Are There Still Any Greasers

What happened to greasers?

BeBop, Hippies, Yuppies, Disco, Grunge, Xers, Millennials and what comes next?Seriously teens and early 20's are a point in maturity where people try to find their place in the world.  They adopt looks, embrace fabs, alter themselves and become part of the "cool" group.  Then life (marriage, kids, jobs and adult responisbilites) kicks in. They discover being part of the cool, groovy, hip, punk, beat or any other group just doesn't pay the bills. From there it is a long fast slide to retirement and curmudgeonhood.For those who are fans of Dennis the Menace it is always a suprise to discover that Mr. Wilson was "the real McCoy" and Mrs Wilson was a hotsy-totsy Flapper.Dig it?

What was the lifestyle of greasers in the 50s?

I am presuming this “greasers” refers to the word as used in the popular movie “Grease”. In this context it was a teenager, usually delinquent, always WASP, who wore Levi’s too long that were rolled up, had a plain white tee shirt on with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in the LEFT sleeve and had the “greasy kid stuff” Brylcreem- “a little dab will do ya” (or Wildroot) plastering down their hair. Other ethnicities used pomade. it was the required uniform to display such as an emo does now. Cars and motorcycles were de rigueur for this crowd. Most were a bunch of pussycats compared to today. NO illegal drugs. NO hand guns or semi-rifles. A “just for show” switch blade only. They might sneak one beer just was a show off venture. Now had been to “juvy” (Juvenile detention).A DARK SIDE note: Particularly along those states bordering Mexico, the term “greaser” as a racial epithet was a very insulting reference to Mexican Nationals or a person in the U.S. of Mexican American Heritage. In fact, the very word Mexican American replaced this pejorative term. The literary used phrase was latin or spanish, but the street name was “greasers”.This was so wide-spread and accepted use in the days before desegregation of the 1960s, that I was given a small paperback booklet distributed by the Magnolia Oil company as a 7th grade student that the word “greaser” used in it frequently to describe the Mexicans who lived here at the time of the Texas Revolution in 1836. No one even did a double take when seeing the word in print in a school distributed book.

Did you know any "greasers" while growing up in the 50s or 60s?

Q: Did you know any "greasers" while growing up in the 50s or 60s?Yep. I will start by saying this is my experience, and I will not claim it was universal. But I will say that Fonzie was a poor example of what they were.They tended to be, though not exclusively, guys who loved cars and tended to be “tough guys.” I recall they said they were called greasers because of the grease under their fingernails from working on cars. Everyone else said it was because of the grease used to hold their hair in a style called DA, or “duck’s ass.”My brother was one, DA and cars and all, giving lie to the idea that they were all from the lower socio-economic class. There was a general level of violence and threats of it from them. My brother told me of a couple of “rumbles” he was in, though these mostly seemed to be pretty tame in our suburban community. The local group, called the Roundeyes, dissolved itself after on of their leading members sliced up a guy from Chicago, whose buddies then began patrolling our ‘burbs looking for them to do some real violence.My best friends in high school used to bet beat up by the Roundeyes when they were all younger, until my buds stopped fighting and just gave up, claiming they were “just pansies.” The ruse worked and they were left alone because it was no longer fun. It was formalized in high school when everyone got pink sweatshirts with “pansies” printed on them, and our nicknames on the back.Another characteristic of those days was that the greasers wore black socks. The rah rahs wore white socks. My buds and I stopped wearing socks altogether because we were not associated with either group. When the principal of the school started sending us home for not wearing socks it only encouraged us to follow our own brand of delinquency as we became the freaks, the long-haired rock-and-roller newest classification of high schoolers.

Would you rather be a greaser or a hippy from the 1950s/60s?

There were no hippies in the fifties. The counterculture of the fifties was know as the Beat Generation, Beatniks, being Beat, the point and purpose of which was self expression unencumbered by convention, having no direct antecedents and beholdin’ to no one, to invent ideas, to think. It was they who searched for alternatives and an appropriate foundation from which to explore them.There were differences, but the beats did morph into the legitimate hippie (not flower child) movement of the mid sixties and early seventies.There definitely were greasers, hoods, rocks, in the fifties. Their objectives were anything but cultural and not at all cerebral. Greasers relied on appearance and attitude to set themselves apart from the mainstream. Hippies relied on appearance and intellect to accomplish that same goal.I was a hippie. I did have some greaser friends.

Were the greasers anything like the greasers in Grease 1 and Grease 2?

A2APhoto credit: People CelebrityAs concerns clothing, personal grooming and favorite activities, the greasers in Grease were quite a bit like real-life greasers:Black clothing, especially leather jacketsDuck’s ass hairstyleTotally interested in hot girls and hot carsOf course, real-life greasers (a) were not as handsome as John Travolta and (b) did not break out in dance and song.