What has happened to our society? I’m not talking about political stuff, religion, crime, drugs, teenage pregnancy, gay marriage – I’m talking about something really important: attire and lack thereof.
Today was the last straw. I was standing in line at the post office in Tombstone, Arizona when this woman walked in wearing attire I could only describe as pajamas, complete with bedroom slippers. I’m serious. She was wearing stuff my niece wears to bed: matching pink socks, and fuzzy slip-on bedroom slippers. Her only concession to proper attire was the possibility that she was wearing a bra under her thin flannel skin-tight top.
Rewind.
Two months or so ago, I was talking to a woman who is a librarian in one of the ‘larger’ cities in New Mexico. First, one needs to understand that a ‘larger city in New Mexico’ is like a smaller city anywhere else. I digress. I was complimenting her on her attire — shorts, blouse, matching shirt, earrings, and matching sandals. It was hot that day and her attire was a casual concession to the mid-morning parade she attended. As she was not going in to work that day, but assisting her husband, a business associate of mine, she was not properly attired in skirt, dress, hose, etc. She shocked me by complaining about how shabby she looked, how unprofessional, which was not true. Then she complimented me by telling me she always used me as an example for her daughters and their friends. She said I always looked ‘well dressed’.
The mutual compliments over, we started doing the girl thing and shredding women’s attire and reputations (not really). She was telling me how horribly dressed people were when they came into the library. I told her I wasn’t sure if I could believe it when she was telling me about the man who came in wearing plaid PJs. Then I saw the woman at the post office in Tombstone and realized my friend was telling the truth!
People don’t give a rip how they look or how they dress any more. People take no pride in their appearance.
I know women who have made fun of me, my mother, sister, aunts, cousins, and nieces because we follow our grandmother’s hard and fast rule: You never leave the house without makeup, hair done, jewelry, and proper attire. No exceptions. You dress for the occasion. Even if you are cleaning house and scrubbing around in the yard, you put on your makeup and do your hair.
I will admit the third generation (mine) has let the scrubbing around the house and yard slide a bit. If you lounge around the house in your jammies, you need not follow the above rule. That is the only time, ICU and life support notwithstanding. Surgery, you do makeup, hair, and nails. Hospital stay, same thing. No exceptions. When my mother was in ICU about a year and a half ago after having coded twice with heart stoppage, the nurses couldn’t get over her eye makeup and lipstick being intact. Simple – she’s tattooed!
Article comments
1 - April
long winded prude needs to get a life and sick her nose into something other than other peoples bussiness. Who gives a rats azz about how people choose to be comfy. you must be a chunky woman with no natural beauty that has to cover uo with over the top hair and too much make up...