It was just another jacket-and-tie night

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    Last weekend was the first one in quite a while that I wasn’t standing under a basket or hunched on the sidelines at a high school basketball game.
    Saturday was another one of those jacket-and-tie nights.

    You’ll rarely see me in a necktie nowadays. I belong to a couple of fraternal and veterans’ organizations, but only two require semiformal wear.
    The Elks officers wear jackets and ties for meetings, except for July and August. But at my Masonic Lodge, everyone shows up in jacket and tie. They don’t meet in July and August, so the problem of sweating through your Stafford or Van Heusen is solved.
    Saturday night was my 10th and final stint as chairman of the Elks National Foundation banquet. The state president and their spouse usually attend, the food is always good and we take in about $2,000 for charity.
    But for my patient and loving wife, formal affairs are painful, especially if she has to sit at the head table. I think her major turnoff to formality came in Phoenix three years ago. Since I was the lodge president, we were “urged” to go to the national convention since the organization picked up the tab. Unfortunately, Elks conventions are always in hot locations in the summer, which is the only time they can get 8,000 hotel rooms and a convention hall in one location.
    Nevertheless, wearing a white dinner jacket with vest and tie in 104 degree weather is for the birds — definitely not for the Elks. Granted, the premises were air-conditioned. But you still had plenty of outside exposure to the heat.
    I don’t mind dressing up once in a while. The Elks even wear tuxedos for special ceremonies like initiation of new candidates, installation of officers and funerals.
    The first time my youngest daughter saw me wearing one, she said I looked like a penguin with a crewcut.
    I remember when the Bangor Daily News dress code was really strict. Larry Mahoney once showed up at Unity Raceway in mid-summer with a jacket and tie. He did have slacks on, too. But I probably would have left mine home.
    I wore a short-sleeved dress shirt and necktie to a high school graduation once. I think I was one of about 10 in a crowd of 500. Lesson learned.
    Even at funerals and weddings, semiformal dress seems to be going on the same route as Windows XP. I don’t mind that trend. I don’t care how they dress at my funeral. I won’t be awake to see it.
    The jacket-and-tie tradition lives on in some workplaces. Male attorneys, bankers, school superintendents, principals and accountants usually wear them. So do some town managers.
    Still, for the rest of us working stiffs, jeans and casual shirts are the norm. We dress for comfort, not style. It’s a trend I certainly can live with.
    So I’ll keep the sport jackets handy for special occasions and the penguin suit for “just in case.”
    Mike Lange is a staff writer with the Piscataquis Observer. His opinions are his own and don’t necessarily reflect those of this newspaper.