Crazes

When I asked T whether she had crazes, she thought for moment and replied that she didn’t have crazes, she had enthusiasms. Which I think is a fair point and one that suits me as well. Before I look up the differences I’ll have a think about what in my past would count as either a Craze or Enthusiasm.

For instance I used to be a trainspotter (and what happened to my Ian Allen Book of Trains?), I used to look at the stars (not Blues players) when I worked nights, I’ve tried caving (briefly), scuba diving (that was great) and loads of other stuff but I just can’t think of anything I’ve taken up as part of a craze.

So what is the difference? Let’s see what my brand new Oxford English Dictionary says:
‘A widespread but short lived enthusiasm for something’.
And from that we can see that the crucial difference is that a craze is widespread.

The first thing that springs to mind is a blog I wrote back in October 2024 about a Dutch craze for Tulips. That was actually more than an enthusiasm as far as I can see so maybe the OED is a bit mild in this respect.

So, given Tulips as the basis for a craze what else would qualify? I’m guessing here but I would imagine that sheer distance would have prevented crazes developing in the pre-print days so I’m going to start with the Macaroni Craze. What?

It seems that 1760s and 1770s aristocratic young men returning from their ‘Grand Tour’ to Italy and France began to appear in London dressed in a distinctive, extravagant style that derived from French court dress. Their predilection for foreign food as well as fashion earned them the nickname of ‘macaronis’. The macaroni ‘uniform’ included a slim, tight-fitting jacket with waistcoat and knee-length breeches, all made of silk or velvet in bright colours, and heavily embellished with delicate embroidery and lace. Patterned stockings and shoes with large diamond or paste buckles and high red heels were de rigeur. I’m thinking I might wear this at the next poetry meeting.

Next would be the Gin Craze. The original gin drank Britain came from Holland, and this ‘jenever’ was a weaker spirit at 30%. The gin of London was a throat-searing, eye-reddening cheap escape from daily life. By 1743, the average gin consumption per person each year was 10 litres. Organised philanthropic campaigns emerged. Henry Fielding’s report in 1751 blamed gin consumption for crime and poor health.

From the 1800s on there were so many fads or crazes that I lost count so I’m going to have a quick look at just the one and that was ‘Lisztomania’ in the 1830s. 

This superstar (and extremely handsome) virtuoso pianist and composer had such a powerful effect on the public that the term was invented to describe the behaviour of his fans who were so obsessed that they wore his portrait on brooches. Women would fight over locks of his hair, and whenever he broke a piano string, admirers would desperately attempt to obtain it to make a bracelet. Some would even carry glass vials to pour his coffee dregs into and rush to collect stubs from one of his cigars.

I don’t think there was anything quite as widespread and manic until ‘Beatlemania’ arrived in the 1960s. And I don’t think I need to explain that phenomenon. However, I should warn people that something similar may be happening over the next few months as the Blackpool & Fylde Stanza Group has just released their Anthology entitled ‘The Salt Margin’. We are prepared.

I’m including this poem as there is a minor craze around the world for this very subject:

The Tree of Lost Soles
(for Maggie)

Out of the ordinary
even for Warrington
so the next time
she went to Celia’s
she took a camera
and an offering

but time travels as fast
as the gardener
with a new chain saw
and a mess
of odd shoes tangled
with notes and prayers
hanging on an old oak
by the side of the A59

so all she could do
was photograph the card
planted by outraged residents
RIP written on it
then take her addidas home
to pin on a stump in her garden.

First published in Dawntreader. May, 2016

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.