For the second winter, we have a boarder with us, a woman I’ll call Carlie. She’s a groom, a part-time resident here, who travels with her boss, ‘Amber,’ a wealthy young woman who rides really expensive horses. It’s her lifestyle, and her life. She competes with some of the world’s best jumpers who winter here and perform at the Horse Show, a stadium and grounds about two minutes from us.
Carlie takes care of the horses, cleans up after them, makes vet and farrier appointments, and saddles the horses so her young boss can ride up to four horses a day. Carlie leaves the house at 6 a.m., returns at 5 p.m. for dinner, then leaves at 7 p.m. for night check. She’s usually in bed between 9:30-10. She does that six days a week.
This evening she was excited about watching Downton Abbey with us. But first she was being taken out to dinner by the mother of her boss-rider. The mother is the mistress of a fantastic 8,000-acre estate with an enormous mansion on it. The family no longer resides in the mansion, which is now a popular tourist attraction. The name itself is synonymous with great wealth, and the family is the American version of aristocracy.
So maybe you see the synchronicity here. Carlie was anxious to watch the well-known drama about the posh lifestyle of British aristocracy in the early part of the twentieth century. But, meanwhile, she was on her way to dining with one of the heads of a famous American household. It turns out that her dinner and evening events ran right through the TV show. But hey, she was living the real thing—American style.
The interesting twist is that a century ago, the mistress of a great house would never be seen taking a groom to dinner. Besides that, I noticed that Carlie went to dinner in jeans and a T-shirt, totally acceptable in even the top restaurants here. Times have changed in some way, but not so much in others. To Trish and I, Carlie seems to live a life ‘in service,’ just like the servants on the ‘first floor’ of Downton Abbey. But she loves it, and that’s what counts.
Some things have changed, as you say, but it does seem that great wealth still pulls the strings.
Yes, it does.