The elevator is a convenience if not an absolute necessity. Mrs. F suggested that it was not a necessity for the family, which prefers to use the stairs, but that it was for the business since paintings were stored in the attic and it was necessary to have the elevator when hauling them up or down. (Mr. F snorted at the idea that the elevator was a business necessity.)

The Fs can commute by available train to their Oxford home, 42 miles away. Still, independence from the automobile is more theoretical than real—the Fs use taxis in the city and Mr. F commutes to the country by auto rather than train, since he saves 55 minutes that way.

The Fs have strong opinions on the problems of the day. Mr. F believes that air and water pollution are major problems and the fuel crisis is a minor one. He believes that oil and gasoline shortages are the result of the machinations of the national oil companies. He believes, however, that everybody should be more thrifty and conserve electricity. He believes that a family using twice as much electricity as another should be charged "more than twice as much."

Mrs. F's attitudes are less sharply defined. She has a very clear image of the ideal life: it is, in essence, a duplication of the pleasant life she knew as a child, a life of luxurious thrift. The life is rural and it is static, with fixed social strata and fixed virtues. People are self-reliant; one grows much of one's own food. Those who have money should never be profligate. She recounted, with the amused approval of her daughters, various forms of home economies she now practices: they have a vegetable garden in the country; when the family returns to town, Mrs. F customarily empties the country refrigerator and puts all leftovers—potato salad and such—separately into little plastic containers and carries them back to New York. Susan F also has a habit of putting out electric lights in empty rooms.

"I hate waste," Mrs. F said. "I observe the rampant abuse of all our natural resources." She fears that the young do not realize the need for thrift. She has made constant efforts to teach her daughters to be self-reliant. Her own efforts to preserve a simpler way of life are often frustrated by circumstances. She economizes by stocking her deep freeze with meat and extra ice cubes but since steaks are always available they often have steak, though, she said, "not too frequently." ("Oh Mother," one daughter said, laughing, "what are we having tonight—steak, right?") It would seem that she has succeeded to some degree. Becky, the eldest, had a summer job as a mother's helper with a family in Delaware and she planned to tour Europe on her ten-speed bike, sleeping in youth hostels, before going to Yale in the fall. In Manhattan the younger ones, however, take taxis to a private school only a few blocks from home.

Their street is a handsome place with several art galleries a block from Central Park, but the Fs are as isolated as if they lived on a farm, since they know none of their neighbors. Despite her interest in thrift, it is difficult for Mrs. F to cope with the complexity and the finances of life in Manhattan.