485 Madison,
I think you mean "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," Season 1, Episode 1, Scene 1.

As we soon learn, Don is frustrated because he can't seem to come up with an appealing campaign for his client Lucky Strikes now that it is starting to be revealed that smoking is harmful to your health. I asume the notes on the napkin (unreadable to me) have to do with ideas that are occurring to Don as he sits in the bar.

There do appear to be lipstick smudges or cherry stains (yes, an ingredient in an Old Fashioned) on the napkin. Who knows the significance, if any? Very subtle touch, don't you think? I 'm going with cherry stains until proven otherwise!

Good question 485! I know when Betty opened up the drawer in Don's desk she found lots of napkins with Don's writing on them. The only time I remember the camera zooming in on anything Don had written was in the first episode like Suzette describes above. As to the stain, I agree with Suzette - it's a cherry stain. Everyone I know immediately fishes out the cherry in and Old Fashioned and places it on a napkin. Cheers!

I thought it was the logo of the restaurant.

Years ago, better restaurants had their own napkins, tablecloths, glassware and yes; matchbooks, bearing the logo of the establishment.

oh...and of course...SWIZZLE STICKS!

Just checked Ebay, Gavin....there are 346 listings for swizzle sticks....fascinating....I imagine a lot of people collect them.

Kind of OT - but I remember being at the country club for Easter one year and they had linen napkins. My brother (now a tenured professor at MIT) held one up and said, "What are these little tablecloths for?"

Remember little pats of butter on those paper squares in restaurants? We had some out-of-town relatives (not frequent restaurant goers) that used to visit every so often, and during one of their visits my parents had taken us all out to a eat and when the waitress brought the rolls and butter, my cousin picked up one of the butters and said "What is this, cheese?"

Yes, Mambo, remember very well the little square "pats" of butter on the little cardboard squares!

... And, Nancy....I remember the first time we went to a "fancy" restaurant, I must have been 5 or so---(the first time I can remember going to one, anyway) and saw those linen napkins all pressed and folded by our plates...I couldn't believe they were meant to get all messy and actually "used"...we always used paper towels for "napkins" (except at Thanksgiving and other ultra-special occasions... and even then we usually used the packaged "paper napkins")

My mom had fancy cloth ones, but they were almost never used...

Every woman who reads this will think me weird, but I love cloth napkins and use them all the time because I enjoy ironing them. There, my guilty little secret - I like ironing - napkins, handkerchiefs, tablecloths, all those things people hate to use because of the ironing. I guess it's a good thing I enjoy it, 'cause I also love a table set with pretty table linens. I search the antique shops for vintage holiday tablecloths, and have found wonderful napkins sets there also. My only problem is storage, but so far that has not stopped me. I learned to iron when I was a very young girl and have always found it to be very relaxing - I put on some music and iron away all my troubles.

I use cloth napkins and iron them. I iron my pillow cases, and a lot of things - including my tee shirts I wear to bed. They feel very nice on my skin and I just love the way they look. I pop in a movie or turn on a TV program I really enjoy, fire up the steam iron and I'm off to do my zen ironing. I find it relaxing; I feel the same way about washing dishes.

I had to smile at the posts about the pats of butter - oh, my! They used to bring them in little china bowls and put them on the table with the crackers and bread.

I, too, enjoy ironing. When I was a teenager ironing the whole family's clothes (4 people) was my chore (my sister did dishes and vacuumed). And in the days before premanent press, too, almost everything had to be ironed. My sister thought she had gotten out easy with her jobs, but I could watch tv and listen to music while ironing, while her chores pretty much precluded anything else.

Today, even though I have received cloth napkins and placemats as gifts, I can't bear to use them because I can't stand to see them get dirty. On the one or two occasions that I have used them, I cringe when I see people get lipstick and food stains on them, even though that IS what they're intended for!

To my fellow ironers,

Remember the sprinkler bottles and rolling up the clothes and putting them in the refrigerator (to prevent mildew) for awhile before ironing?

Me, too, Mambo...I was the "ironer" for our family of 4 (my brother's button-down collar oxford or other all cotton shirts were a good part of it, but we all contributed to the load) The white cotton blouses my mother and I wore were what you had to be extra careful with...scorches and all that!

Like you said, it was before permanent press, and if it was clothing, it would pretty much need ironing before it could be worn again...everything came off the clothesline (we didn't get a dryer until the early sixties) or dryer just loaded with wrinkles.

Also, I loved hanging clothes on the line, I don't know why, but I thought it was fun...plus the wonderful sunny fresh smell when you'd take them down (which didn't take long in the Oklahoma wind! They'd pop and flap in that wind and they'd be "iron-dr" (still damp) in no time...

Did you guys have one of those big pop bottles (Par T Pak -- glass, of course) that you'd get one of those cork-ended sprinkling stoppers for and use it for dampening/sprinkling your clothes?....then roll them up and put them in the basket to take out one at a time and iron...I loved the smell of it, not to mention you'd get a steaming "facial" in the bargain!

Yes, I have to agree with you guys...there's something theraputic about it...to this day even.

"iron-dry" ... I meant.....sigh...

Also, anyone remember jeans/pants "stretchers"?

They were these metal "frames" that were long and narrow and you shoved them down into the jeans pants' legs and stood them up to dry!

They saved ironing that heavy denim (dreaded!!)
and I was so thrilled when they came out!

Chopin!...our posts crossed....about the sprinkler bottles! ha! Those corked sprinkler tops are collectible now maybe....

Did you ever have the cork sprinkler top come off and drench your clothes??? That was always a fun thing!

speaking of.....

there's one on Ebay right now (vintage aluminum) that has a couple bids and it's going for around $5 so far....the lady's auction has a "hint" in the copy about sprinkling your clothes and rolling them up a while before ironing....!

We already knew that, right?
ha ha

We weren't high-tech enough to use a bottle; my mother would just sort of throw water on the clothes with her hands, roll them up and put them in old dry cleaners bags. One time I let a whole load of wet clothes sit too long in the bag and they mildewed. We had to rewash everything.

Ladies, remember who else likes to iron? Glenn Bishop!

SCfan,did you have a little apron with special pockets for the wooden clothespins when you hung your wash out on the line. My mother did - I think she made it herself or her mother did. I would give anything to have that apron today. I can remember helping her hang sheets on the line and her warning my brother and sister to stay out of the back yard while the clothes were drying - they like to play among the sheets while the breeze was blowing them dry.

We were all responsible for ironing our own clothes once we were old enough, but the other kids never took to it like I did. I can remember they would all wait until I set up the board to iron my blouse for school next day and then they would appear one by one - "could iron this for me, since you have the iron out?" I usually did it but, of course, had to make the obligatory protests. I was then assured that I would not have to wash the dishes next time it was my turn or some other chore.