micrographia

Name:
Location: Iowa, United States

61 years old (pretty old for a blogger) proud to be a grandpa

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

I Hope These FlipFlops Don't Make Too Much Noise By The Casket

I know I’ll step on somebody’s toes with this post but here goes. I am not what you’d call a “clothes horse.” I don’t like to shop for clothes and I don’t particularly like to dress up. I long ago accepted and welcomed the trend of dressing down when shopping (my father used to wear a tie to the grocery store) and while traveling (50 years ago, a man wouldn’t think of boarding a plane or a train without a sport coat and tie). On Sundays and during weddings, I don’t turn my nose up at people who attend church in jeans and even sweatshirts. However (you knew there had to be a “however”) I am troubled by the fact that our quest for comfort has gone too far, even for me: I can’t get used to the idea of people going to funerals and funeral visitations in their grubbies. Think about it – your reason for attending is to pay respect to the deceased and the family of the deceased. If there is one time when nice clothes are in order, this ought to be it. Instead, often the only ones dressed up are the immediate family and the corpse. I think we need to salvage at least some vestige of more formal times and I nominate any planned event where somebody is dead. I don’t deny that my feelings are part of the growing old process whereby, current customs are berated by the nicely ripened among us, but so be it.