Let's Get this Party Started!

Back in the days, (ah those were the days!) way before hippies and the psychedelic era (60s) and love-peace era when everybody was everybody else's love child, there was the beatniks. the more civilized era. The era of Merry Pranksters and Kerouac and Cassady and Allen Ginsberg (of Howl). They live in communes They were non-conformists. They were my kind of people They were part of Be-In. They took over SF, esp Haight Ashbury. That resulted in the hippies era-love peace and LSD. Also mary jane (marijuana). That led to the Summer of Love. We had Summer of Love; East Coast had Woodstock. Then came the war (the Vietnam War, that is) protests were CRAZY! Today's protests of the Iraq were much tamer than the protests of the Vietname War. Tear gas was used. Arrests were made. UC Berkeley made a stand against the war and that started a whole much of protests around the nation including Kent State.
Before the beatniks (50s), the era was old-fashioned. Men looked dapper all the time; women look glam-slam Every outing was a big event. They actually wear formal attire everywhere even to meet up with friends. The women, especially, were spoiled by their men. They weren't allowed to tan, so they carried a parasol or wear a bonnet. They also wear gloves to protect their porcelain skin. They weren't allowed any strenuous activity like the boys were. Girls can only knit, sew, and read (and daydream!)
Boys, on the other hand, can get away with many things like getting dirty but they do many abundant chores to keep themselves occupied like taking care of the horses (wish we girls can do that!), play sports (girls weren't allowed, no fair!)
But one thing boys and girls, men and ladies, no matter the age group, were allowed to do together was dance. With each era, dance forms change, some for the better, some for the worst. It changed with the times.