The 70's

    No this is not a circa 1970's picture, I just took it this morning with my digital camera (back then Polaroid cameras were cutting edge, and you had to shake the hell out of that picture.  They were always too bright or too dark, and heaven forbid if you accidentally touched the picture before it was dry).  Today is 70's day at Grace's school.

    Yesterday afternoon I trudged off to the local Salvation Army in search of 70's clothes.  I can't believe that no had already snapped up that little beauty!  I will be honest, I can't believe that they had it for sale.  Who would pay money for that (other than me of course)?  As I put my treasures up on the counter I asked the man who runs our Salvation Army if they had had a run on their grossest clothes today.  He gave me a blank, but polite stare.  I then told him that it was 70's day at the school.  "That explains it then." he said.

    When I showed Grace what I had found she looked horrified.  "They wore clothes like that?" she said, her face full of revulsion.  "They did, and they thought that they looked nice!", I said barely able to suppress a giggle.  I then explained to her the hard earned lesson that my own childhood had taught me.  "Right now you think that your clothes are amazing.  You look at the clothes that I wore in the 80's and think that they looked funny.  I did the same thing.  I remember looking at my Mother's pictures from the 60's and laughing and laughing.  "Did you know that you looked stupid back then?" I would ask her.  She would smile and tell me to just wait.  Turns out that she was right.  The 80's had amazing music, but looking back the clothes were pretty funny."  

    This morning Grace came out of the bedroom dressed in her dress.  I laughed and laughed.  She had this look on her face like she might throw up. "You know Aunt Cheri, Aunt Shannon and Aunt Shelley probably had dresses that looked just like that."  She looked at me like I was crazy.  Christopher's older sisters are always so nicely dressed, it seemed like such a stretch to Grace.  

This one is Christopher's Family Photo from the 70's

     "Let me just give you some Farrah Fawcett hair to finish the look." "Who's Farrah Fawcett?" Grace asked.  I was taken aback, and then I remembered, no one of her age would know.  "She was a t.v. star in the 1970's and everyone wanted to make their hair look like hers."  I then set to work trying my best to do the Farrah Fawcett curls.

Miss Farrah herself.

    Trying to give Grace that iconic 70's do took me back to my childhood.  It was the 80's that I really was aware, but I do remember the 70's.  Back then I looked up to my much older, much cooler cousins Fiona, Sandy and Heather.  They were teenagers, and lived in Toronto (that magic place of my childhood dreams). I remember visiting them and begging Sandy to give me Farah Fawcett hair.  I will give her credit, Sandy was always very patient with me.  I did not realize that to have true "Farrah" hair, I needed a Farrah cut.  I emerged from that bathroom walking like I was floating on air.  I felt very beautiful and very grown up.

    Down in Aunt Jean's basement was the real place to be a kid in the 70's.  Michael Jackson's Off The Wall album was blaring.  The other frequently played group were the Bay City Rollers (who are by the way coming to the Empire Theatre in Belleville).  http://www.theempiretheatre.com/event/les-mckeown/  Fiona was CRAZY for the Bay City Rollers.  S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT, S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!  Fiona had Bay City Roller t-shirts, pants trimmed with plaid, she even had Bay City Roller socks.  I remember wishing that I could get in on that trend.  I did however have an Andy Gibb T-shirt and puzzle with all of his extremely hairy chested handsomeness.

 I am curious to find out from Grace how she made out today, and how many other kids were brave enough to wear that polyester goodness.