Award-winning columnist, photographer and news writer Ellen Leahy is editor of the City Eagle in Syracuse, NY. She is the former editor of the Skaneateles Press and the Marcellus Observer, also in Central New York and is a freelance photographer and adjunct professor in food service at Onondaga Community College.
It’s funny the lack of manners today. I mean, I grew up with four brothers, which I imagine is quite similar to being weaned with a pack of wolves. My dad was on the road, my mom an only child - so it was mayhem, chaos, and well, you get the picture. But, nevertheless, we had manners.
Take for example at the dinner table, which could begin anytime after the nightly news to about 10 p.m. We might not use utensils to take the salad out of the bowl and were constantly in search and rescue in regard to each other’s plates, but still we said, “Please pass the mint jelly?” or “May I have the lima beans?”
And, even if a particular dish was handed across one’s face to the far end of the table, or perhaps an extra baked potato was hurled over the centerpiece, there was always a “Please,” a “thank you” and a “your welcome."
And now as complete and utter grown ups the training comes in handy – like in this video where my older brother Bill, a lecturer at Georgia Tech’s School of Computing takes his manners training inside a women’s wrestling ring as the referee - blip.tv/file/2552734/. Now there’s something to lift your pinky about!
Thank you for reading.
CATEGORY: General Society
TAGS: manners,leahy family,wrestling ref,Bill leahy Jr.,Ellen Leahy,Leahys of Sea Girt,Marion and Bill Leahy,syracuse,Georgia Tech’s School of Computing,City Eagle
