Funeral attire: I think I would be comfortable in any semi-dressy outfit I would feel pleased to go to church in - ya know, nicely dressed up so as to show respect and create the right mind-set for worship. This is as opposed to those times when I have shown up to church in slounge-y clothes on the principle that hauling my butt into a pew in any old thing is better than not going because I could not manage to dress up.

I'd be surprised at the jeans, but hardly anyone's worn black at any recent funeral I can remember, other than on people who'd be wearing black anyway. To me the new standard of funeral-appropriate is mostly (if not exclusively) dark and fairly sober cuts -- not a lot of flouncy ruffly things, for instance.

Yeah, I was just as surprised by the lack of dark/sober as I was by the informality. And heck, even some of the not-jeans was, like, a white halter-neck sundress. Which seemed odd also.

I guess I'd think of funeral attire being black and certainly more formal than jeans. I suppose if someone didn't have something black, I'd expect them to choose something that didn't call attention to what they were wearing.

Zenkitty, my nephew's vote for the best sandwiching bread he's found is a brand called Kinnikinnick. Note, he didn't have much to say about the bread except "best he knows of" but he did give a big thumbs up to their doughnuts. They can get this brand in some of the local supermarkets, and at Whole Paycheck-Foods.

As for colors, I suppose black at funerals has gone out with not wearing black at weddings. Some friends of mine wore white - ok, he had a white suit, and she had a white floral print dress - to their baby son's funeral. As devout as they were, it was a statement that, no matter how sad they were that the baby was no longer with them, he had "gone to be with Jesus" and they refused to be sad about that.

How much of our standards of what is appropriate to wear is based in formal worship attendence? What I am trying to say is that I learned what is appropriate to wear to various kinds of events mostly as they related to church going. I'm sure I am not the only one, but then I'm equally sure that many people have successfully navigated appropriate dress for various situations without ever participating in any religious activities. But I fear that my parents would not have bothered to teach me any such thing without the need to not be embarassed by their offspring on Sundays.

When my father-in-law died a few years ago, Hubby and I were the only ones wearing black, and I went out and bought a black skirt for the occasion. His mother, the widow, objected, saying black looked too sad. We both blinked at her but wore the black anyway. I suppose we could have followed Mom's example, but I followed Hubby, and felt the need for black.

Oh, dear. I go away for the weekend, skip, and find us talking about funeral attire. Black. Definitely black.

So, anything big happen? What did I miss? I had to skip. Too chatty, we are.

The last one I went to I wore my forest-green dress, because the black things I have are too f2f-y. I actually thought it was a decent compromise...I hope her family didn't find it heathenish.

I'm back from my date. It was fairly boring, but not creepy like I mildly suspected.

I still don't wear black at weddings and do wear black to funerals.

My favorite line about funeral attire comes from Their Eyes Were Watching God, when Joe dies and Janie goes to the funeral in her overalls: "She was too busy feeling grief to dress like grief."

Truer words were never spoken.