Pajama Parties in the 60s

When I was in middle school, (Junior High to my generation) and in High School, pajama parties were very common.   I remember telling my oldest daughter about those girl parties and she did try a time or two, but they really never caught on.  She would have a couple of friends over, but not the dozen or so I had.  Maybe it was a generational thing. 

 Our PJ parties were usually on a Friday night at one of the girlfriend's houses.  In my case, we would have about a dozen girls spending the night. We ate chips and dip and made Chef Boyardee Pizza. We drank pop/soda.  I lived in the country.  It was 30 minutes to "the City" for McDonalds or the A & W.   We had no fast food available so it was all what we could buy at the grocery store.

No, I'm not in the top one.   The one below shows me with my head down.  This was the girl not seen in public without makeup since I was 12.

We never slept.  For hours we would sit in a circle, in the dark, around a candle, and play "Truth or Dare?".  One person starts by asking the question.  If you choose Truth, you have to answer the question truthfully.  ( Sure, who's gonna know right?)  or if you were afraid of what might be asked, you could choose Dare.  That's when you were given a task to do.  Back them it was something harmless like hang your bra on the tree in the front yard and leave it there all night.   I seem to remember that was how all of us ran up town, in our baby doll PJs. We ran up one side of the street and down the other, at the only stop light in town.  That was in the days when nothing was open after 6:00pm so at 1 or 2am, there was not a sole around.  Boy, did we think we were daring.

We played 45's and albums on the stereo.   Music was a huge part of our lives.  Garage parties ( with boys) were popular then as well, but we're still talking ages 12- 15 maybe. We danced for hours.  Oh, yeah, the guys did too. Then they would leave and the PJ party would start.    The Beatles, The Four Seasons, Beach Boys, and Motown were huge.  The music I most associate with those innocent boy/girl parties was Ronnie Dove.

As we got older, we girls still had our pajama parties.  The photos are from the time I was about 16. The guys always knew when a party was happening and usually threatened to raid it. We hoped they would, but it never happened.  Once in a while the boyfriends would drop us off after a date, but usually, we girls made time for each other. 

In the morning we would be bleary eyed and exhausted from not sleeping.  We would have cold pizza and Coke for breakfast and then call for a ride home.  Ahhhh, Good Times.

Who Was On Your Wall?

I was clearing photos out of my phone today and came across this one.

  One of my good friends from Michigan had wanted to take me to see Paul McCartney at Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers,  for my Birthday in July.  North Carolina to Michigan is a long way to go for a concert but she knew Paul was my favorite Beatle.  I had to say "No thanks"  so she texted me this photo.  I didn't delete it.  I have to keep Paul and her good intentions.

The Beatles phenomenon hit the United States in 1963.  I was 13, the perfect age for my first and only, musical crush.    I had Beatles all over one complete wall, floor to ceiling,  in the bedroom I shared with my sister.

These are the haircuts that gave my father and many others, fits.  Long haired rebels that they were.  That was the beginning.  Their early music was as innocent as the times.  "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "I Saw Her Standing There", and "This Boy" fit well with the early to mid 1960's music about surfing, cars and boy/girl relationships. 

                                                My favorite Beatle was Paul, the cute Beatle.
I had all the albums.  I knew all the stories and rumors.  I never believed Paul was dead.   I didn't think the photo on the cover of the Abbey Road album was a clue because Paul was barefoot.

They were only together for about 7 years.    That's not very long to have left such an impression on the music of a generation.  Of course, three of the four Beatles (yes, I know Ringo tried and is still trying, but we know who made the real money here.) continued to write and record on their own.

And, yes, I still know all the words to all the songs. 

So who was on your wall growing up?   Whose music got you singing?

Thank You Miss Taylor

I can't let the passing of Elizabeth Taylor happen without saying, "Wow, what a woman!"  She may have been the last true Living Legends from the glory days of Hollywood.  She gave much, in her talent and in  the cost to her personal life.

For all that was happening behind the camera, the marriages, divorces, illnesses, and tragedies, on screen she was electric.  I remember when my girlfriend across the street would come over to spend the night, during the mid to late 1960's.  We watched late night ( 11:30pm) movies on Friday and Saturday night.  If Elizabeth Taylor was on, we were thrilled.  We got our Pepsis and Popcorn all ready  to watch Raintree County, A Place in the Sun, Butterfield 8 or my favorite Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.


Add Paul Newman to a movie with her and we were there. Many we watched over and over, never growing tired of her.   It was during the filming of "Cat" that she lost Mike Todd.  Her performance in this movie is outstanding.  This was just one of the movies for which she received an Academy Award nomination.  There would be 5 in total with 2 wins. 

It was because of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  that I discovered the playwright Tennessee Williams and the controversy surrounding that play.  No one does the hot, steamy south quite like Tennessee Williams.

She turned heads and dropped jaws with her affairs and marriages.  Eddie Fisher, Richard Burton, John Warner  and the one that had me scratching my head... Larry Fortensky.  For all of the negative press, she kept on going. Her charity funded hiv/aids research when it was in it's infancy.

I'd like to leave with this quote from Maggie the Cat.

"What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof? — I wish I knew . . . Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can."
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

This lady will be at the top of her class for all time.

So Many Books, Too Little Time

Being an voracious reader, I have devoured an enormous number of books in my life.  I don't hesitate to say, in the thousands.  For most of my adult life, aside from the first year after babies were born, when you have to  figure out how to bathe to go to the bathroom with the little darlings, I have averaged about 2 books a week.

My earliest book memories are reading Trixie Belden (girl detective)  novels at about 10 or 11.   My sister, (3 years younger) says I never climbed trees or played outside with her because I was always reading.  I broke my leg at 11 while riding my blue Schwinn bike.  I was in a hip to toe cast for 3 months.  Books were my companion.  I limped for some time, which reminds me,  we moved  during that time and some classmates thought I was recovering from polio.  That was early 1960s so it was on everyone's mind.  We would line up in school, for the sugar cube with the polio vaccine on it.  Was permission from the parents even requested?  I somehow don't think so.   I think they just did it. 

During that move, we lived with friends of my parents while they were involved in the move.  It was at their house that I found Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and  Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk.  I was 11.  What was I doing reading Herman Wouk?   I'm not sure which came first, the books or the broken leg but after that I was a reader.

It's difficult to pen down a favorite or even a top ten list of my own.  They tend to change when I find a new one or I forget a good one.  Always in there though, is Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby, and  East of Eden.  I would also choose The Thorn Birds, Gone With The Wind, and one I found this past winter, by Kate Morton,  The Forgotten Garden.

Surprising to me too, is that I have not joined the electronic book market.  I've not tried it, so I can't say I don't like it, but I think I wouldn't.  I like the feel of a book in my hands but I can see that those huge ones would be much easier to read on a Kindle or a Nook type thing.  I'm not so much a Stephan King fan anymore... say not for the last 15 years really, but his "The Dome" sounds interesting.  I even bought the paperback version and turned it in to my resale book shop.  The thing has to be 3 inches thick, looks like a textbook and weighs a ton.  So I guess I'll never know about that one.

All kinds of subjects interest me.  I will hit the best sellers, the top 10 lists, Oprah's books, biographies and non-ficiton.  I separate autobiographies/biographies from non-fiction because I have read some that I am sure took artistic license.  Then again, some of those tales, you can't make up.  I saw Meredith Baxter on Oprah yesterday and she broke my heart.  While she was filming "Family Ties" , looking like the perfect Mom, she was living in an abusive home.  Her on screen husband, Michael Gross was there too, along with 3 of her children,  so I tend  to believe this one.  I'm on the hunt for "  Untied: a Memoir of Family, Fame and Floundering".   I also collect First Lady Biographies and Autobiographies.

I always travel with a book in the car, to any appointments, on vacations, and to events.  When my daughters were little, they didn't have nap time, they had "Quiet Time".  They had to stay on their beds but they could look at books if they weren't tired.  They are all readers.  My grandsons sneak flashlights under their covers at night to read.  Their Mom says for that, there is no way they will get in trouble.  Their other grandma pays for baskets.touchdowns and home runs.  This Nana pays for books read and  every few months, I send them new flashlights.

Love and My Transister Radio

I woke up this morning with a migraine.  Actually, this was the first time that I had a dream in which, I had a migraine. Weird. So I downed my prescription meds and went back to sleep.  After the headache is gone, my brain still feels kind of bruised, so I usually lay on the couch with the curtains closed and listen to Pandora radio Motown,  on my computer, eyes closed, ....very low.

Today that brought to mind lying in bed when I was 12 -13 years old with the transistor radio I had gotten for Christmas.  That radio came in a brown leather case and never left my side through my high school years.  I have been a music lover since Elvis kissed  his hound dog on Ed Sullivan.

Of course, back then, there was only AM Radio.  Being from Michigan we could pick up some Canadian radio.  CKLW, out of Windsor,  became "the" station to tune in.  WTRX (trix to us) or WTAC (pronounced wee tac) then.  I'm sure everyone has their own memories of how important the sound track to our lives was.  Like your boyfriend's British Sterling or Dad's Old Spice can conjure an instant image, so can hearing  "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen or "A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procul Harum".

My best friend lived across the street from me so all summer long, we were at one or the other's house for dinner and to spend the night.  That radio was always on.  How we wanted to call in dedications to one or another loves of our lives.  Of course, those boys didn't know that.  It was love from afar.  Those calls were long distance and that was nothing to take lightly.  You had to have permission to call long distance.  Only once did we ever do that.  I still remember the song.  It was "Are you Lonesome Tonight" by Elvis from all the Montrose girls to all the Montrose boys.  There!  That should show them!  They'll wish they had asked us out now.  I think we were about 14.

At 14 I started High School and dating.  The sleepovers with her became less and less.  She was 2 years older than me and was not allowed to go to dances and movies due to her family's faith.  We stayed close friends but I grew away from the idea of those radio requests.  The music then became background for dates, dances, parties, and young love and breakups.  It filled summertime cars that were cruising, and rushing to work to  serve ice cream and hot dogs to classmates that lined up at the service window, on Saturday nights.  Those transistor radios were still on,  in the background.

My sister will still call me when she hears on her radio, "We'll Sing In the Sunshine" by Gale Garnett.  It was the breakup song from my first love as a High School Freshman.  We laugh every time.  Actually, maybe she's laughing at me about it.It was a breakup song about my Freshman boyfriend.  After dating all football season, ( wore the varsity jacket and sprayed Ambush on it. ) he broke up with me to date my best friend. ( No not the neighbor) She and I remained friends and they later married.  Weren't  we mature?  I did the typical thing of sending her to talk to him for me.  That was the last time I made that mistake. We remained friends through graduation. ( She's the one with the T-Bird from another post.)  It just occurred to me that if I was 14, my sister was 11. Why does she remember this? hmmm? I think there is a sadistic joy there somewhere.  Kidding....

I love those little trips down memory lane when I'm listening to the radio or my ipod.  They can trigger anything.  "Sweet Child of Mine"  by Guns & Roses reminds me of the tanner when I was going for a Vegas trip.  It can be anything.  You never know when you'll  get to go on a little time travel journey.

Those 80's Ladies

I don't know what made me think of this song today but I did, so here it is.  It was released in 1987 and being 37 at the the time, I could relate to a lot of what this song is about.  I left off the entry and went straight to the main verses that rang true for so many of us.

   K.T. Oslin's  80's Ladies

We were the girls of the 50's.
Stoned rock and rollers in the 60's.
And more than our names got changed
As the 70's slipped on by.
Now we're 80's ladies.
There ain't been much these ladies ain't tried.

We've been educated.
We got liberated.
And had complicating matters with men.
Oh, we've said "I do"
And we've signed "I don't"
And we've sworn we'd never do that again.
Oh, we burned our bras,
And we burned our dinners
And we burned our candles at both ends.
And we've had some children
Who look just like the way we did back then.

Oh, but we're all grown up now.
All grown up,
But none of us could tell you quite how.

We were the girls of the 50's.
Stoned rock and rollers in the 60's.
Hunny, more than our names got changed,
As the 70's slipped on by.
Now we're 80's ladies.
There ain't been much these ladies ain't tried

I, too, had been born in the 50's, a rock and roller in the 60's and married, given birth to a daughter, and divorced in the 70's. 

Then I had two more daughters in the 80's so my life track separated from a lot of my old friends.  For my new friends though, my LARC (Life After Red Cross)  friends,  were doing the same thing. New marriages, younger husbands and new babies.  I think us 80's ladies took a look around and decided we were doing things a little different than our Mom's did.  I had old classmates that, at forty, were empty nesters.  I was still taking a daughter to Kindergarten registration.

So flash forward to today and I can say my empty nest and I are still getting acquainted.  Daughter #3 left home for the Grand Teton State Park to work at a lodge as seasonal help when she was 20.  She would work 6 months and be home 6 months, when the lodge was closed.  That went on for 4 years.  Even this past year she had been back and worth between a Michigan sister and us, so the nest was refeathered periodically.  She is now happily working in Michigan, full time with real benefits.  Yay!

With the economy the way it is, there are a lot of young people not able to make it on their own, for any variety of reasons. I have close family members that graduated from colleges thinking they would go out and just "get a job".  They are working, but they are not making the money those degrees should generate and we are all glad they have that job.  This is not the world we had.  I look at my own daughters and wonder what song they will write.

 Daughter # 1 is 37 now  The same age I was then.  hmmmmm  I like to remind her of these things just so she knows that when she thought I was an old fart, I wasn't.   I was still that 60's rock and roller.

Just between you and I,  I am still waiting for 80's Big Hair to make a come back.

A Good Day For Cruisin'

I had started a post this morning but stopped to run to the post office to mail another care package to my 2 Lansing, Mi. daughters.  The care packages started when Daughter #1 was in college and I wanted to keep in touch.  That was many years ago and the care packages still go out... but, I digress.  Good Lord, it is beautiful out there.

We had snow over last weekend.  A big snow for down here in Carolina Coast Country.  The news said about 7 inches. Being from Michigan, I don't want to see snow.  I moved away from snow.  I visited snow at Christmas, but I do  not want to live in snow.

Today is 60 degrees!  Oh, yes!!  I had the car windows down, arm out the window, fresh air blowing through... I was cruisin'.  I was reminded so much of my teen springs when the kids hit the road to Chesaning to cruise town.  My own town only had one traffic light.  The police once stopped my sister because she had gotten a new car and the officer didn't recognize her in it.   No one cruised on their home turf. Everyone knew everyone all ready. No "cool" guys were left.  You had to go to the next town to find coolness.  Of course.

Being a girl, I gave little thought to the fact that I was driving Daddy's car.  Of course I didn't have my own car.  Guys had cars.  Usually the girls didn't.  I had two things going for me though. My father is a "car guy".  I had learned from my mother, that when you shop for clothes, the more you try on the more she'd buy.  I figured that might work for automobiles too.  So I went car shopping with my father when he was in the market for a new vehicle.  I was lucky enough to have talked him into a Dodge Charger...gold and white, with dual exhausts. ( Just imagine the red one as gold )   It rumbled..it roared.. totally cool.

  My mother was not pleased.  Along with that, my best friend's father had bought her, for her 16th Birthday a 1965 Thunderbird. Oh yeah!!  Did it help? Not a bit.  Did we have fun?  You bet.

We would grab a car load of girls and cruise on over to Chesaning, where we would drive though town, about a mile out to the A&W and black again.  The windows would be down and the radio would be blasting "California Dreaming, Brown Eyed Girl, Good Vibrations and of course, "She'll have fun, fun, fun, 'til Daddy takes her T-bird away".

The whole purpose of the drive was to meet boys! Of course... Just to get a phone number.  The cars of guys, and it should be their own car,   (a little double standard going on there.)  would follow you, cruise by you and then you may pick up another car of male cruisers.  All to get a phone number.  I can honestly say, I never did.  I never dated someone from another town.  Darn.....  but I had a great time cruisn' on those warm spring days.  It was the total experience of the freedom we had, the music and the hope of catching the big one.  In this case, the fun was all about the chase.

I'm sure there are other Cruisn' towns and other stories.  What was yours?

What Fragrance Were You Wearing?

Like music, certain smells can transport you through time as well.
 
Certain fragrances, for me, conjure up pajama parties, football heroes, dances, first jobs, and other wondrous moments in my history.  I'm sure the mention of a name or brand can do the same for most of us.

My first "had to have" was Ambush cologne by Dana, in the bright pink bottle.  Most of the time I had to settle for the Avon fragrances of "Unforgettable" or  "Sweet Honesty".   Those just did not capture the "It factor" of Ambush's jasmine, bergamot and patchouli tones.   My mother wore Topaz and Occur by Avon.

 Ambush's sister fragrance was Tabu.  Only one person I knew wore that.  My favorite checker at the IGA.  Tabu was full of exotic tones that could easily enter a room before you.  You had to be a brave woman to carry it off,  so myself and my young friends stayed far away.. 

Dana also had marketed to young men with Canoe After Shave.  I see Princeton haircuts, clean cut faces and can almost inhale the citrus freshness of this cologne.  Shortly after the Canoe phase came another hit for Dana .  British Sterling.  Everything and anything British was "mod".  This had to be about the mid to late 1960s. 

To the aroma of citrus, add amber to get British Sterling..  My father received some as a gift, back in the day, and I am sure there is still a bottle in his bathroom. He's continued to wear it through the ages.  Also, about this time came Brut, Jade East,  English Leather, and High Karate. 

My sister was wearing Faberge's Tigress at this time.  It was a spicy, musky scent that really contrasted to her other favorite, Houbigant's Chantilly.    Their website says it is composed on sandalwood, moss and orange blossoms.  All I remember from that fragrance is the cloud of powder coming out from the the bathroom door after my sister took a bath.  It is exceedingly difficult to find dusting powder today.  I've looked.  You really felt pampered with that puff flying.

Mixed in there as well, were Coty's Emeraude and Windsong.  Guirlan had Shalimar.  White Shoulders and Heaven Scent floated in the halls around you.

What surprises me most was the fact that these were old, well established ,colognes long before we discovered them. The manufacturer Dana had been around since the 1930s.  Coty's Emeraude from the 20s. I had thought they were marketed and developed for that time.  Talk about the  "It's all about me" mindset of teenagers.   All of them were sold on drug store shelves.  That was what we could afford and the marketing for them had to have been great.

Through the years I have worn some winners and some losers.  I have tried Vanderbilt, Cher, Giorgio, Ciara, and Charlie.  I was hunting for something that would be right for me.  I got bored with each one after one bottle.  Then I discovered "Beautiful" by Estee Lauder.  I've worn it from the beginning.  I never get tired of it.   I may try something else in addition, but that is my fragrance of choice. And that is my fragrance journey.  Where did yours start?