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02/26/2013
Hi Dr Laura. You often refer to the past as "In the Day". Well here is a little reminiscence of years gone by. It is about the Willow Grove Park, an amusement park outside of Philadelphia. The third paragraph is most interesting:
"John Philip Sousa, the 'March King', of U.S. Marine Band fame, appeared in 1901 and thereafter yearly until 1926, with the exception of one year, 1911, when on world tour. As a result of these musical triumphs, parks all over the country engaged bands and orchestras, however, it was Willow Grove Park that became known as "The Music Capitol of America.""
"The train, later becoming part of the Reading Railroad, carried 583,348 passengers to Willow Grove in 1903, and on the last Sunday of that season, carried more than 45,000 visitors to the Park. It is estimated that in the summer season of 1909, the total attendance at the Park was 3,000,000. In 1926, 100,000 people attended John Philip Sousa's final concert".
"The Park's police or guard had a staff of nearly twenty men whose duty it was to ensure tranquility and adherence to the rules of dress and demeanor. Old photos reveal that the ladies were clothed in floor-length dresses, while the men wore suits, ties and usually a straw hat. Bad language was not tolerated."
Today, the females (we don't use the term ladies anymore) will be in casual clothes exposing their bare bellies and obnoxious tattoos. Men will be wearing T-shirts with profanity emboldened, usually the F-bomb, and baseball hats that are worn backwards. And even the females use bad language since it was declared by the feminists that there is no difference between males and females.
Yes, in "In the Day", we had a more respectful civilization. Rules of dress and demeanor? That is so not with it and backwards.
Stanley
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