Who Will Polish the Silver?: A Southern Baby Boomer's Remembrance

Marie (Missy) estimates that as the hostess for family celebrations she has polished 6720 fork tines front back and in between. Shes seen her duty and shes done it. In Who Will Polish the Silver? she shares the stories about her life growing up in the 1940s South surrounded by several generations of an eccentric family grounded in its lineage and formed by the expectations accompanying that lineage. It was a time when Victorian manners and Civil War pride still permeated the culture. Framed by Missys legacy of the family silver which symbolizes her heritage and its responsibilities Who Will Polish the Silver? follows her through rapidly changing decades toward her inevitable status as an aging baby boomer. A young girls recollections growing up in Statesville North Carolina are juxtaposed with the older Missys later broader experiences; this alignment demonstrates that the values and self-image acquired in childhood endure.