col49 2 pt2

[Judith A. Panetta]

My goodness...such a lot of fuss about Tupperware.

And as I confess to actually making and serving fondue (to guests, mind
you)...for the record...I've been to Tupperware parties. Yes, plural. This
was before I started dropping acid, I might add. Perhaps it was because of
the Tupperware parties...but I digress.

I had sibs in suburbia. The sibs threw Tupperware parties. These were social
events. The ladies played games that were conducive to laughs and
conversation And we were awarded trinket type gifts. (I still have the
orange peeler-quite handy.) The main motivation was to buy, buy, buy. The
hostess was awarded points based on much was sold. The points were redeemed
for more Tupperware. It was more expensive that the grocery store variety,
but remember...it was guaranteed for life (as long as you didn't stick it in
the dishwasher) and it had the "Burpable seal" (can't beat that!). The
ladies collected Tupperware. It was lovingly labeled and considered
extremely rude if you took home a container and didn't return said adored
burpable device.

It was part of suburban life. Very middle-upper middle class. If you were a
regular on the social pages in an urban are...no you probably didn't throw
Tupperware parties. But consider that many folks in suburbia had the family
lawyer that was called upon from time to time (no retainer...much more
casual). This was also the age of the Miltown Mamas...women were prescribed
all manner of tranqs for "tired wife syndrome." Some even had shrinks (more
stylish in California). So it is possible that Oed is just a suburban
housewife digging the activities that were available. Oh yes...and unless
you were "ethnic" you were probably a member of the "Young Republicans"
either to advance your husband's career or because the tea sandwiches were
tasty. Bridge parties (Mmmmm...bridge mix), bowling leagues, Polynesian
theme parties with Tiki torches, TV tables, hairspray and girdles, limited
access highways, look alike housing developments, urban renewal, rise of the
multinational corporation, the breakdown of the extended family, air raid
shelters, epidemic rise in heart attacks, be the first on your block with a
"Bancamericard," and dippitydo.

Those were the days.

BTW...Tupperware's corporate hqts. is in the unofficial plastic capital of
the world: Orlando, FL.

Later, Judy


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org]On
Behalf Of Paul Mackin
Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2001 9:54 AM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: col49 2 pt2


Dave Monroe wrote: (quoting Jeffrey L. Meikle whom I think used to be a
p-lister)

> . its cultural significance was
> contained in the words of a skeptical John Gloag, who
> suggested that plastiuc should be understood as what
> happens 'when the artificial becomes the real.'" (pp.
> 181-2)

My comment would be that this sounds like a definition of postmodernity.

For example "Postmodernism is what you have when the modernization process
is complete and nature is gone for good. It is a more fully human world
than the older one, but one in which 'culture' has became a veritable
'second nature'."  --Fredric Jameson

Tupperware was  an attractive and durable product. The only complaint I
remember hearing back then was that it was  pricey--an expensive means of
storing meal leftovers for future use. Cheaper although inferior plastic
containers were available.

I think the Tupperware phenomonon   might have been a little like Amway. A
Tupperware hostess would make money  or at least receive free gifts as the
result of  sales of the product to her friends. Plus some of the buying
friends  would be recruited to become in turn hostesses themselves.

Off the top of my head I'd say there was a large socio-economic strata in
the 50s  (also in the 60s)  made up of nuclear familes in which  the
husband's income was enough so that the wife did not have to work outside
the home but with  family income still insufficient to afford many of the
goods  available to buy. Not many of these women had been mistresses of
rich industrialists however. Oedipa with her lawyer and psychotherapist
seems to me an unlikely candidate for a Tupperware Party. (just an unlikely
as her being married to a diskjockey unless he happened to be one of the
few highly paid ones which Mucho does not seem to have been)  Women of a
slighty higher status would probably say they would not be caught dead at a
Tupperware party.

Forgive me I have  nothing but misty memory to support any of this
pontificating.


                            P.