Good Manners Keeps Friends

Pull yourself together, Sue! Charlie’s only removing an olive pit from his mouth.

Bad Table Etiquette Offends New Friends

Pull yourself together, Sue! Charlie’s only removing an olive pit from his mouth!

He thinks he’s especially polite, poor boy, to use that big dinner napkin as a barricade. But etiquette says, simply cover your mouth with a cupped hand and inconspicuously drop an olive pit, a fish bone or a fruit stone into it.

Don't let old-fashioned table superstitions ruin dinner dates for you. Remember unobtrusive manners are smartest. 

And take these tips:

• Table manners can make or break you socially.
• Never unfold your napkin entirely, unless it’s tea size. 
• When you use your napkin, lift only a corner to your mouth.
• If you’re dancing between courses, drop your napkin on your chair– not on the table.
• At a properly set table, begin with the silver farthest from your plate and continue in the order in which the pieces are placed.

— From the Santa Ana Journal, November 1937

 

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia