Earline's Pink Party The Social Rituals and Domestic Relics of a Southerner Woman by Elizabeth Findley Shores

Earline's Pink Party The Social Rituals and Domestic Relics of a Southerner Woman by Elizabeth Findley Shores is an immersion in the most authentic profound South of the USA starting from the beginning of 1900s seen through the eyes of the protagonist of this story: Earline Moore Findley. Describing her life will mean to being catapulted in the old southerner atmosphere.

The author has never known Earline, her grand-mother, but thanks to a profound and detailed reconstruction of customs, familiar habits and traditions of the South,  Earline will be more than alive through the pages of this book, with a lot of pictures as well! and will guide us in this fascinating trip in the past of Alabama and Tuscaloosa in particular.

We will discover that a great novelty, and reason for celebrate at the beginning of 1900 was the arrival of photography. Adults and youngsters wore for the big event, their best clothes, because they knew that they would have lived a magical adventure: they would have been immortalized in a picture, precious and unusual for that time. A picture precious because a rarity.

Did you know for example that a sign of distinction in a wealthy family was painting the house?
An unpainted house meant that the family was not economically good. Earline received a first declaration of love at 16, and she wore for the occasion a beautiful opal ring in a picture, but then the story for a reason or another interrupted. Earline would have passed at her daughter the "saved ring" and her daughter passed it at the author of the book, always at the age of 16.
Earline studied for becoming a teacher but at the end she was a mom mainly and wife. In fact later she would have met a good man, Herbert, a lawyer with which she built her existence with.
Earline although a lady we can think without too many worries was devastated during all her life by many departures and sad ideas: that she was unattractive, unsave and unlovable.
These three sad ideas, like also the the ones of remaining alone and suffering of some contagions kept her life constantly vigil under many aspects. 
Earline was a passionate of good food, but she left at servants the preparation of firsts and seconds, thinking that these ones were not noble dishes, and leaving for her the joy of baking. She was a passionate of baking and she asked for recipes to all her friends and relatives trying to better each time their recipes.

Earline was scared by the social condition of his time but she hasn't never taken a real position about it. She remained at the window looking at the events that were going on and at that time situation in Alabama, racism, tensions between black and white pretty complicated.
This, maybe because of the education received.
Earline kept a journal but she hasn't never written more than what it was necessary to write.

Earline's Pink Party is plenty of great anecdotes and life-stories, don't forget the pink party one! and you love history, customs, I am more than sure that this one is the book for you!

Highly recommended to everyone!

I thank University of Alabama Press for the physical copy of this romantic book.


Anna Maria Polidori