More on the 1960's

Here are random memories of that era.

Penny Loafers. These were shoes that had a spot in the front to put a penny in.

Saddle Shoes. These were on revival from my mother's era, the 1940's.

The Beatles.

The Beatles brought in the Mod Look from London. and then came the Monkees, a TV show of a band of 4 guys, that were kind of like a mock Beatles, but they were a real band with real albums etc... They came on the scene when I was in Jr. High, which was the perfect age to be into them. I think Jr. Highers were their target audience.

With the Monkees came the commercials of Yardley Eye Products. It seems like they were always selling Yardley Eyelighter. It was this white stuff you put around your eyes to make them look bigger. Of course I got some. The eyelighter was part of the Mod Look.

The biggest advocate of the Mod look was Twiggy. How I hated Twiggy. She was a model, who somehow totally set the fashion trend, and her name says it all. She was skinny like a Twig, and had long straight hair. Why did I hate her?? I was more on the chubby side, and had curly, frizzy hair. EVERYBODY was supposed to look like Twiggy. The Mod look was be super skinny with long, staight hair.

Curl Free Hair Straightener and ironing your hair with an iron. This was used so we would all look like Twigger. I tried Curl Free once without my mother's permission. It worked for 2 weeks, and then to frizz. I never went as far as ironing my hair.

Giant hair curlers you slept on all night. This I did for years. The Curlers were like 4" across. I would set my hair everynight with these on. The purpose of this was of course to get your hair as straight as Twiggy's. It made my hair straighter but it was still very puffy. No where like Twiggys.

Go Go Boots. The advent of Mini Skirts. These were torture for me too because I really was too chubby for them, but I wore them anyway. Granny Dresses.

Phonographs and records. The phonographs were mono when I was young. Then they came out with stereos. This was a really big deal. There were two speakers.  And there were portable stereos, this was a big deal too. I REALLY wanted a stereo. My mother's friend's dog had puppies. I really wanted a puppy. My mother hated dogs. Finally I said if I can't have a puppy I want a stereo. I got it!!

78 albums and 45's with the big hole in the middle. The 45's were small little records, that had one song on each side. One side was always a very big hit on the top 100, and the other side was usally a bomb.

Transistor radios.

Gas was 25 cents a gallon when I learned to drive in 1970.

When I was a kid girls were only allowed to wear skirts to school. No pants. My senior year 1969-70, they made a new Federal law and girls were allowed to wear pants to school.

The Rolling Stones.

Baskin Robbins and 55 flavors. This was unbelievable.

Life was simpler in general. There wasn't any answering machines or call waiting. You always got a busy signal or it just rang because no one was home. No video games. The closest thing was a pin ball machine. No cell phones. There was a TV show called Get Smart. It was a goofy situation comedy about a pretty dumb secret agent called Maxwell Smart. He had a phone in his shoe, and it was so absurb. To me not because the phone was in his shoe, but because there was no cord. It was unbelievable and unheard of thing. No movie videos at home either. No VCRS or DVDs. Just really old movies on TV or you go to the movie theater. Movies were 50 cents for kids, $1.00 for adults.

Rockets going to outer space. First just up and down, and then around the earth.

My first job was senior year in a grocery store. We had the kind of cash registers that you had to punch in all the numbers.

Soupy Sales. He was a crazy slapstick comedian who had a kids show in the 50's. He made a come back in the 60's and sung the Mouse. There was a big rumor in my High School that Soupy Sales moved to our town ans was in the High School registering his kids. He didn't.

Hard rock. People started smoking pot. The beginning of the hippie era, but it wasn't very prevalent yet in New York where I lived. It was more on the West Coast. 

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