The Inspiring Life of Eudora Welty by Richelle Putnam

Author:Richelle Putnam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Flappers and Jazz

Transformation

Eudora entered her teens during the First Youth Rebellion in the United States. Young people began to question authority and seek independence after the long, grueling war. Hobble skirts and long hair were out. Shorter skirts worn with silk stockings were in. Fake jewelry and cloche hats were hot items in women’s fashion. Modern young women were called “flappers.” Jazz seized the music industry and developed its own language, terms like:

• baloney or banana oil: both mean nonsense

• bee’s knees, berries or cat’s meow: all mean something superb or wonderful

• cake-eater: ladies’ man

• cheaters: eyeglasses

• ritzy: elegant (from the “Ritz,” the Paris hotel)

• the real McCoy: genuine article

• heebie-jeebies: the jitters

• speakeasy: a saloon or bar selling bootleg whiskey

Many more terms accompanied the age. Modern dances were the shimmy, the Charleston and the black bottom. All were said to cheapen womanhood. The Southern Baptist publication stated that change among the youth “causes grave concern on the part of all who have the ideals at heart of purity and home life and the stability of our American civilization.” However, girls craved liberation from corsets and layers of slips. Mothers forced their daughters to wear girdles, especially to parties. When the daughters arrived at the parties, they rushed into restrooms and “parked their girdles.”97

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