Change
There are a lot of changes in the world today. Not too many years ago people rode horses every where they went. Then there was a big change, the automobile. The automobile itself has had many changes over the years. I remember when I could see an automobile at a distance and tell you the year, the make, the model, and most of the time the size engine in it. Not any more, there are too many.
There have been major changes in the way we travel commercially also. Planes have come a long way in the last fifty years. From single engine propeller planes to jumbo jet aircraft carrying hundreds of passengers. What once took days to fly across the U.S. now takes a few hours. Train systems have had some major changes also. The steam engine gave way to the modern trains, such as Germany’s Valero D, which can travel over 300 mph.
There have been changes in communications as well. Mail was delivered by pony express at one time in our history. The telegraph was introduced into the United States in 1828. In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. The rotary dial phone was changed to push button phones. Then they were changed to cordless phones and now cell phones. You don’t even have to dial some cell phones, just speak the name of the person you want to call and the phone dials the number.
The internet has caused a lot of change. You can talk around the world via your computer. Just buy a headset and find the appropriate site and call anyone in the world for free.
E-mail has changed the communication world also. One day e-mail may replace snail mail. You can instantly send an e-mail anywhere in the world. Instant text messaging is the same scenario. You can text with your computer or cell phone.
Most changes are for the better, some are not. There are many more positive changes in our world, which we do not have room to mention here.
There is one change in our society that I consider a negative change. America’s dress code has made a huge change for the worse. Before we get started I want to say that I understand that there are people that can’t afford expensive clothes. I understand that the person in your church wearing jeans and a sweat shirt may be wearing the best he has. Let’s talk about averages.
When I was in high school in the 1960’s most kids wore dress pants and shirts. Most everyone wore Bass Weejun shoes, with no socks by the way. Our clothes were clean and pressed, and even the kids that wore jeans come to school clean. There was nothing wrong with jeans; some of us would rather wear dress pants.
When you went to church on Sunday you wore your “Sunday go to meetin’ clothes.” Everyone dressed to the hilt on Easter Sunday. The ladies wore Kremlin slips and dresses that their mothers spent hours washing and ironing the Saturday before Easter Sunday. The men and boys wore suits and ties. The men shined their shoes with Kiwi shoe polish, and the ladies put white liquid shoe polish on their shoes.
There has been a change in the dress code for business people also. Business men used to always wear a suit and tie to work. Door to door salesman, car salesman, department store salesman, even the milk delivery man wore a white shirt and tie.
Then came a subtle change, casual Fridays. Office workers were allowed to dress casual on Fridays. This spilled over into the sales industry.
When I started to work in the manufactured home industry in the early 1980s I had to wear a suit and tie. The powers that be would have preferred a long sleeve shirt, but given the heat factor they conceded short sleeve shirts.
These homes set on a paved lot for the most part, and in the summer it was hot inside. They were locked up at night and opened in the morning and the windows were raised. Raising the windows didn’t help much; it still got over a hundred degrees inside those homes.
After much complaining the owners got together and decided to let the sales people have a little leeway. You could now wear dress shirt and tie only, the jackets could go. It wasn’t long before the tie was discarded and now a dress shirt was ok. It went downhill from there. The dress shirt and/or knit shirt would have been fine if that is where it had stayed. The cliché ‘give them an inch, they’ll take a mile,’ comes into play here. Again, it wasn’t long until the change to tee shirts came about.
Recently I went to a funeral, and was surprised at what some of the people wore. One of the pall bearers wore jeans and a pull over shirt. He had on a tee shirt under the pull over, which neither was tucked in. The white tee shirt was longer than the pull over shirt, so he looked tacky.
A person may not have anything better to wear than a pair of jeans and a pull over shirt; however they can be clean and neat.
Walk around town or the shopping centers and notice what people are wearing. A lot of people look like they just stepped out of a trash pile. Jeans with holes, dirty jeans, some look like they have had them on for days. And I understand they buy them like that.
Some girls wear clothes that leave very little to the imagination and then are offended when the guys stare at them. They can’t understand why guys make passes at them. I’m not condoning bad manners, however I believe there would be a lot less of this kind of thing if the ladies would practice a little more modest dress code.
I’ve not gotten started on the tattoos and the body piercing. I’ll save that for another article.
I’m sure there are going to be people that will take exception to this article and I may sound a little old school to some, but I think we are going downhill in our dress codes.
