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A Plea
“I want to beg all you parents, and grandparents, and
friends, and teachers, and preachers--you who constitute
the ‘older generation’--to overlook our shortcomings, at
least for the present, and to appreciate our virtues. I
wonder if it ever occurred to any of you that it required
brains to become and remain a successful flapper? Indeed
it does! It requires an enormous amount of cleverness and
energy to keep going at the proper pace. It requires self-
knowledge and self-analysis. We must know our
capabilities and limitations. We must be constantly on the
alert. Attainment of flapperhood is a big and serious
undertaking! ‘Brains?’ you repeat, skeptically.’Then why
aren't they used to better advantage?’ That is exactly it!
And do you know who is largely responsible for all this
energy's being spent in the wrong directions?”7
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7 Page, E. W. (1922, December 6). A flapper's appeal to parents,
Outlook, 607.