Miss Astor

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Marge Thomas from Indianapolis.

Well, hiya, Marge. What’s going on?

Well, I wondered if you or Martha knew anything about something that my dad used to say to me.

If my slip was showing, he would say,

Who do you think you are? Miss Astor.

So, do you know who Miss Astor is?

You know, I think that could be any one of the many Astors.

As you said, Marge, they were one of the wealthiest families in the country.

For a long time, the term Miss Astor or Mrs. Astor was something that you might say to somebody who’s a little bit overdressed.

Oh.

And so I suspect, I’m not sure, but I suspect that, you know, it’s kind of a way of sort of pulling somebody back down a little bit from that level.

But I love that he was using that kind of euphemism.

Now, where did you grow up?

In South Carolina, in the Lowcountry.

In the Lowcountry.

Right, right.

And did you hear, Marge, any other expressions to indicate that your slip was showing?

Well, no, not really.

That was the only one with the slip showing.

Now, one of my friends said that her grandfather used to say that she or people were dressed up like Mr. Astor’s pony or Mrs. Astor’s pony.

That’s nice.

I’m so glad you asked about the slip showing because I collect these euphemisms for slips showing.

You know, we don’t really care so much about it today, do we, Marge?

Well, a lot of us don’t wear slips today.

Well, that’s what I was just going to say.

I remember my mother lecturing my sisters about that, and most of the young ladies don’t wear them today, do they?

Their dresses take into account something.

Right.

And I think when he was telling me, you know, dresses were pretty short.

And so I think if I recall correctly, since it was the staff, we just wore half-slips.

And so they are kind of notorious for showing.

-huh.

So you were wearing really short skirts?

Oh, yes.

Right.

Thigh scrapers, as they call them.

Well, my mother used to make our dresses, and she’d say,

Are you sure you want this dress this short?

Well, Marge, you’re bringing back great memories for me,

Because I tell you, I will never forget the time that my Aunt Margaret,

Who grew up in Virginia, said to me,

Moth Ann, you have a Ph.D.

And I just gave her this look, and she said,

You have a Ph.D., petticoat hanging down.

I’ll never forget that, but I think especially southern women have this way of, you know, I mean, you can just, and it’s from a different era.

You know, you can just hear somebody sidling up to you and saying, Marge, Mrs. White is out of jail.

Yeah, the bras show now, and so I doubt if the petticoat would be, you know, a big thing.

The bra is shown now.

Right, right, right.

That’s what is an outer garment, so I guess, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah, so that’s really interesting.

So we’re really talking about a kind of linguistic fossil, huh?

Right, right.

I think so.

Yeah, so I think the answer is that it was one of the asters.

We’re not sure which one, but the idea is somebody who’s really dressed up.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for your call, Marge.

This was a nice avenue of discussion to go down.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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