Washington Knows That It Is

From Memorial Day To Labor Day, You May Wear White Shoes. Not Before And Not After. As A Command, The White Shoe Edict Should Be Clear And Simple Enough. Do Not Violate It. In A Society In Which Everything Else Has Become Relative, A Matter Of How It Makes You Feel, A Question Between You And Your Conscience, And An Opportunity For You To Be Really You, This Is An Absolute.

Allowing An Unimportant Mistake To Pass Without A Comment Is A Wonderful Social Grace ... Children Who Have The Habit Of Constantly Correcting Should Be Stopped Before They Grow Up To Drive Spouses And Everyone Else Crazy By Interrupting Stories To Say, 'no, Dear -- It Was Tuesday, Not Wednesday.

One Reason That The Task Of Inventing Manners Is So Difficult Is That Etiquette Is Folk Custom, And People Have Emotional Ties To The Forms Of Their Youth. That Is Why There Is Such Hostility Between Generations In Times Of Rapid Change; Their Manners Being Different, Each Feels Affronted By The Other, Taking Even The Most Surface Choices For Challenges.

If You Put Together All The Ingredients That Naturally Attract Children - Sex, Violence, Revenge, Spectacle And Vigorous Noise - What You Have Is Grand Opera.

Society Cannot Exist Without Etiquette ... It Never Has, And Until Our Own Century, Everybody Knew That.