The Crazy Gals & Snugglepups of the 1920's

Last week I ran across this very cool old photo of what appears to be a flapper from the 1920's. It's not copyrighted that I know of so I wanted to share. As a writer when I see old photos I always wonder what their story is. Since I started writing fiction I find myself looking at the photo and thinking what a cool character the person would make in a book.

Today I was sorting through my emails and found a post from Boing Boing where someone shared a small part of this video, but I found the entire thing on YouTube and it's wonderful! Fast forward about half way through to see the all banjo number and then a couple other lively songs. The band is called The Ingenues and this was filmed in 1928.



I am a fan of steampunk, but when I saw these I had a new thought. What if a paranormal romance was set in the 1920's? What if it set a trend? What would it be called? Flapperpunk, perhaps? Flappers had their own slang during that era too. I so want to use these two words in a book:

snugglepup: a man who frequently attends what back then was called a "petting party". Just like it sounds, it was a part where couples made out. Apparently no one yelled out "Get a room!" back then.

barney-mugging: Can you guess? It's a term for having sex. Yes, my friends, if you were going out to party one night and had plans of seducing someone you'd say to your roommate "I'm going to get me some barney-mugging tonight".

I hope you enjoyed our little trip into the 1920's!

~Moonsanity