It donned on
me as we were watching an episode of ABC’s comedy, “The Goldbergs,” that our
society has really put on the elastic waist pants and for good.
Hannah turns
to me and exclaims “Wow, why are they all dressed up?” I answered, “That’s not dressed up, and
that’s how we used to dress.” Except our family never had the matching ugly sweater thing happening.
Oh, boy,
first of all, I think our grandmothers would smirk at how we dressed as teens
in the 80s but now it seems as though by comparison, we were pretty fancy.
I’m
disgusted and nostalgic at the same time, y’all.
Ok, so she
was referring to Barry Goldberg’s button down shirt and Bev who is the mom
wearing a dressy looking sweater and “slacks” for lack of a better decade
appropriate term. Fast forward to today’s knock-around-town ensemble of yoga
pants with a tunic top and flip flops if you’re in the south and Ugg boots if
you’re out here in frozen tundra land, SE Colorado. J
No wonder
she thinks the Goldbergs were all dressed
up.
I’m
currently reading Laura Ingraham’s book, Of
Thee I Zing, America’s Cultural Decline from Muffin Tops to Body Shots.
Ingraham
lays it all out for us in what is acceptable now and with a tone of disgust,
well deserved. She brings some things to
our attention in a funny and witty way but it is really far from humorous, what
has happened to our style in this country.
The thing
that terrifies me the most is that one day nursing homes will be filled with
tattooed up old biddies and their butterfly tramp stamps will have sagged so
low they resemble a sick buzzard.
Used to be
people really dressed up to fly, because it was a treat, not an entitlement as
it is thought of today. However in
defense of that passel of 20-somethings boarding a plane in Denver, I’m sure you
just took too much glaucoma medicine last night at your bachelorette
party.
That moves me
to the next observation, one that is a little more common here in Colorado
where pot is now legal. People in large
groups in Denver and some in Colorado Springs sort of smell like wet dog,
notice that? I blame the pot. They can’t drive either, well, ok, let’s
blame the pot.
I would say that Ms. Ingraham’s book, written
a few years ago, has been filled with her observations from a couple of
decades. Yes, it has been a slow
cultural decline maybe that’s why we don’t really notice it until some gem of a
memory from our past creeps up. Oh yeah,
we DID used to kinda dress up. Although
we just called it dressing for school, church or work. I will not go so far as our grandparents who
got all gussied up for church and were convinced that Jesus did not love you
unless you wore panty hose. Let’s just
leave that one alone.
I will say
that it is easier to look smart these days.
You just have to take a shower and put on some neat looking clothes and
BAM you’re a CEO!!
I won’t wag
a finger without saying that we’re probably all to blame but it is a sad day
when I have to sit down to rant about this.
I don’t want to live in a sloppy society. On the flip side, I don’t want to have to
dress for dinner either. My hope is that
others’ children have questioned their old-enough-to-remember-the-80s parents
while watching this show. I hope it brings
about thoughtful family conversations on bathing, acting like a lady, dressing
like you’re not high on those plants you can now legally grow in your
basement. I guess people DO still dress
for dinner but it’s probably to hit the drive through at Taco Bell.
~Anne
Boswell Taylor
Oh, and you can find Laura Ingraham's web site here, in case you want more of her insight. She is awesome!
#TheGoldbergs, #LauraIngraham
#TodaysStyle,
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