If there’s one thing I know about hip young people, they love the affectation and attire of the very, very old. Artifacts, sometimes. Last month, The New York Times caught the nation’s attention with “One Part Mr. Peanut, One Part Hipster Chic: The Monocle Returns as a Fashion Accessory.”
I’m not saying Yvette and Andrew Parker are the hippest young professionals I know. They might be. (Yes. They are.)
They chair the ninth Dinner on the Grounds fundraiser May 2 for Our House, which has always been about youth and springtime and yet, seersucker and crepe and “vintage.”
This year Loblolly Creamery, Diamond Bear and South on Main are contributing to the atavism. Loblolly Creamery will be scooping its Backyard Bourbon Praline – bourbon brown sugar ice cream with candied pecans – from a cooler truck hiked up on the curb. South on Main will have on hand a signature cocktail, “Spring Thyme.” (We’re seeing more and more of this – Rock Town Distillery did a couple of specialty mixed drinks for a Downton Abbey-theme fundraiser for AETN in December.) Diamond Bear is going to have a root beer stand.
“Think chalkboard Pinterest chic!” Yvette says.
There’s talk of outdoor games such as Baggo, badminton and croquet.
Think “big old-fashioned yard party,” Andrew says.
Think little-picture, because so much that we adore about the past is in the hard-wrought details. Custom balusters and hand-sewn back stitching, the two-handed handshake and the underhand free-throw, soda phosphates. It wasn’t anything special, our forebears surely thought then, and for convenience, put my soft drink in a plastic bottle with a screw cap, but I think a lot of younger folks recognize some of this is buried treasure.
“It’s doing something different, too. Bringing some style and some culture to what you’re doing,” Yvette says about the scope of the party.
“The idea is to take this young culture … here in Little Rock and introduce it to [these well-established fundraising] events,” Andrew Parker says, which probably means the events should meet the young culture halfway.
Incidentally, Andrew and Yvette are moving to the So-Ma area, gentrification station. They bought a lot and have picked Herron Horton to design their house, which they hope will be much, much more energy efficient than their Hillcrest home. (There’s nothing “vintage” about low R-value.)
The party takes place from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Terry Mansion (Seventh and Rock streets). Tickets are $150 each and can be bought at tinyurl.com/ lgl9x6j or by calling (501) 374-7383, Extension 228.
High Profile, Pages 35 on 04/06/2014
Print Headline: Our House’s fundraiser old-fashioned yard party
