Quote:
Originally Posted by noonereal
Stores in Paramus NJ are closed on Sunday's. For those that don't know they are the retail capital of the country.
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Interesting. By custom or law? Throughout her childhood my wife lived in Ullapool (small west coast Scottish fishing village on the shore of Loch Broom). Very few retail shops and until recently none opened on Sunday, but it went further than that. With one road in and one road out it was claustrophobic; everyone knew who you were and what you did.
"No work to be done on the Sabbath" was taken seriously. Clothes were not to be washed or hung on the line, food was to be prepared the evening before and either re-heated or served cold. Cockerel and hens to be put in different pens on Saturday night, and woe betide anyone caught washing their car on a Sunday.
I'm not knocking it. If people choose to live this way fair enough plus being an incomer, I knew when to keep quiet but these old customs only change slowly. When Averil's parents were young, anyone caught breaking the Sabbath would be warned; do it again and they could be shunned.
To be shunned was to be ignored. Not a finger would be raised against you but in a small village, nobody talking to you or even acknowledging your existence made for a steep learning curve.