Coral Gables Riviera-Times

Coral Gables Prepares for Gala New Year's Eve

Country Club Members Plan Gay Parties

The "dancing room only" signs were swinging merrily over Coral Gables' two Country Clubs today as Gableites and their guests prepared to don gayest bibs and tuckers to meet the New Year half way. The Country Club of Coral Gables reported that every available accommodation, both for dinner and the New Year's Eve celebration to follow, is booked solid "and has been for two weeks." Members of the Riviera Country Club were just as intent on a festive farewell to the old year and hearty greetings to the new. The four hundred guest-limit there was reached by Christmas Day and close to a hundred Riviera members found themselves on the disappointed list as far as the Club's supper dance was concerned. Mike may still make reservations for all or part of the dinner, supper, breakfast, dance program planned at the Coral Gables lodge, but Secretary Charles I. Gobat said a capacity crowd of celebrants was expected. A few New Year's Eve accommodations were available still at Victor's on Coral Way, and at Fox's in South Miami. Dinner, supper, floor show and dancing will be the program at Victor's, while Fox's offers a special New Year's dinner, dancing and favors. Out-of-town guests will be the rule rather than the exception at the Riviera Country Club's gala celebration. Mr. and Mrs. Hoomes Bark will be joined by their house guests, Paul H. Smith and Virgil Smith of Tampa, and Mr. and Mrs. Trevor Green of Gainesville. With Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Woodward will be Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Gardner, of Washington, D. C., who are visiting the Woodwards for ten days. Mr. and Mrs. Maurice H. Connell will be New Year's Eve hosts at the Riviera Club to their Biloxi, Miss., guests, Mr. and Mrs. Merton W. Brush. Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Wooten of Bradenton will arrive in time to join their hosts, Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Wilkins at the celebration and will attend the Orange Bowl game next day. Mr. and Mrs. K. G. Hulsman of Reading, Mass., will cheer the old year out and the new year in with their kinsfolk, the D. L. Hulsmans. Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Weaver have invited Mr. and Mrs. George McKievier of Washington, D. C., to share their table and Mr. and Mrs. Paul E. Bell's New Year's Eve guests and houseguests are the R. K. Willeys and the Stein Halls from Richmond, Va. Country Club of Coral Gables Maitre d'Hotel Leo LeMaire is making preparations for more than eleven hundred New Year's (Please turn to Page Eight)

GABLES LADY BUTCHER ENJOYS NOVEL JOB; WINS PRAISE OF MASCULINE CO-WORKERS

By Chuck Wiley Just like any other housewife, Mrs. Edward W. Drury has a hard time deciding what kind of meat she'll have for dinner each night. But unlike most housewives, she has no favorite butcher to help her decide whether lamb or pork chops will go best with her evening meal. The reason for this "dilemma" is because Mrs. Drury, or Martha, as she is called by fellow employes, is her own butcher. According to meat-manager Swanson at the Gables A & P store where she works, she's the "best of all the lady butchers the store has ever had." When Martha first started to work at the A & P ten months ago, she had had no previous meat-cleaving experience. "For the first few days, I didn't know a lamb chop from a pork chop!" she admitted today. But determined to learn the butchering business, she stayed with the job until she mastered it. Now she likes it so well that she plans to make a profession of whacking meat. Meat nobby Edward is glad—because he's a non-vegetable eater! Born in Wildwood, Florida, Mrs. Drury came to Miami ten years ago with her husband. Prior to that, she worked on airplane instruments at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville. During the war, she was a junior engine test operator at the Miami Air Depot. When the depot was turned over to the Army, Martha began looking for a new way of making a living. A friend of hers, who was a lady butcher at one of the local groceries, encouraged her to go into the meat-cleaving business. Thinking that she might like this because it was so different from anything she'd ever done, Martha went after the job and got it. Every week-day but Wednesday Martha not only waits on customers but she also has charge of setting up the cold cut and delicatessen cases each morning. And when chickens need to be cut up or when fish need to be cleaned, she doesn't have to call one of the male butchers to do the job as did her feminine predecessor. "Most of my customers," said Martha, "are pretty nice but there is one middle-aged matron who can hardly be dubbed 'a little ray of sunshine' when she comes up to the meat counter on a Friday or Saturday." Without fail, Mrs. Drury said, her procedure is something like this: After asking for two of the nicest, tenderest lamb chops in the store, she requests that each chop be weighed separately. This done, she asks Martha to weigh both chops together. During each step, the matron is carefully jotting down the weights in a little notebook. After each chop has been reweighed, Martha finally manages to get them wrapped. Then this special customer decides she'd rather have pork chops anyway. After going through several more weighing cycles with steak, veal, and just about every other choice meat in the showcase, the matron explains that she doesn't believe the store has exactly what she wants today so she thinks she'll have a vegetable dinner!

Gables Women Fete Friends at Holiday Parties

Mrs. John W. Holland and Mrs. L. F. Julian were co-hostesses yesterday when they entertained about one hundred and fifty guests at a coffee at the Shore Meade Hotel on the beach. Gracing the center of the table was a large silver epergne filled with grapes of three different colors. On both sides of the centerpiece were wine coolers filled with red roses. Presiding at the coffee urns were Mrs. E. A. Waddell, Mrs. George Romph, Mrs. Sydney Moore, Miss Albert Hinton, Mrs. Sam McCormick, Mrs. L. G. Lewis, Mrs. Ray Mead and Mrs. Paul Dunaway. * * * Mrs. David H. Hendrick Jr. and Mrs. Jack Kane entertained at the Hendrick's Avenue Aragon home Sunday afternoon with a coffee. About thirty-five guests were present. In charge of pouring were Mrs. Donald Dutcher, Mrs. Sam Elcock, and Mrs. Robert Gardner.