The Bs live in a pleasant basement apartment in a Capitol Hill townhouse, a few blocks from the Capitol building and a brisk walk from the law school. The apartment, with two large rooms, a kitchenette and a patio, is nicely furnished, largely with wedding gifts. Shelly's family gave them the living room furniture and the window air conditioner. They have an electric refrigerator, a gas range, a washing machine (which came with the apartment), a mixer, electric skillet, electric can opener, toaster, and iron. They have a stereo and a nine-year-old car. The car is also a gift from Shelly's folks.

To a limited degree at least, the Bs seem to have consciously rejected the values—or at least the symbols—of their parents' generation of Americans. They have no desire to own a home, a new and better car, or a variety of other symbolic possessions. Shelly is also notably disinclined to have children—she believes that today's problems can best be approached by "slowing down the population growth."

Shelly believes that what she regards as their indifference to material things is not particularly typical of her age group. She remarked that the people with whom she works, who have similar incomes, live less well in terms of food and entertainment, since they are more concerned with acquiring permanent possessions. Shelly's sister and brother-in-law (a Secret Service agent) have a home in nearby Maryland and have acquired a second house on Capitol Hill as an investment. Shelly regards her own life style and the contrasting life styles of others with a somewhat romantic eye.

Neither Peter nor Shelly was born into a household that was conspicuously well off. Peter's father has been slow to improve his lot. Shelly's father, on the other hand, moved up the ladder with what seems effortless ease. He was a bright Depression boy with a flair for mathematics. He advanced to a state normal school in Pennsylvania before he and the school authorities agreed that he did not have the temperament required to be a successful teacher (he was inclined to challenge authority). He went to work as a clerk at the Arcadia Insurance Company. Shelly's parents married young and had children rapidly. Shelly, the youngest of four, was born in 1949 in Washington, Pa., a working class town. Her father moonlighted by pumping gas at a service station after finishing a day's work at the insurance company.

Shelly does not remember a time when her family was not doing well and moving up: "I can't remember a time when we didn't spend the summer at the shore." They went from Washington to Oak Leaf Heights, to Glen Echo, and finally to Bethany, each neighborhood clearly better than the one before. Her father eventually became a partner in an actuarial firm. When the firm's owner died, he and four other actuaries bought the firm. Now one of the largest in the world, the firm handles (as Shelly noted with pride) 50 of the hundred biggest pension plans in the country.

Shelly's family somehow avoided acquiring some of the more obvious status symbols on the way up. "My mother still complains that we were