Party Ready?

Are you party ready?

Even got your party dress ready?

[Ladies' Home Journal December 1960]

I'm not party ready,

but Mrs. Godley is:

"The Godley family gave a party a week before Christmas…

Magdalena had said to somebody,

'Oh, I know we'll be at home tonight,'

or Frank had remarked to his best friend, Peabody,

'Well, you know you're always welcome, Harry.'

Stray remarks like these,

all with the Godley sincerity,

good humor and generosity,

had created a party, so that

Mrs. Godley suddenly found herself making her famous cakes,

preparing cold chickens

and seeing whether there was enough Moselle for the cup.

She knew that there would be 'a few friends' and that

that would mean the house would be filled with people.

Friends brought other people whom the Godleys

had never seen in their lives before:

'Oh, of course you can come;

they are the best-natured people in the world;

they always have heaps of food and drink

and we dance a bit and you can play cards if you like.

You will like them.'

And the friends brought by the friends always did

like the Godleys and determined in their own minds

that they would come again."

By Hugh Walpole in "The Train to the Sea"

Woman's Home Companion

January 1938

I've always wanted to be a Mrs. Godley,

party ready anytime.

Surely it's more difficult than she makes it look.