I'm 56 years old and was at SCS at this time(68-72). A little info to all you younger folk about this "greaser" business. At some ill-defined point in time,arguably between 1960 and 1970, white socks became taboo for the hip "crowd" to wear save for gym class or making fun of those people who, unbeknownst to them, and not caring a rat's rear end by the way, made the now-designated fashion faux-pas. Only "un-hip squares" would carry on wearing white socks. This is how many people thought. You could innocently go to a dance in Dover or Delhi,for example, even as a high schooler, where someone might just pick a fight with you simply because your socks were white. This was rare but it did happen. Usually bullying by insecure people. How enlightened. So you wouldn't dare wear them. We would jokingly call each other greasy in class if we wore white socks, or sometimes our hair would be slick from a gym class shower. Again at an ill-defined moment in the 60's, short hair gave way to the "rebelious" long.The majority of guys opted for the long, dry look. In 1970 the only short hair you would see was on our fathers, "adults" in general, our teachers, military people or cops. I suppose that "greasing up" was our generation's way of saying goodbye,and good riddance, to our parents' way of doing things. It was a novelty to do so, much as it still may be today. The barber shops would always have a dozen, or so, bottles of hair dressing fluids to finish a haircut in the same way you might finish a meal with a favourite dessert. But these were only used by folks older than, say, arguably, 30 in the year 1969.(very generally speaking as there were all sorts of exceptions) Products like Brylcreem, Wildroot,and Vitalis were oil and alcohol-based substances that would leave your hair wet-looking and even slick and solid for the rest of the day depending on the amount of "grease" applied. I guess we've come full circle, and hopefully, with greater tolerance, for another's appearance, and choice of hairstyle. We all seem to rebel, eventually coming back to our starting point,as individuals, and as a society. As a bald guy now, I can no longer,nor do I want to, make fun of greasers. I can only quietly smile at what once was...and rebel in other ways.
Non sibi sed Patriae
