by Fred Moleck
Summer Culture
The weekend of Labor Day provides a threshold experience for some of us way past a half-century in our lives on earth. This weekend draws to a close the time that white shoes, (e.g., white bucks), white clothing, and other vesture peculiar to summer wear have been permitted.
You ask, Who is the mogul of fashion who created this directive? Which agency has mandated the removal of white apparel after Labor Day?
I don’t know. But, it’s a practice that had been taken very seriously by Northeastern establishment types. They are the same people who wear no socks with docksiders or penny loafers. They are also recognized by the multiple copies of L. L. Bean and Lands’ End catalogues on their desks. But that’s another issue.
Here, I’m talking about no white apparel after Labor Day, and that includes seersucker.
I understand full well that many of you have not been reared in this tradition and this little piece is the first time you’ve ever heard about the dictates of summer clothing. “Dictates” might be a little strong.
Perhaps, a better description would be “what one does and wears when one summers at the beach or the cape or at poolside.”
The practice is just one more example of ritual living that takes place and no one notices if one is not in the middle of that culture. Another example is the “real” beginning of the liturgical year, at least in the United States. That year is initiated with Thanksgiving Day and ends with the Super Bowl.
These days are not mentioned anywhere in the Lectionary or Ordo. The culture of American Catholics, however, displays most of its activities—social and religious—at that time.
Advent has wreathes; Advent calendars; expressions of the Nativity story disguised as school Christmas programs; shopping madness of thousands of people buying stuff for somebody else; the distorted icon of St. Nicholas recognized as Santa Claus installed in the middle of malls; constant eating and drinking; stress levels of church musicians measured in increased sales of Advil, Tylenol, and liquor; and the consideration of next year’s Super Bowl date in parish planning.
Families arrange their lives to accommodate the educational needs and patterns of their children. Of course, as an unmarried person for all of my life, my observations are not primary sources, but I come pretty close with numerous involvements with numerous extended families.
The beginning of the school year, especially if it’s a parochial school year, is the launching date for parish activities. Choir and ensemble rehearsals start up again. RCIA meetings are initiated in spite of the nature of the RCIA; it is not an inquiry class whose graduation occurs at baptism, confirmation, and eucharist. And let us not forget the “call to ministry campaign” being conducted after masses on one of the September Sundays.
See what I mean? Parish life and social life parallel the Church’s liturgical life, but one will dominate. (Did you ever try to prohibit parish Christmas parties during Advent?)
So much is ingrained in American religious culture with its own rituals, which baffles people outside of the culture—such as the public enthronement of a hunk of rock with the Ten Commandments sculpted on it. The same thing goes for patriotic displays.
We will never get away from cultural expressions, and that is really OK . . . until those expressions become banners for values that suppress basic human values. There are always struggles.
To set your own minds at ease—even though I am writing this week’s column wearing a seersucker suit and Ecco shoes, with no plans to go to the shore this weekend—on Monday evening I will place the suit in its storage bag and enshrine it in the back part of the clothes closet. I can’t help it. I’m a product of my own culture.
Summer is over. Requiescat in pace.
You can reach Fred Moleck via email at fmoleck@earthlink.net