What Could Have Been My "Great Depression!"

When I was in high school I read Nancy Milford's biography, "Zelda" and I was hooked. I wanted to be a flapper! It was also around the time that I read "The Great Gatsby" I became captivated by "The Jazz Age." In college I took courses on the expatriate writers which included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. I wanted so much to be a part of their "Lost Generation." They were rebellious about their strict and conventional upbringing. What all of these people represented to me were people who lived and traveled in Europe, conferred with each other about their writings as they were eating wonderful food and drinking fabulous wine! This was what a true flapper did-live life to the fullest!

I envied their ability to live and write about a life that defied conformity. Over the years I have continued to read different works by many of these authors and biographies written about them. I remember why I keep at least one foot firmly planted on the ground at all times and try to keep a sober perspective of this lifestyle.

While I don't believe I have the talents that these people possessed whether it be writing, painting or having a great mind, but I do understand their desire to be a part of an interesting and unconventional group. But, with this I am also reminded as these people were living life to the fullest-they were also living a life of excess. Zelda had several mental breakdowns and died in a fire while she was hospitalized in an institution. Hemingway died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound, and Scott died most likely due to "hard living"-alcoholism and years of excessive smoking.

I still want to be a flapper! I'll just stay away from the bathtub gin!