From the Library of Congress, 1920.
What Will Mrs. Thompson Say?
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No blanks this time, just good old fashioned answers, and 20 point answers at that, because it's Double Points Friday.
As was the practice in that day, and is still the practice in Navy wardrooms, cloth napkins were placed on the table in individually identifiable metal napkin rings assigned to each person who regularly had meals at the table. When the meal was finished the napkins were rerolled and put back into the napkin rings for use at the next meal. One-meal guests at the table folded their napkins and left it beside their plate.
From my experience in Navy wardrooms, how many times the napkin was re-used depended on how used the napkin got at any one meal but usually it was replaced after the third meal of the day. It sometimes happened that a messmate would thoroughly trash his napkin during a meal at which time he was voted the "Dirty Napkin Award" which he held until someone else received the honor. (Those of us with facial hair were frequent awardees.)
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