Casual Fridays

When I looked through my collection of 'Friday' pictures, this one struck me because I no longer have casual Fridays. Or rather, the idea of a casual Friday (or any other day) doesn't have much meaning. Now every day is casual. At my house the days are marked by whether I have to get dressed at all--or not. When one considers the aggravation of laundry days, the choice is often 'not'.

Then, when I consider the way dress codes are changing in the workplace, I wonder if the very notion of casual Fridays will fade away. After all, it's not casual if it's the everyday dress code, is it? Personally, I think all jobs should have uniforms. Yep. Even clerical work. Then folks wouldn't have to worry about buying work clothes.

My son wears an overall at work. And work boots. He keeps his clothes in a locker at work and dresses when he gets there. That seems far more practical to me.

Back when I actually worked outside the home, our casual Friday was more of an attitude than a dress code. Friday was the one day a week we didn't have evening hours. On Friday, everyone--from custodial staff to administrators--went home by five o'clock.

Inevitably, an undercurrent of anticipation hummed through the surroundings all day long. The weekend was nearly upon us. No work for two days! It mattered not that most of us would work harder over the weekend than we normally did during the week. That choice was ours to make, unlike the other five days.

I think that's the essence of Friday--the anticipation of controlling our own destinies for two days before plunging back into the regimented life of public work. Everything is controlled by someone else for five days a week. Then the weekend arrives and regardless of the requirements of our home lives, we make the decisions.

This has a powerful enough effect on our lives that even after retirement, faint anticipatory vibrations linger. Though I dress in the most minimal fashion the rest of the week, on the weekend...well, on the weekend it's different. And we'll leave it at that.

Behold, Friday has arrived. Strike up the band.

anny