A snobbish mother is upset when her son wants to marry a poor girl, and throws her parents out of the wedding because they don’t look posh enough.
When Clara Wellington’s son came home from college and told her he wanted to marry a poor girl from Montana, she was horrified. “But who are her parents?” she asked. “What do they do?”
“What does it matter?” her son Brad asked. “I love Frannie, and that is all that matters to me.” Clara pressed her lips together. Of course, birth and status mattered, they mattered a lot! At least to Clara, they were everything!
When Clara and her husband, Brad Senior, met Frannie Heckle and her parents, all her worst expectations were confirmed. Clara supposed the Heckles were what her father-in-law would have called ‘salt-of-the-earth’ people, but not what she wanted as her son’s in-laws!
Mr. Heckle was a tall, burly man who wore a light blue suit that pouched at the knees and elbows, and Mrs. Heckle favored painfully bright floral house dresses and white plastic shoes…
Clara shuddered. They would have to do something about their clothes! She wasn’t having them spoiling the wedding by looking like the hicks they so obviously were! She said as much to her husband and his reply surprised her.
“Leave them alone, Clara,” Brad Senior had said in a cold voice he seldom used with her. “Brad loves this girl, and these are good, genuine people who care for him. What they wear doesn’t matter!”
Clara was angered by her husband’s refusal to see how very important it was to give the right impression, to present the right image. Her son would one day be a wealthy man, with a place in the city’s high society.
Don’t pretend to be something you’re not, and don’t deny your roots.
People would be talking about this wedding for years and Clara was determined that it would be an absolute success — there would be no snide remarks or criticism of her only son’s wedding!
Clara invited Mrs. Heckle and Frannie out to lunch, and carefully explained to the two women that what they wore was VERY important.
“Mrs. Heckle, I think you should rethink your image. You should go to Bloomingdales, there are some quite acceptable off-the-rack clothes that won’t be too expensive that would give you and your husband the right look.”
