Fanny Packs!

There once was a time known as... the early 90's: Bush Sr. was just finishing up his term in the White House. Michael Jackson's "Black or White", a song about his inner struggle to pick a race, just hit Number 1 on the pop music charts. And the Milwaukee sentenced Jeffrey Dahmer to life in prison.

I was about 6 years old and rocking Oshkosh Bgosh jean bibs like they were going out of style. Sporting the neon plastic, fake Ray Bans and the greatest hairstyle known to man, a bowl cut, everyone wanted a piece of my shit...

It was about this same time when I was introduced to one the most wonderfully useless accessories known to man. The Fanny Pack! Other people may know this infamous oppositely named, belt bag as: Belt pack, belly bag, buffalo pouch, hip sack, waist bag, hip pack, bum bag, banano, or moon bag. Anyways, I was gifted a teal and neon green fanny pack to take with me on my trip to Florida with my cousin that year. It was all the rage, I could keep my... in it? Wait what did I have it for? I wasn't in charge of my money, my aunt and uncle were. I couldn't put souvenirs in it, it was too small. So, in reality, I had no use for it. There it sat around my waist, vacant, sagging at its un-use.

I think most people came to the conclusion that wearing a fanny pack, just wasn't that necessary. If anything, wearing a fanny pack made you look like an out of place tourist, an easier target for pick pocketers. I thought they had disappeared around the mid 90's into the long list of fashion faux pas (along with white belts). But little did I know, in other parts of the world, the fashion stuck, and is still alive and well today. The style is very popular among the Greek men here in Athens. It seems they have added many different variations to the bag. There is leather ones, nylon ones, and even designer label ones! It's "mind bottling" (you know, like when your minds in a bottle)! Although, over here I think they are used for different things. I can't even begin to imagine what they put in their packs that they couldn't just put in their pockets: Cigarettes, lighters, flares (for protests and soccer games), fireworks (also for the same use), hair gels, cologne, the ingredients for a Molotov cocktail perhaps? I guess they do have a need here for fanny packs, you never know when you are going to be involved in a Greek soccer riot or pulled into a protest in Syntagma Square.

So, I'll leave you with 2 questions for thought: Could fanny packs have an American revival? And what would you put in a fanny pack if you wore one today?