Posted on 07/05/2021 9:05:16 PM PDT by MNDude
I was just sitting in a Cub's parking lot waiting for my wife. It seemed there was an endless parade of what I would call freaks-- girls with blue hair and pierced noses, men with dreadlocks and huge inserts into big holes in their ears, women covered with nasty tattoos. You know what I mean.
I realize there has always been unusual people, but if you were alive before the 1960's, do you remember if there was a concept of trying to make one look as idiotic as possible?
I can remember when only Hispanic girls would get their ears pierced. Only guys who served in the military and got drunk overseas would get a tatoo. The only hair color most women wanted was “Marilyn” blonde or “Rita” red. To rebel men or women smoked cigarettes. Women would rather be nearly blind than wear glasses.
To this day the biggest turnoff for me is to see a woman with a visible tatoo. The body piercing thing is also totally bizarre.
Television was the first step, as it allowed freaks to get exposure and influence others.
Then of course with Internet and social media it all exploded.
Perhaps. I think today they would probably be called “metrosexuals.”
And only Jazz Musicians were smoking marijuana.
Yes, if you ever saw Paris in 1968 (I called them the ‘Soixante-Retards’), the students there made ours look like Goldwater Republicans.
“White guys with afros”
I remember those...
Not so much.
It began in the 80’s.
It took a long time to be one mainstream establishment like it is now.
Uh, same as it ever was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fabulous_Furry_Freak_Brothers
We’ve always had the flamboyantly bizarre among us.
Institutions (and involuntary commitments), selective and aggressive enforcement of loitering and nuisance laws, and frequent applications of rough street justice used to reduce their visibility as well as curb the more extreme behaviors among them.
We are more tolerant and accepting now. YMMV as to how much of an improvement that is.
Old joke time:
Geezer: "The only people with tattoos are sailors and whores."
Young guy: "Hey! My mother has a tattoo!"
Geezer: "Oh, what ship did she serve on, son?"
Hence the expression, “We got screwed, blewed and tattooed.”
I saw a clean-cut guy in his 60s with big, neon green gauges I his ears. Man, did he look stupid.
Ah... the 70’s, Alvin Lee and 10 Years After : A Space In Time
I’d Love To Change The World
A classic.
Beat me to it.
I don’t know anyone whose appearance or mystique was improved by a tattoo. JMO. Some are marvels but I’ve never seen one I had any desire to have. My grandad had a few on his hands and arms, so I never thought any less (nor any more) of a person who had them.
Tattoo - The Who
Me and my brother were talking to each other
‘Bout what makes a man a man
Was it brain or brawn or the month you were born
We just couldn’t understand
Our old man didn’t like our appearance
He said that only women wear long hair
So me and my brother borrowed money from Mother
We knew what we had to do
We went downstairs, past the barber and gymnasium
And got our arms tattooed
Welcome to my life, tattoo
I’m a man now, thanks to you
I expect I’ll regret you
But the skin graft man won’t get you
You’ll be there when I die, tattoo
My dad beat me ‘cause mine said, “Mother”
But my mother naturally liked it and beat my brother
‘Cause his tattoo was of a lady in the nude
And my mother thought that was extremely rude
Welcome to my life, tattoo
We’ve a long time together, me and you
I expect I’ll regret you
But the skin graft man won’t get you
You’ll be there when I die, tattoo
Now I’m older, I’m tattooed all over
My wife is tattooed too
A rooty toot toot, rooty tooty toot toot
Rooty toot toot, tattoo too, to you
I think that it's best for me to avoid the freaks: watch tv programs that avoid freaks and continue down this road I am taking: daily Mass, walks at the beach, tend and water my yard, eat and exercise judiciously and PRAY, PRAY, PRAY for mercy to our good Lord.
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