Servants used the terms “sir” and “m’am”. She believed that here grandchildren would **have** servants and would never be a servant.
She was born into an extremely wealthy family, and her father was friends to the king.
So....Even now we do not call people “sir” or “m’am”, and we would prefer that others not use “sir” or “m’am” to address us ( except in the military). I realize that in the United States that “sir” and “m’am” are merely a form of politeness, but to my granny it evoked memories of rigid class-ism.
I believe that my great grandparents ( even though wealthy) came to the U.S. with their family to escape suffocating class ism of late 19th century England.
Dear sir or madam,
the way I was raised...
and the way I have raised my children...
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I was taught to address ALL males as sir and ALL females as ma’am.
This applies to:
my mother, my father, my aunts, and uncles...
my wife, my daughter, and my granddaughter...
my sons and my grandson...
my boss, and my subordinates...
my friends, my acquaintances, shopkeepers, and strangers...
teachers, judges, doctors, police officers...
senators, representatives, and governors...
whites, blacks, reds, and yellows...
preachers, priests, rabbis, and reverends...
old, young, and in between...
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Those titles then become a great equalizer of any class distinction.
One time a boss man told me,
“You really don’t have to call me sir.”
I replied,
“I know I don’t ‘have to’, but it is the way I was raised.”