The Most Iconic American Decades Weren’t Just Ten Years

Also, we don’t need no stinking Unsplash

I am writing this in 2022 in an attempt to set the record straight for recent generations. Americans talk about the ’50s and ’60s as though those iconic periods of our history actually began and ended precisely in 1950 to 1960, and from 1960 to 1970. But they didn’t! I know, because I graduated from college in 1969.

My graduating class was so smuttily proud of 69! It wasn’t till years later that I learned with certainty what the number actually meant. My friends who had gone to co-ed high schools already knew. But I digress.

In point of living, breathing, fornicating fact, the early 1960s were still the ’50s — Elvis and Beatniks. Suits and ties. Beehive hairdos. I give you, for example, the Blues Brothers.

The early 1970s were still the ’60s — Flower Children and Folk Rock. Bell Bottoms and Hip Huggers. (And I have to tell you guys, whatever you may think of flared pantlegs, and as much a royal pain as the skimpy underpants and shallow pockets were, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen a nubile young woman with generous hips wearing a form-fitting top and Hip Hugger jeans with a wide belt. Holy mother of God! It was good to be alive.)

Yes, of course, other fantastic stuff was happening at the same time (The Beatles, for example.) But in the most recognizable generational ways, each era bled very heavily into the following decade.

At least, that’s the way it was in the many exciting places where my friends and I were hanging out in those days.

Having taken that detour down Memory Lane, I now realize that most of you “kids” won’t care. Why should you? You’ve got more pressing things on your minds. But hopefully I’ve given a little pleasant stimulation to my contemporaries.

By the way, I would just like to mention that the photo app Unsplash comes up with 1277 pictures when I type the prompt, “hip huggers.” That’s one thousand, two hundred and seventy-seven photographs. Not a single one shows a pair of Hip Hugger pants. Half of them don’t even show that part of the anatomy!

Of the ones that do show pants — rather than thongs — all belt lines are up to the waist. And the models — perfectly beautiful young ladies — have to work at contorting their bodies into unnatural positions to show off their curves. Believe me, Clyde, when a girl wore Hip Huggers she didn’t have to work!

Just saying. I refuse to believe that all photographs from the ’60s were eaten by Unsplash’s dog, or that in over twelve hundred pics I can’t at least be shown what I bloody well asked for. And I can’t help wondering why Medium couldn’t find a photo app that isn’t quite as stupid as a box of rocks.

If I go blind from peering at fuzzy photo after fuzzy photo, it would be nice to remember that at least I was able to find what I referenced.

The requirement that we use Unsplash as the main source for our pics has become a liability. I have seen many of my friends noting under their pictures — and I have, too — “Not me but someone who looks a little like me,” and “These are not the ladies I’m writing about, but at least they’re females,” and “This pic has nothing to do with my story, but — you know.”

I’m aware that we can import photos from other sources, but 1277 choices without a single one being accurate? Can’t we just be given another option or two, instead of just the one?

Thank you!