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A PASSING FAD 19
her belief that despite our devilish behavior our hearts were angelic. She spoiled us in every way that a grandmother could contrive; we were probably the most envied kids in our neighborhood because from breakfast until dinnertime we had no parental taskmasters.
Our home in Cleveland was on Wade Park Avenue. It was a big frame house with a wide porch and much gingerbread trim. There were five or six bedrooms upstairs, and we always seemed to have someone visiting us. When it wasn't a relative, our visitor was usually a minor celebrity or an impecunious musician from abroad whom Father had generously invited to stop in for a visit sometime, never expecting to see the fellow again.
I remember what an important event was Sunday morning breakfast in those days, for it was the one meal of the week at which the whole family got together. And since Sunday was almost the only day on which Mother and Father could entertain, we usually had guests for breakfast. In fact, I can't remember a Sunday when there were vacant chairs at the big dining-room table, and often extra chairs would have to be brought in from the parlor.
Those breakfasts started at eleven o'clock and continued as long as anybody could still swallow a mouthful. We had already had our petit dejeuner, consisting of coffee or chocolate and a buttered bun, and we had also been to church before we gathered in the dining room. Father sat at the head of the table wearing his best cutaway and a high wing collar. Mother sat at the foot arrayed in Sunday finery. Henry and I, dressed in our new suits and uncomfortably starched shirts, sat on her left, flanked by Grand'mere, who was there to help keep us properly subdued. The guests occupied the remaining chairs according to the protocol of first come, first served.
Although we called the meal "breakfast," it was more on the order of a banquet, since it was of magnificent proportions, lasted for hours, and was prepared and served by a chef and waiter from Father's restaurant. It started with vermouth cassis for the