A Typical Montreal Party, Post War Years
My mother and father had many
parties. They were not rich, and my father did not have a university degree, yet supported our family by working as a flight
dispatcher at Dorval Airport, Montreal, later taking a business degree at Sir George Williams, and going into Public Relations
for Air Canada, at Place Ville Marie.
So. What's so typical.
Most of the people at the party were Married Couples, with children home, with babysitters.
Unlike the East Asian friends I now see, the couples had come a long way to work in Montreal in the post war years - no one
had relatives around.
These parents ate dinner with their kids, before the parties started, and there was a more of an emphasis
on booze, and talking. I don't remember any musicians, which I would late have at my own Art Studio parties: we never
paid for music, as they were my own friends.
The bedroom of my parents was where the women laid down their winter coats, many of them fur coats,
and the men hung their coats in the hall closets. A pleasant feminine scent of French perfumes exuded from these coats.
My mother hated smokers but ashtrays
with books of matches were placed around the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Many bottles of soft drinks and
booze aligned themselves on the arborite counters.
Tonic water,ginger ale, club soda, gin, vodka, rum, and whiskey. No wine, and maybe a little
beer -
My brother and I kept a keen eye on the snack foods laid out an hour or two before the party, seeing which ones we
could dip into, and sneak back to our bedrooms with. For some reason, I like the Quebec brand of Humpty Dumpty red-
tinged Barbecued Potato Chips.
With mom preoccupied, we could plug in our bedroom night lights, and stay up as late we wanted, reading
comics, or listening to our transistor radios. I helped Mom put out the party dishes of snacks, also dipping in the
yellow mustard pickles, made from cauliflowers. Green olives were one of my favourite foods, as I was addicted to their
high salt content.
My mother also made special party foods, cheese straws the most delectable snack. She rolled
these on a cookie tray, and cut hundreds of narrow rectangles that I was never able to hide enough of, for my own late night
snacking.
She also prepared sweetened snacks for the coffee made for car drivers, lemon squares with tart icing and Graham
wafer crusts, or apricot bars with pureed fruit paste.
The women wore pretty dresses. That was part of the style then, not one wore slacks. They wore nylon
stockings, and most wore shoes with heels. They curled their hair,they did not necessarily feel the need to go to a beauty
salon. We dressed for parties, as I myself dressed for Sunday School. We
made an effort to dress up. It was fun.
The cosmetics my mom used, for these parties. First, the hair curling, this involved bobby pins
and brush rollers, quite uncomfortable. You could avoid this, by having a permament first.
There was always lipstick, and
a bit of face powder. And the perfume as a celebratory finish.
The lingerie was quite different. It was
to emphasize a certain shape. The breasts went out, and waist nipped in. Crinolines and petticoats were in
vogue, and emphasize the female hourglass shape.
Men were not too comfortable either, to be truthful. They wore suits to parties, to match the
formality of their wives' attire. These are winter parties I describe, indoor
parties, as summer parties outside might be different.
A happy mood ended these parties, and there
was a certain control, as the time schedules of the babysitters waiting in the homes of the party guests had to be considered.
People hugged and lightly kissed
on the cheeks, not really touching, Montreal style.
