How about “shivaree” for newlyweds? When my father and stepmother were married in the early '60s in west Kentucky, their friends had a shivaree for them. We lived in the country and around 8 or 9 o’clock, a couple of dozen people came out of the woods banging pots and yelling. It sounded like a riot going on. Anyway, they brought bags and bags of groceries with them as well as small appliances and furnishings and the whole bunch sat up late, talking and cooking. My parents were unsurprised and knew exactly what it was but I’ve never even heard of it happening since then.
Do you live in Europe? Because I’m from Canada, and I do this all the time, but apparently it’s a wierd thing over here (right now I’m in Belgium). I talk to the people beside me on long bus trips, I say hello to the people on the transit bus, and I had a long conversation with the two people I sat next to on the Air Canada flight on the way here. No one ever looks at me strangely back home, and I’ve made some interesting friends, but over here everybody seems to find it strange. Even in the bus shelter, they just stare straight ahead and pretend you’re not there… even when they’re standing in front of the bus schedule you’re trying to read!
Come to Scotland and study at St. Andrews - gowns are very frequently worn - formal meals (frequency depending on the hall ofd residence), “pier walk” on Sunday, aand in any caseyou could wear one each and every day without attracting strange looks in the street or anything like tht. If you are a Divinity student, you wear a black one, but everyone else (well, undergraduates, that is)wears a bright red gown - this being supposedly originally intended to make students pretty obviousl so that they could not easily enter alehouses and houses of ill-repute. So, you can wear a gown everywhere else but people will hiss at you if you wear a gown in a pub. Um, as for the houses of ill repute, …I don’t know.
Me, I want a return to:
children being seen and not heard. Actually, I could live without the seeing bit too, but first things first.
drivers obeying traffic lights and speed limits
shops delivering groceries etc as a matter of course - yes, young men on bicylces with baskets on the front would be fun. (it is odd, though, really, that it is perfectly simple to phone and arrange for an Indian meal or whatever, but if you have a need for a few exotic items like bread, cheese, vegetables, etc and for some reason there is a big problem concerning getting to the shop personally, well, you’re just stuck.)
Oops, I think I’m beginning to ramble.
Now where is the guy who wanted women in plain cotton underwear? “please allow me to introduce myself…”
I’m from Australia - generally we’re a friendly bunch, but I’ve often been on 5 hour bus trips and haven’t heard a word out of the person next to me except, “Excuse me, this is my stop”. It seems like some unspoken social thing - that’s not to say I haven’t talked to strangers but a majority of times I’ve regretted it because there’s no escape. Interestingly, I heard that Australia has the largest variety of magazines per head of population than any other country on earth - there’s probably a link there somewhere.
Dueling make a comeback. Not some kind of half-ass high noon cowboy sort of thing but the very formal kind with mulitple letters of intention sent then forwarded through seconds, the kind where most of the time no actual fighting happens unless it has to. I think we’d all be alot more polite and civil to each other if there was a concrete line which if past there were serious social consequences beyond legalities.
“please allow me to introduce myself…”