Class. . .

Wayne Station along the Main Line outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The concept of "class," to my mind, has less to do with the material assets your family might have and considerably more to do with polite manners, education, refined tastes, and (hopefully) a concern for the common good.  If you are fortunate enough to have all of those bases covered AND have scads of that mean, mean green, fine.  Contact me offline, and you can donate two or three million to the cause.  Or at least help us set up a trust fund to ensure our son's university education when the time comes.

All kidding aside, even if your background and means are more modest, there is no excuse not to acquire some grooming, sophistication, and gentility by the time a guy has reached his early 20s.   Let's also toss in the concepts of trustworthiness, honor, grace, poise, responsibility, tolerance, (self-) discipline, understatement, and character while we're at it.  Average guys who want to kick up their everyday style several notches would do well to acquire, practice, and polish these half dozen or so traits in all aspects of their lives.

Aspirational?  You're damn straight!  But before anyone dismisses that with a snide thought or remark, remember it's not a matter of aping the behaviors, real or imagined, of old money.  It's simply a matter of ensuring that one becomes, is, and remains a pleasant and interesting individual.  Capiche?

-- Heinz-Ulrich