Recently, I had the opportunity to attend The Society Toronto’s Let’s Bring Back event at The Bay’s White Space on Queen Street (you can read about it here). The event featured Lesley M. M. Blume’s book of the same name, based on her Huffington Post column. Let’s Bring Back, which Lesley’s website describes as a “sophisticated, stylish cultural encyclopedia of nostalgia” includes such things as penmanship, charm schools, rotary phones and butter. Even the look of the book has a vintage feel, from the outside cover to the typeface inside.
The book is a very easy read. Entries are listed in alphabetical order, with a short comment on why Lesley would like to see them return. Some of my favourite mentions (along with my own views) include:
Penmanship: I may not have had the best handwriting in elementary school, but nothing beats beautiful cursive – especially when written in fountain pen. At 31, I think I’m one of the last who can properly read traditional cursive.
The Middy: This may be a bias of mine as I’m a BSS* Old Girl (you can tell her from a distance as the school’s uniform blouse consists of a sailor collar).
Charm School: From a 21st century perspective, I think going to charm school (or attending a school which offers a “charm school” program) actually helps one in her (or his) career down the road. Those who don’t know “the rules” of good manners of any sort are going find that they’re going to be passed over for promotions. Related to this (and also listed in the book) are table manners.
Latin: This once played a very important role for anyone wanting to go to university. This is no longer taught at most schools and the Ministry of Education here in Ontario always talks about eliminating it (they often take the PC route of it not being culturally “diverse” but that, like the manners situation is a whole other post). Besides, it not only makes it easier to learn other Romance languages, but (in Lesley’s words) “gives people a serious leg up in med schools and law schools.”
Dressing Up: Seriously, we’re such slackers today when it comes to what we wear. Dressing up, especially for dinner, used to be much more common. According to an old boarders’ handbook from my school (I believe it was published in the late 80s), skirts or dresses were required for weeknight dinners. This is, of course, no longer done.
There are also things I’d like to bring back that weren’t in the book, probably because they’re more culturally related to the communities around me. These are:
Dim sum on push carts: You don’t really see much of that in Toronto anymore. Most of the time, you order dim sum from a slip. Sure, it saves on rent and space and the food is fresher, but was really neat to
Quiet Sundays: While I do enjoy the convenience of being able to shop every day of the week, save for holidays like Christmas, I also miss the days when everything was closed on Sunday. Sunday shopping didn’t exist in Ontario until I was 12 years old. In elementary school, Sundays meant playdates, finishing projects for school or making cookies.
Miss: How many unmarried girls and women actually use Miss now? I think I was one of few women who used it prior to getting married Isn’t it interesting that while Mrs. is still common, “Miss” is seen as antiquated? As of late, the only place I saw “Miss” in print was regarding the Royal Wedding.
The book itself can be seen two ways. One (which was probably Lesley’s intention) is a social commentary of how our society has changed over the years (some of the entries are from well before Lesley’s time), yet the book can also be seen as sarcasm (as in: Do we REALLY want to bring some of these things back?). I’d like to believe it’s the former, but I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide. In the mean time, what would YOU want to bring back?
*BSS is the Bishop Strachan School, a private girls’ school in Toronto.
