No Bunny Hugging Allowed

Does anyone know what Bunny Hugging is? Or at least what the 1922 slang definition would be?
Evidently it's "spooning beneath large umbrellas" and it wasn't appreciated down to York Beach.

I found this wonderful article in yesterday's edition of The York Weekly (aye-uh once a week on Wednesday York has its own paper). It appeared in the column called "Unknown History of York" written by Peter Moore:

Censors declare snappy bathing suits taboo at Maine resort

York Beach, Me. July 1, 1922 -- Petting parties and one-piece bathing suits may be alright for beaches in the South, where the rule "Let your conscience be your guide," has been adopted for the summer season, but York Beach will not tolerate the presence of either the beach vamp or those demonstrative of their affections. The York Beach Board of Assessors has decreed that conservative practice must rule.

Richard F. Chalk, York Beach's 74-year-old bathing suit censor, whose work last summer won him the commendation of the entire York Beach colony, is going to see that the mandate of the Board is executed.

Petting parties may be alright "" in their place "" but the beach is not the place. The fair maiden and her summer playmate are recommended by the "beach censor" to seek seclusion in the nooks and caves at the Nubble.

"We do not want to seem too severe," the Assessors say, "but we must provide the hundreds of children who play about the sands, and who are easily influenced by sights they see at the beach." The same regulations governing the beach last season will be in effect this year. Censorship will be moderately enforced.

Mr. Chalk will patrol the beach during the popular bathing hours in the morning and afternoon to see that the beach vamps are chased to the hotels for suitable attire, and what he calls "bunny hugging" is conspicuous by its absence. Spooning beneath large umbrellas is what the bathing suit censor terms "bunny hugging." This posture, which made its appearance early last season, was characterized by Mr. Chalk as unfit for public gaze.

Undressing in automobiles near hotels or cottages, promenading the stores, post office, and train depot in bathing attire, and midnight carousals come under the ban. "York Beach will be just as popular and we feel sure that our summer visitors will appreciate our beach restrictions," the Board of Assessors told the paper.