biffy", and "Trip". Use the same 5 names over and over again every generation.

Lots of alcohol and very little food at parties.

Muffy, Is that you?!

Flossing and bidet

Call their parents "Mother and Daddy" and refer to them as Mother or Daddy even when not talking to another sibling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saying "please" and "thank you."
Not talking about money, religion or politics.
Promptly responding to and reciprocating invitations.
Proper hygiene and dress.

All this. Also being gracious when faced with any situation.

This 100%. My grandmother was very upper crust from an old NY family and she could be gracious in the most "down home" situation. She would never do anything to ever make anyone feel bad about themselves. Movies always get this aspect of "old money" wrong.

Anonymous wrote:Buy quality and keep it forever (clothes, shoes, cars).

Have nicknames for really common names like John and Elizabeth that sound like "Shep", "Biffy", and "Trip". Use the same 5 names over and over again every generation.

Lots of alcohol and very little food at parties.

Yes. There's always an old Volvo involved, and usually a country estate, already preserved as a trust to remain open land.

They only mate on advice of their attorneys.

Read Paul Fussel's book Guide to the Anerican Class System.

Buy quality and keep it forever (clothes, shoes, cars).

Have nicknames for really common names like John and Elizabeth that sound like "Shep", "Biffy", and "Trip". Use the same 5 names over and over again every generation.

Lots of alcohol and very little food at parties.

All the old money types I've known (and I've known many having grown up in and now living in one of their enclaves) have a refreshing touch of crazy/eccentricity and dress entirely as they please -- 30 year old sweaters, dog/cat hair and all, roots showing and all.

Anonymous wrote:

If you want to be considered high class, you should not gossip.

Yeah, that's getting classy and upper class mixed up again. Upper class people are not above gossip, what do you think ladies who lunch talk about at lunch?

These types of threads make me think that many of you do not know any upper class people; old money or new! I can never tell if people aspire to be thought of as upper class and want to fake it 'Til ya make it so they post these insipid threads. Many of the upper class old money folks I know I don't like and of whom think very little. DCUM is just obsessed though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cocktail hour.

At least that's what my upper class parents did and my wealthy BIL and my sister. I don't travel in those circles anymore and I don't drink so I can't comment on today's upperclass. But I think that research still shows that alcohol use is higher among upper income whites than among other groups.

Would agree with this! My social registry family has the worst food but best cocktails at get togethers. We are a family of drinkers.

My grandparents had cocktails every day at 5 pm. Always a mixed drink, with a little snack (usually just mixed nuts, but sometimes fancier). Always in the Florida room or the living room. If you weren't already dressed nicely, you would change for cocktails and dinner.

If you want to be considered high class, you should not gossip.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not cursing or having screaming fights in public. I can't believe how much of that I see on certain blocks in DC.
Reading all the time to their kids, starting as infants. To the point of obsession.

Reading?! You must be kidding.

upper class intelligentsia definitely.

Traditionally upper class (WASPs) have an anti-intellectual mindset, at least in my experience.

Yes, I think if you really are sorting people out class-wise, the intelligentsia types the prior pp is mentioning are more likely to be upper-middle class who accumulated wealth through their professions. But traditional upper-class folks (the people you really would call "old money") who inherited their money more likely than made it -- those folks are much more anti-intellectual.