Keeping Up Appearances

There is a very funny British TV show that has been running for years on PBS stations called, "Keeping Up Appearances." It features an overbearing housewife, Hyacinth, her long suffering husband, and her several sisters who also have flower names. Hyacinth aspires to be considered as in the upper level of English society. Her main function is to give 'candlelight suppers' and to invite or finagle friends and acquaintances into attending.

Tonight we are having our suppers eight church group over for dinner, not in the motor home but in the nearby club house. We got pressed into this evening without our consent because of a well meaning member of our group who did not want us to be 'left out.' She is not being viewed positively by HW2 at this moment since she only had a few days to get ready. It will be a lovely evening in any event. We have made several trips to our storage unit for the proper supplies. The first set of dishes did not have cups in the box we brought home, and so it will be returned and another set was found. To do this required dismantling one quarter of the storage unit and then re-packing. It is much neater now. When we opened the safe to get our flatware, we discovered an empty safe, and then I remembered that I had carefully packed the flatware deep in the bowels of the unit for safety. Again, a fallback was necessary. Of course we could not find the linens either, and so two trips have been made to WalMart. The first for the first set and the second to return the first and replace with a better color for the second.

Now HW2 takes this all seriously, and I try to be helpful by lugging things from the storage unit and back and then from home to the club house and back. She does not want these church members to think that we live like trailer trash, and so the dinner will be the same as if she were the hostess in our past homes. She is an excellent hostess and does a great job. Hyacinth, you need to come and observe so that your candlelight dinners could sparkle like ours will. Happy travels.