Clybourne Park

"I do love to entertain though for the life of me I can't remember the last time we did." 

Bev says this when, while packing to move out of their house in Clybourne Park, she attempts to give their maid, Francine, a chafing dish. Her lack of need for a chafing dish foreshadows the as-yet-unknown reason that she  and Russ stopped entertaining. This quote also reveals Bev's hospitable  nature, as later evidenced by her continuous offers of iced tea to her house guests.    

"That's a funny word, isn't it? Neapolitan…what do you suppose is the origin of that?" 

These lines begin a back-and-forth between Bev and Russ that continues for three-and-a-half pages, and will be mirrored in Act II of the play. Their conversation concerns tracking the etymology of the word Neapolitan, the kind of ice cream Russ is eating, and progresses into trying to remember the correct words for various nationalities. Their knowledge and ignorance of these words shows that they both have a basic, middle-class education level, though Russ more so than Bev, and an unabashed curiosity about others. Attempts to find a shared vocabulary recur throughout the play.

"But that's nice, isn't it, in a way? To know we all have our place." 

Bev and Russ's conversation about nationality leads them to the word “mongoloid”, which was used, at the time, to describe a person with developmental disabilities. Russ reminds Bev of theword's usage, and she remembers the Wheeler boy, who works as a bagger at their neighborhood grocery store.