Fashions come and fashions go. Even the fashion of tattooing comes and goes.
While I (as undisputed Oulde Pharte Curmudgeon Emeritus) may refer to certain spasmodic jerkings or the fully-clothed representations of the more energenic forms of recreational copulation, I do recall the expressions of angst uttered by the "adult" members of society upon seeing preceeding waves of contortionism performed by the youth of the day. One of the benefits of age affecting short-term but not ravaging long-term memory is the ability to remind you milk-toothed cubs of the utter shock engendered by one of the earliest line dances - the minuet, and the vapors caused by the raw sexuality displayed by those libertines who first waltzed.
And speaking of "fully clothed" - how many of you recall the uproar when garments covering the nether limbs first became fully enclosed?
Styles may stabilize due to practicality or some form of cultural stagnation, or may radically change as the youngest segment with purchasing power seeks to assert independence from their parents and also to create outward signs of membership in "the group". How may times throught history have we seen literal herds of snowflakes all dressed alike, all talking alike, and all going to hell in that ultra-large handbasket together?
Every once in awhile things come together such that several cultures with their distinguishing styles all crash upon the world stage in the same place and time. Terry may be able to back me up on the confluence of zoot suits, pegged jeans/white t-shirts/black penny loafers/duck's ass haircut, pendletons/khakis/bandanas and the pink sports coat/white carnation of the late 1940s mostly in SoCal but also NYC and Hartford, Conn, and ($diety forbid!) Debuque. Or the polo shirt/chinos progenitor of the Yuppie and the paisley hippie (before they discovered tie dying) on the Strand of South Carolina?
The truth is that becoming outraged at the goings-on of the younger set just encourages them to continue and to excalate. What I am seeing is that greater and greater numbers are not finding a life situation that makes "growing up" and "maturing" desirable or even necessary. While aware of the use of hats, colors, and the actual position of the hat and bill to designate membership/affiliation in social affinity groups (gangs), one of the saddest things for me to observe is a 40-something bopping down the street with his hat on sideways or hanging down protecting his neck while the rest of torso is bared in the hopes that tanned moobs will attract the girls.
Do not allow me to even start on what, how and why females of the various species/subspecies wear. Let us just say that the conflict between wearing for the purpose of attracting the male and the purpose of signaling other females scares the daylights out of me.
But before we dog-pile Dick for being a stick i the mud, we need to know - where between the points of his hips and his armpits the waistline of his pants are located. (And if he has a dunlap, if his pants go over or under.)
stay safe.
