Go to any public arena—a sports event, a shopping mall, Wal-Mart, you name it—and you realize the standard of dress for men and women, adults and children, has reached a low point in American history. Blue jeans are de rigueur; t-shirts with slogans, some of them billboards of obscenity, assault the eyes; pajama bottoms are worn to the grocery store; restaurant patrons appear at lunch looking as if they had just rolled out of the sack; grown men wear baseball caps while eating steaks at Outback.
Sadly, I'm typically the best dressed man at church. And I'm not wearing black tie and tails here. I typically wear an oxford shirt with a tie, and a sports coat, along with a pair of dress pants. During the summer, when it's hot and humid enough to melt the windows from your car, I wear a polo shirt and nice pants. And I'm still the best dressed.
Take a gander at this video. Skip to 1:45 to take a look at the stands of the 1968 World Series game.
What do you see? Men wearing shirts with collars. Many of them wearing ties. Men dressed to go out to a GAME. And they dressed well.
When did we become such slobs? When did we lose the respect for ourselves?
My wife has several chef's coats for when she does events and people are helping her out in the kitchen. Even in the middle of working their asses off, we want people who we serve to know that they are being served by PROFESSIONALS. A lot of the uniform regulations that made me scratch my head as a 20 year old make sense if you understand that Soldiers are supposed to be PROFESSIONALS.
Howsabout this for a New Year's resolution? Dress better.
And you didn't even mention saggy pants, ripped jeans or untucked shirts, so I will.
ReplyDeleteIn 1982, I went to England for a 5-week NATO exercise (Busy Brewer 82). I stayed in Officer's Quarters at RAF Base Marham. We had to put on Class A uniform for all Mess events except early Breakfast. Riding my bike around the countryside, I observed FARMERS operating machinery in TIES AND JACKETS!
I was the Deployed Commander's Aide and Protocol Officer, and knew of these high dress-standards before we left California, so our Unit was prepared to not embarass itself.
England had changed some in 28 years since I had lived there as a Navy Brat, but not that much.
If you go to about a minute in on this video you get a close up of the crowd. This was Liverpool in the mid 1960s. These men were stevedores, bricklayers and truck drivers. They liked a drink. Virtually all of them are wearing ties.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/XNboU_PbZMY
I am a Michigan native, and have lived here my entire life. I remember that game, even though I was only 8 years old at the time. Yes, I was born in 1960.
ReplyDeleteGibson was a terror on the pitcher's mound, for the entire year. I did celebrate with the Tigers that year, as I did in 1984. The 68 series brought a tiny bit of calm to an otherwise hot and violent summer.
I have also witnessed the sometimes called coarsening of society, as illustrated quite accurately with the dress of people who dress publically in a way that I never would consider even in the safety of my own home.
The other thing that you can raise is the language used in public. I was in a store a year ago or so, and witnessed a group of around 4 young men aged around 18 or so, talking with vulgar language, in the presences of women and children, as if they were soldiers under fire or in my case, steel melting and pouring workers. I nearly approached these idiots and asked them to stop, but of course, the way that things are now, I would have been involved in a physical altercation. I would not have minded, since I for some reason was especially angry with this bunch of idiots, but I had my wife with me, and I didn't want to have her accidently involved and hurt. Plus, of course, I was carrying a concealed weapon, licensed of course, and that makes a smart person behave even more cautiously to avoid confrontation.
Sadly, it seems as if most people don't care about the public impression that they give. And the nation is much worse off for it.
Entropy on display for all to observe,even in themselves. Oh wait- they are unaware of what USED TO be convention, and how people dressed for everyday business ( heck, going to a liquor store required at LEAST a clean, ironed shirt with a collar, and slacks, shoes need not have a fresh polish, though )as opposed to mucking out a stable, where a standard still applied, though a bit different ( clothing should have been appropriate for the job, in good repair, and obviously cared for, as a nurse's uniform would have been ). My wife and I are not flush with wear-with-all, and yet when we do go out, we, too are appalled at what venues will ACCEPT as appropriate attire for dinner at places above the level of, say ( JUST EXAMPLES, FOLKS ) a pizza chain that offers birthday party plans for large groups of ill mannered children with parents who have no clue ( or budget ) to leave a proper tip . Heck, when I was in high school in the 1970's, LONG before the "ball-cap" being a standard for everything from septic tank work on up to church services, it was still good manners to NOT need to be reminded to remove same when entering a building. If someone WAS reminded, an apology would have you back in good graces quickly. I imagine the response today would be "F**k you! ", to say the least, with an invitation to fight being likly, followed by an accusation of Nazism .
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