The Receiving Line

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 97, 2 May 1941, Page 5

The Receiving Line

HERE was one feature of social life in Washington, which struck me as unusual]; it still does, And that was what they call "the receiving line." You know at any big party or reception, whether it is a private one or some official function, there is always a host or hostess, perhaps both, to receive the guests. The same custom exists here for official entertaining as in England. The guests either give their name. or

hand their invitation card to the uniformed official at the door of the drawing room, and he announces you. You then shake hands with the host or hostess, and when the party is given for some special guest, whom you are invited to meet, that person is also in the official group. If Mr. and Mrs. Something hold a reception for Mr. and Mrs, Something else, that makes four

people with whom you shake hands. Now, the Americans extend this, sometimes to inordinate lengths. You are received not only by your host or hostess, but by a whole line of people. When it is a club that entertains, it is not only the president

who receives you, but the whole committee. Shy people find it a very embarrassing business running the gauntlet of the receiving line. Your name may be correctly announced at the door, and each person in the line, passes both you and your name on to her next-door neighbour in the line. As there is always a buzz of conversation, and perhaps an orchestra playing, your name may not be heard correctly, and from one distortion to another it goes on its corrupt way, and though you may begin Miss Scanlan, by the time you have been passed through about twenty hands, you may emerge Mrs. Magur--kinshaw at the end of it-("Shoes and Ships and Sealing-wax," by Nelle Scanlan, 2Y A, April 8.)