Interesting Things to Know
Manners of the past might make you yearn for days gone by. Or not.
Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use. – Emily Post
Once upon a time, proper conduct for adults and children was specified and adjudicated by the rules from Emily Post.
Post, who died in 1960, lived to see quite a bit of change in human interaction and she did change with the times.
Rules from her 1922 book “Etiquette” are sometimes quaint, but other times might make you yearn for times gone by.
On money: Men should never, under any circumstance, borrow money from women; and they should avoid borrowing it from other men whenever possible. He also should refrain from speaking about money outside of business hours. (Today we can only dream.)
On unmentionables: Aside from ads in “the most dignified magazines, a discussion of underwear and toilet articles and their merit or their use, is unpleasant in polite conversation.” (Today they are on TV.)
On marriage: Men and women should strive to always look their best and wear their finest clothes, lest their spouses be tempted to look elsewhere. Neither should complain, either, saving it for only the most serious of troubles. (Don’t visit on a Saturday.)
Post also described how the behavior at home carries over into the outside world and that children could hardly be expected to behave as told if they witnessed otherwise within the home. (Today: hmmm.)
The book has been updated four times since then, and any number of other rules have come and gone over the past century. Today, good manners and etiquette extend to online behavior — at least that’s the ideal — as well as cellphone use, modern dating, and marriage.
