Tag: Idlewild

Family

From Uniform to Tails

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My father, Edwin Sharpe Bell, squiring an Idlewild debutante in the late 1940s or perhaps 1950.
My father, Edwin Sharpe Bell, squiring an Idlewild debutante in the late 1940s or perhaps 1950.

It definitely looks like an awkward moment for my father. He looks so very debonair on the outside, but inside he’s feeling like some sort of trussed up peacock. And he’s enduring it because as an eligible bachelor and newly minted member of The Idlewild Club here in Dallas, he’s required to play the part of an escort to the young ladies “coming out” that season.

Tonight the Dallas’ deb season officially begins with the Idlewild ball presenting a number of young women. I have no idea how many or who they are. For the last few years, there hasn’t been much publicity during the season. When I say “season”, I mean the traditional season that’s been an annual occurrence since 1884 before there was La Fiesta de las Seis Bandera and the Dallas Symphony’s presentation ball. The latter two are well covered in the local newspapers and blogs, but not Idlewild.

Family

The Idlewild Debutantes of 1951

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joy-deb-01

Dallas’ deb season officially begins this weekend. When I say the “season”, I mean the traditional season that’s been around since 1884 before there was La Fiesta de las Seis Bandera and the Dallas Symphony’s presentation ball. I don’t know how long the season was in my mother’s time, but during mine, 1975, it lasted for three months with up to two parties a day with the exception of Sundays and Mondays. It’s a very different story now with an abbreviated season and fewer parties during the week.

I find the photos of my mother’s era far more glamorous than what has been produced in the last thirty years — especially in the last ten years with the advent of the digital photo. Perhaps it’s because of the black and white format? Maybe it’s because we no longer have the same kind of poise and polish. Continue to see what I’m talking about.