Come of age in the 60s/70s? (friends, wife, older)
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I remember owning a pair of Earth Shoes in the late '70s, I found them so uncomfortable I donated them to Goodwill after a while even though I was living on a very tight budget. Many, many years later I discovered I had a few anomalies with my feet including extremely high arches & that was probably part of the problem.
Not long after I discovered Birkenstock sandals which I wore for decades, my primary "indoor shoes". No, I didn't wear them with socks (outside).
Liked my bell bottoms and mini skirts. Did anyone else have to ride city buses to school (one with a transfer, for me) where the public schools didn't allow girls to wear pants or jeans? Crazy. It was central NY, too, brrrr.
We walked to school over a mile (gasp!) so no bus, but I clearly remember the jubilation when girls did not have to wear dresses anymore. I was in 8th grade. Before that, we had to wear shorts under our dresses so we could hang on the monkey bars, lol. This was in SoCal.
We walked to school over a mile (gasp!) so no bus, but I clearly remember the jubilation when girls did not have to wear dresses anymore. I was in 8th grade. Before that, we had to wear shorts under our dresses so we could hang on the monkey bars, lol. This was in SoCal.
When I was 15 I got my first job (not counting newspaper route and babysitting) working at the local ice cream parlor. I saved from that lousy $2.25 an hour all summer long, then bought myself my first pair of Levi Jeans. First jeans ever!
I also bought myself a red wine colored leather coat, I really splurged, those two items cost 1/4 of what I made all summer...
We walked to school over a mile (gasp!) so no bus, but I clearly remember the jubilation when girls did not have to wear dresses anymore. I was in 8th grade. Before that, we had to wear shorts under our dresses so we could hang on the monkey bars, lol. This was in SoCal.
For ages 5 to 11 it was only about 1/3 of a mile walk each way, so not too bad. We also would walk home and back during lunch hour. Winters were crazy cold and snowy. Bread bags in our boots over our feet, oh yes, lol. In high school (was grades 7 to 12 there) was when we took the two buses to school in minis. We would wait close to half an hour in the wind. They gave us school buses in 10th grade. In warm weather we loved the walk home. It was about a mile and a half and felt great after sitting in classes all day. So very pleasant in warm weather, and safer than the bus rides, too. There were race riots there in the late sixties to early seventies. Ah, the good old days. Depends on where you lived and who you lived with.
In Fall the trees along the Genesee River gorge were knock-out beautiful and I loved the walk home. 20 degrees and windy, not so much.
I remember Stingray bikes and Earth Shoes. Also I wanted a '69 Plymouth Roadrunner (still do). As far as drinking in high school, I recall cheap beer was the go-to, really bad watered-down, downstream beer like Coors and other brands I can't even remember (they probably eradicated some brain cells).
I recall being bused to school for awhile which was very stupid, we had a new school three blocks away but couldn't attend it until the busing thing was stopped. Our teachers went on strike for a bit and we cheered them on, I hope they got a pay raise or whatever they were after. They used to show movies at elementary school at 3:30 once a week, I remember 'The Haunting', 'Forbidden Planet', 'The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T', 'The Boatniks', great movies. Indian Guides, the Rolling Stones, great American cars like Mustangs, Cougars, Broncos. There were a lot of cool things in the 1960s and 70s. Used to watch 'Adam-12' with my dad, Carol Burnett show, Kojak.
In the summer we had a locally owned roller skating rink tent that would be set up in one or the other of about twenty little towns in the area and that would become the teen evening hang-out for the summer. It was a great way to meet other kids from different towns.
The owner would play all the latest hit songs and some of the kids could really skate well.
In the winter a lot of us from the area would hang out at a little town in northern IA where they had been having weekly Saturday night dances since my mom was a kid. Everyone would get there before twilight so we could "scoop the loop, shag the drag" before the dance. Remember that? Back and forth, up and down the main street, checking each other out?
DH, boyfriend then, had a Chevy convertible that made it lots of fun.
That place got pretty good bands for a little town. We saw Sam the Sham ("Wooly Bully") there and the Trashmen from the Twin Cities singing "Surfin' Bird."
Buddy Holly, The Four Seasons, Lou Chrstie all played at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, IA. And we saw the Beach Boys at The Roof Garden in Okoboji, IA on the lake.
At night we could turn up the transistor radios and let the big time radio stations rock us to sleep. WLS Chicago, KOMA Oklahoma City, and KAAY Little Rock. But we couldn't hear Wolfman Jack in MN!
We walked to school over a mile (gasp!) so no bus, but I clearly remember the jubilation when girls did not have to wear dresses anymore. I was in 8th grade. Before that, we had to wear shorts under our dresses so we could hang on the monkey bars, lol. This was in SoCal.
I think maybe you and I are about the same age. I think it was 8th grade for me too...when we didn't have to wear dresses anymore. As a matter of fact, I think that's when we were actually allowed to wear shorts to school. Not under dresses...we got to wear shorts. Well...the school allowed it. My mom didn't...but the school did. LOL
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