She lifts the one-piece blue gym suit toward the camera,
that relic of our girlhood trials~
the stretchy, scratchy, sweat-soaked uniform
we wriggled into like reluctant acrobats.
It hangs from her hand like a captured beast,
its elastic edges still whispering
of locker rooms, loud whistles,
and the long-ago tyranny of mandatory jumping jacks.
Her grin is bright, almost defiant.
“I survived the blue gym suit,” she says,
as if announcing a medal earned through
endurance, embarrassment, and sheer adolescent grit.
And truly~
for every teenage girl who fought that fabric,
who peeled it off after class like a second skin,
who learned early that some battles
are won simply by outlasting them~
it is a lifetime achievement award.
A small, silly triumph.
A shared secret.
A reminder that even the strangest struggles
become stories we hold up proudly
once we’ve lived long enough to laugh.
Needless of mother's sharp prompt
Ever under her feet
In helping for to persuade
Ourselves to play outside
So it was left to no one
To give a stimulus
For to come back in; just streets
That had winked on; mild-eyed.
In the seventies lipsticks were beige, blah and nude
Dull, usually colorless and odorless, not to be rude.
Bright reds of the forties and fifties were passe’, out.
The lightest of peaches could be applied to a pout.
Women were expected to be straight up and down.
Twiggy at twenty, twenty, twenty, was paraded around.
Rubenesque chesty women were considered way out of bound.
Emaciated starving young models were the talk of the town.
Women smoke to stay thin.
Men can get bigger.
It is okay.
After their weddings they can balloon up.
Women will tolerate it.
But women better get thinner and thinner.
The commercial writers of SilvaThin knew this.
They spread the propaganda
And women bought in.
Wanting to be thinner
and thinner
and thinner
and thinner
and thinner
and thinne
and thin
and thi
and th
and t
and
an
a
…
several formica red tables
glass shakers of pepper and salt
big plastic tomatoes I wanted to squeeze
and shaped bottles of sarson’s own malt.
netting on all of the windows
scratch marks from chairs on the floor
ashtrays with notches to rest cigarettes
and 'open' and 'closed' on the door.
menus upright in a v-shape
the 'royals' adorning the wall
food through the fog of benson & hedges
with no one complaining at all.
my past was another country
before chains, regulations and brunch
places I knew from those misty-eyed times
are no more and have all 'gone to lunch'.
beware atomic attack!
1950s civil defense
duck and cover drills
Bert the turtle
showed us the way
flash of light - duck and cover!
Nineteen seventies, teenage years, never on my own,
end of school education, I’m now ready to do my thing
full of life, excess energy, over flowing with testosterone
sampling alcohol drinks, karaoke, thinking I could sing,
working life, set hours, rules and regulations to adhere
payday, money in my pocket, things to buy, new clothes,
night clubs, late nights early mornings, nothing to fear,
search for records, Motown, Beatles and the shadows,
feelings of freedom, my motorcycle and all the gear
helmet, jacket, scarf and boots, girl on pillion seat,
experience foreign holidays, sun, sangria and cheer,
nineteen seventies a time of work new people to meet,
decade of fashion, an era of change, for this country lad
new experiences, problems to solve, life changers,
Ben Sherman, Oxford bags, flower power, shoulder pad
oh to be young, free, happy, unable to see life’s dangers.
2/26/2018
Contest: where were you in the 1970s
Sponsored by Line Gauthier.
All the music done by ear
Hammered out by courier
Lyric carried all the cheer
While record shows the blow and beer.
~TH~ 03/19/15
All of the then-loving couples have been listening to all of the love songs from the 1970s, including the year 1974. Love has been in the air for all of the people back in the 1970s since the day doo-wop music was born and the British Invasion began back in the 1960s. all of the love songs have been on the radio every day from 1970 to 1979, especially that of "Maggie May" by Rob Stewart, "American Pie" by Don McLean, and other love songs. They were way before I was born, especially that of the mid-late 1980s. Disco was alive when those love songs were on the radio. And when listening to songs performed by artists like David Cassidy, Melanie, Donny Osmond, ABBA, and others back in the 1970s, it's like spending a Saturday night at the Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, California. It's also as if it's prom night 1976 all over again. Paul McCartney is that of an idol for all of the then-teenagers. How interesting was that? I wish all of the now-and-then loving couples knew what their lives were like when they met and fell in love with each other, even by listening to a lot of love songs.
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