Spinster World War prevented many within a generation of women from experiencing romance and marriage, or having children. The image of the old spinster with a fading photo of her dead World War I soldier boyfriend on her fireplace mantel was common in films of the 1950s and 1960s. Likewise, in the American classic novel "Gone with the Wind" (1936) about the Civil War, numerous references are made to grieving fiancées, women who were "wanted, if not wed", and to the shortage of single, able-bodied (and thus "marriageable") men at war's end. In modern peacetime societies with wide opportunities for romance,
Bachelor and Spinster Ball dress, for example, school girls, nurses, clowns or lawn bowlers. It is not unusual for the modern B&S's to be run by ute enthusiasts following minor Ute Musters. Ute drivers at the B&S Balls sometimes perform stunts, such as driving their utes at dusk and throw flames from the exhausts and do circle work. Circle work, usually banned, is where the utes are driven in tighter and tighter circles. Food dye is a regular sight at a B&S and is normally thrown on people (even when it is banned). A B&S Virgin (a person who is attending for the first