pre-departure query one (culture chest revisited)

We all should be reading Cannadine by now. I'd like to re-visit the Culture Chest we did at the dinner party at my house with a view towards exploring social class. (And, for Jeff, Allison, Andrew, this will be the first time we have heard anything about your culture chests.) That is, pick one item/subject (on the outside) and note how that relates to how others situate you with regard to class, social relations, social status. Then pick a similar (or even the same) item (on the inside) and note how this helps you situate yourself with regard to class, social relations, or social status. One paragraph should be fine. Again sign with last name and first initial.

• Thus, I might write: My British education (private school, senior year @ the American School in London; M.Phil. in Social Anthropology @ University of Cambridge) might associate me with the upper class, and certainly I associated with elite teenagers and college students @ both London and Cambridge. So my outside of my "letter" from ASL (basketball, of course, and band) would denote the elite class of the St. Johns Wood area. But, inside, my Harrods' pay-stub would denote that I worked first Summers and then a whole year while living on my own as first a "packer" employee at Harrods and then for an agency--mainly cleaning. I liked my fellow workers and adjusted my accent accordingly (dropping aitches--ask Jeff & Matthew what that means). I have a different view of the upper class having been a servant for them at different times. (Newton K)