Memories of CSH: A Dinner with the Long Island Swells

[Elof Carlson]

My first visit to CSH Laboratory was in 1956. I was a graduate student at Indiana University and attended the annual summer meetings, driving down by bus (Muller's budget was not sufficient to provide rail or air fare). We were invited to a dinner at one of the sponser's houses (what my fellow graduate students and I referred to as "the little old ladies who owned Long Island"). It was a millionaires mansion, the first I had ever entered and the young men were diverted to a smoking room while the young women were taken to the ladies' parlor. The dinner was sumptuous and the tables were long, each accommodating about 20 people. I had never had a formal dinner before and sat in awe looking at the napkins in silver napkin rings and the array of silverware to use. I had no idea of which to use, whether the roll to my left or right was my proper dinner roll, and I bravely tried to mimic the behavior of those around me. Alas, they too were inexperienced and we fumbled through dinner, a mixture of awe and embarassment. I was shocked when I sqeezed a lemon on Long Island clams on the half shell and saw them undulate in response and felt like a cannibal swallowing a live creature. At the end of the dinner I noticed a shallow dish with a fluid in it. I did not know its use and before lifting it to my lips to see if it was some syrup, I whispered to a fellow student who actually knew what it was. She said, "Don't drink it. It's a finger bowl!"