I grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California. EVERYONE living in the suburbs outside of LA was a rabidly conservative Republican (or so it seemed). Back in the day, my mother would load us in the station wagon to drive Dad to the airport and he'd fly off on a business trip. Then a couple days later we'd go back and pick him up--if we were early, we'd go into the waiting area and "people watch". This was one of the few times in our young lives we'd ever see people with skin color different from ours and I remember actually discreetly POINTING at people and giggling, especially if they were dark AND dressed differently. We did this discreetly since if Mom saw us do it, she'd slap our hands and whisper in that evil hissing Mom voice, "Stop that right now or I'll tell your father!" Then Dad would come off the plane and we'd run to greet him, sort of like dogs who haven't seen their owners in, like, two hours. If we hadn't been too bad, he'd take us to get something to eat (guess where).
By the happy look on Mom's face, Barry Goldwater hadn't gone down in flames yet in the '64 presidential elections (if you're interested, you can read about him
here). I actually wrote an essay on how wonderful Goldwater was around this time in English class and received an A+ with a note from my teacher literally praying that he became our next President. Aaaaah. Too bad.
OK--forget Barry Goldwater. What is REALLY cool are (1) Mom's sunglasses, (2) Mom's purse (oh hell, Mom's ENTIRE OUTFIT), (3) the Richie Rich comic in little Cynthia's hand, (4) the Nestle's chocolate bar....drool....being given a model's pose by Sally, (5) the gosh-darn-it-you-always-were-the-cutest-sister smile on Susie's face, and (6) the awesome LA Airport architecture.
We moved from LA to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1964 and by 1968 Sally and I were starting to evolve into what my father liked to refer to as "gee dee pinko commie hippies."
I wonder whatever happened to those sunglasses . . . Sigh.
I think I've seen knock-offs of that purse! Prada is making some the same shape. I tried carrying one without a shoulder strap and wound up with bruises on my forearm. I carry WAYYY too much crap!
ReplyDeleteThe glasses are very cool! Love the style of that era.
What a classic. I like the part of the story where you turn in to GD pinko commie hippies. They were always fun to hang out with.
ReplyDeleteOh, WAY too cool! This picture is absolutely PRICELESS!
ReplyDeleteWish those sunglasses had made their way into my collection...I'd wear them with pride. That is a great photo!
ReplyDeleteAbove everything, sunglasses were so cool back then! You could wear them today and totally pull off a swank hip look!
ReplyDeletethat is a wonderful picture. in '68 i was 13 and probably still playing with my barbie dolls, oh yeah and jumping into those deep red clay ditches right after it rained. i would do this with my cousin annette. we would jump in and hope that the mud would at least come up to our knees...sigh. you were being cool in CA and i was a nerd in MS.....sigh again.
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