with the world in flames, and the U.S. at war, this photograph seems especially frivolous.

[If only we had been there to guide them! - Dave]

but reflecting the sunlight off the red enamel. My mother, who would have been about the same age as this woman in 1944, also applied her nail polish to keep the lunula of the nail exposed as does "Sherley," something I never understood. I suspect the gal is former debutante Sherley Smith, whose name occasionally appeared in the Palm Beach newspaper columns, and who, unsurprisingly, married well. From the Miami Sunday News, November 26, 1950:

Nicely turned out for Collier's photo shoot, except for the nails.
I'm no expert, but the chipped polish seems out of place.

And don't call me Sherley.

Back in the ‘60s, my mother’s bridge partner was begging for a cigarette while under an oxygen tent in a hospital for a collapsed lung. My wife handled a lot of the litigation for the lawsuits. Terrible way to die, suffocating.

I remember my mother, in the 1940s, as looking just as stylish and sophisticated as the young woman in the photo. Mom smoked Pall Malls, and I remember her desperately trying to kick the tobacco habit years later. She managed to quit eventually, but the damage was already done to her heart and lungs.