I remember as a youth the elders reminded us to "mind your manners". That's the way it was and that's the way it should be regardless of our situation.
Emily Post wrote the blue book of social usage entitled "ETIQUETTE". The original edition was copyright in 1922 and is preserved in the Library of Congress, Catalog number 55-7589.
Chapter 1, "The True Meaning of Etiquette", contains quotes by Emily Post, such as "integrity includes not only honesty but a delicacy of motive and fairness in appraising the motives of others", and "loyalty means faithfulness not only to friends, but to principles".
The famous book consists of 54 Chapters , and in each one she writes about a different subject matter.
Chapter 4, "The Use of Names and Titles", has this statement: "First names used in public was in such bad form that even young women and men who had known each other all their lives and habitually called each other by their first names, spoke to each other as "Miss" or "Mister" when with strangers.
In Chapter 6, Ms. Post writes "don't chatter" and "don't pretend to know more than you do. To say you have read a book and then give evidence that you have understood nothing of what you have read, and "no person of real intelligence hesitates to say, I don't know".
There is a special section on how to address certain important persons and she instructs that an Instructor (teacher, professor), is properly addressed as MR. or DR. (may I add also, MRS. or MS.), if that would please Ms Post.
I am impressed with the manners of the young and adult persons in our community and am sure their manners would please Ms. Post, who says in her book, "graciousness and courtesy are never old-fashioned, though their expression does change."
