Celebrating Greenwood's Freaky People
BY: BG EDITOR
Jun 17, 2017 — GREENWOOD, BC (BG)
"Almost Cut My Hair"
Crosby, Stills & Nash
Almost cut my hair
It happened just the other day
Getting kinda long
I could of said it wasn't in my way
But I didn't and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
'Cause I feel like I owe it to someone
Those of us from the Baby Boomer generation will remember this line from the CSNY song: "I'm gonna let my freak flag fly". We thought, in the 60s, that we had invented the freak persona (and long unruly hair). But as we see in the following cheeky editorial, turn of the century Greenwood was also celebrating its freaky people. (Who knew?)
FREAKS — A DEFENCE
"There are freaks, fellow and feline, foul and fair, with their fads and fancies, who make life interesting for the general bystander, and add color to the sombre scheme of things. Frequently the by-stander is a freak himself, and that only makes it all the more interesting to the few who are not freakishly inclined.
To be a common-place everyday personage, in these strenuous times, is to be a freak, though to be a freak is not always a criterion of one's being common, more often it is a sign that one is uncommon. But freaks, unlike bores and cranks, are quite harmless, causing mirth only, and thereby adding very materially to this world's smiles, and in this regard they are a most necessary and useful unit of society.
Humanly speaking, freaks can be divided into three classes. The first are the classy freaks, men who affect outlandish attire, such as pink socks and ties of yellow and purple stripe, which can be distinctly heard at a considerable distance and which gave the wireless inventors the first hint of transmitting messages at long distance. These are only instances. Long hair and language the slight improvement of a bray are attributes of the classy freak.
In the class two are the lasses who are all heels and no souls, whose head gear is in imitation of an African Chieftain's umbrella of state, who faint at a pinpoint but display delight at dead birds for their personal adornment. The common-or garden girl is not a bit interesting, it is the one who rides on both sides of the fiery steed that makes us turn our heads. The feminine freak is unconventional, free and easy, and very much up-to-date. Class two appeals to most of us, which proves that we, too, are freaks.
And, lastly, there are the asses. Freak freaks, assininely freakish, harmlessly humoresque, burlesquely boorish, all first-class qualifications for freakdom. The many who always do things differently to others, who think and dress unlike the majority, are freaks, but such welcome freaks that it behooves us not to ridicule them too much. We smile at the classy freak, we love the lassy freak, but the assinine freak we are apt to deplore. This is wrong. They are as necessary as the flowers in May. They furnish us with topics of conversation, their oddities arouse our mirth, but should never wake our scorn. Harmlessly pathetic, and most always good natured, a freak can be counted on in any emergency.
The freak is often a genius, and while we may laugh, we should also admire those who are a little different to the common herd and meet his or her kindly generous eccentricities with respect and civility, or become, by our sourcastic stupidity, a freak of au unpleasant species not included in the above three classes."
References:
