My Wild Wild Partying

Way back in the dark ages, like twenty or thirty years ago, before we were all glued to the internet, there was something called "home parties" where women got together in one woman's home, sat and listened to a sales pitch for a product - plastic containers, clothes, jewelry, make-up, candles, home decor, crafts (the list is endless) - and then had fun visiting with each other while they bought something.

I not only joined in on these parties, but I was actually a representative for a couple of them. They were the way to have your own business and make some money while having fun, for women who generally had spent or were spending, a lot of time at home raising kids.

Some women even went on to get pink Cadillacs and tons of pins. Others like me didn't even have the nobility of going down in flames. We went out in a whimper.

But the real point for most women wasn't to buy stuff, or even for the hostess to sell enough to get free stuff. The point was really an excuse to have a party and hang out with your friends.

Women are strange. Especially women who stay home and belong to a church. See guys have no problem getting together to watch a game or shoot some pool.

Women need a reason or they can't quite justify it. They have meetings and make plans for other people. They go do service for someone (which is a good thing), or they plan classes where they can learn something useful.

Just hanging out is somehow sinful.

But then the home party idea came along. You went knowing that there was going to be a sales pitch and prepared in case there was something that you wanted. Most of the time you bought something to be polite. Sometimes you fell in love with the product. But the real reason? It was to get away from the kids, and the husband, and have a night of laughter.

The home party thing got crazy for awhile. Everyone was selling something or being hostess and pretty soon you became afraid to answer your phone because you just couldn't justify buying one more Tupperware container (especially when you could get the same thing at the grocery store for pennies), one more overpriced piece of costume jewelry, one more expensive candle, one more tchotchke  to gather dust, or one more outfit that looked sad and limp after five washings.

The other day I noticed a slight resurgence of it. And I mean slight.

Home parties have made their way to the internet. Now instead of having a hostess clean her house and make snacks, she can just host her party online to guests that can buy things at home while sitting in their pajamas.

Sounds great? Well...how do you smell things online? How do  you look at it to see what it really looks like? We all know pictures aren't always accurate. How do we try things on?

And most important, where's the social part of it that was the whole reason why women went to these things? Really, pretty much anything that these parties sold could be bought in stores for cheaper. We just bought it at the home party because it was fun to get out and we wanted the hostess to meet her goals and get free stuff.

I don't need a home party over the internet to buy things online. There's an entire world of online stores. What I need is more nights out with friends having fun.

Come to think of it. Forget the whole home party selling thing. Let's just play Monopoly, Clue and Scrabble, or a few hands of cards.

Now that's my idea of a fun party.