Ladies and Gentlemen
Hearing that refrain takes me back to a time when small circuses made their circuit into local communities. They were sometimes invited by organizations as revenue generating programs. I can recall when a person usually a man would boldly step into the center of a huge tent and address the surrounding audience with the call, “Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages....”
This Emcee would be dressed in a top hat, a bright red jacket, carrying a short whip in one hand and possibly a megaphone in the other. His highly polished black boots would glisten in the light. This person was the ringmaster who would introduce the different performers who would dazzle the audience with their acts. High-wire artists would precariously balance themselves on a wire high above. Trapeze artists would swing and leap from perch to perch. Clowns would scurry out in cars to perform their crazy antics to please the crowds. There would be animal acts of lions, of elephants, and of brightly costumed riders on horses. The music combined with the flashy costumes created an exciting time for the patrons.
There was a time when women were actually ladies and men were truly gentlemen. Too often men and women have coarsened in their appearance in manners and language.  Folks today will go shopping in pajamas and clothing that covers less than underwear. Ripped jeans would never have been tolerated at one time are now in vogue. Skin tight leggings that never should have been made in those sizes are the in thing looking like sausage about to burst their casings. Some fashions are created to expose the maximum amount of flesh without the person being incarcerated for lewd presentations. I can’t understand the reason for men wearing the baggy pants. I’ve fought all my life to keep my trousers from falling down.
I think the coarseness of today’s language is even more bothersome and offensive to me. I was a sailor in the United States Navy and you know what they say about drunken sailors. I’ve heard some pretty rough language, even from the female sailors, but that vocabulary pales to the verbiage coming out of the mouths of today’s youth. Cursing has become all too common, has infiltrated “normal” conversations, and parents allow their children to hear and to use strong language. Parents do nothing to correct their kids and often laugh when they repeat the crude words. I wish we could go back to a time when biological men were men and female-born women were ladies.