Just a Spoon Full of Sugar, Please.

Cover your eyes Anne Shirley. You don't want to see this! It could get ugly. 

May I ask, when did our nation get to be so dang rude? I mean, seriously... some people are JUST SO RUDE. 

Lately my daughter and I have been watching some old timey TV series... like "Little House on the Prairie," "Anne of Green Gables," and "The House of Elliot," a fantastic BBC production about a quirky photographer and two sisters trying to launch their own fashion house in London. 

I love shows set in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They seems so fanciful and dreamy and romantic and I always tell John I think I would've loved to have lived during this time period... until he reminds me I'd have to give up my beloved laptop, iPod, scalding-hot showers, electric blanket, Photoshop, and the list goes on. Hmmm. On second thought... 

But really, what I mean is I just ADORE how people used to treat each other and talk to one another. People were just more proper. They were concerned about manners and appearances and reputations. It was simply unacceptable to use foul language or to talk back to your elders. Women acted like ladies and men acted like gentlemen. Kids in classrooms respected and feared their teachers. Kids said "Yes Ma'am" to their mothers. People had tea together. And boys certainly did not run around with their pants barely hanging on and underwear sticking out. 

Now please don't get me wrong. I'm far from perfect and I'm not saying I'm all high and mighty in the manners and etiquette departments. I am certainly no Pollyanna or Emily Post and my mother in law still cringes because I have to concentrate very hard to remember how to properly set a table. But I do so desperately wish we could get BACK to the way things were... just a little. 

Even my best friend in Canada teases us Americans. For example, if we don't understand someone, we yell back, "What?!" But in Canada, they say, "Pardon?" See... simple nuances. 

I just wish more gentlemen would still open doors for women weighted down with hands full of groceries and dozing toddlers. I wish people wouldn't have intimate cell phone conversations in the grocery store line. I wish more kids would say "Yes, please" and "No, thank you" (two things I started teaching my children in the womb). I wish (Oh how I wish!) more people would chew with their mouths closed. I wish teenagers wouldn't be allowed to text or play DS at the table in a nice restaurant. And when did it become a crime to say hello to passersby on the street? 

We need Mary Poppins to come work a little magic on us! 

All it takes is courtesy and perhaps a smile people. Are we all so busy and grouchy and stressed that we can't even smile and wave at each other anymore? 

Okay, so granted, I probably wouldn't enjoy wearing a proper dress (No jeans?! The horror!) every single day and I certainly don't want to have to go down to the creek to wash that dress... but can't we all just try to act a teensy bit old fashioned and put a little effort back into being polite and proper and respectful? Our children are watching us and they're taking notes...

Yes, I daresay we could all stand an extra dose of nice these days. Don't you?