A snobbish mother becomes upset when her son wants to marry a poor girl and throws her parents out of the wedding for not looking presentable enough.
When Clara Wellington’s son came home from university and told her he wanted to marry a poor girl from Montana, she was horrified. “But who are her parents?” she asked.
“What are you going to do?” “What does it matter?” her son Brad replied. “I love Frannie, and that’s all that matters to me.”
Sure, lineage and status counted, they counted too much! At least for Clara, they were everything! When Clara and her husband, Brad Sr., met Frannie Heckle and her parents, all her worst fears were confirmed.
Clara suspected that the Heckle family was what her father-in-law would have called “salt of the earth,” but not what she wanted as parents for her son!
Mr. Heckle was a tall, stout man wearing a light blue suit that was baggy at the knees and elbows, and Ms. Heckle painfully favored bright house dresses and white plastic shoes… Clara shuddered. They must do something about their attire!
She was not going to let them ruin the wedding by looking like the rednecks they clearly were! She told as much to her husband, and his response surprised her.
“Leave her alone, Clara,” Brad Sr. said with a coldness he rarely used with her. “Brad loves this girl, and these are good, real people who care about him. What they wear doesn’t matter!” Clara was angered by her husband’s refusal to see how important it was to make the right impression, to present the right image. Her son would one day be a wealthy man, with a place in high society.
Don’t pretend to be something you’re not and don’t deny your roots. People would talk about this wedding for many years to come, and Clara was determined that it would be a complete success – there would be no nasty comments or criticism of her only son’s wedding!
Clara invited Ms. Heckle and Frannie to lunch and carefully explained to the two women that what they wore was VERY important.
“Mrs. Heckle, I think you should reconsider your appearance. You should go to Bloomingdale’s; they have some perfectly acceptable off-the-rack dresses that aren’t too expensive and would give you and your husband the right look.”
