It must have been hell to raise children in the 1970's. The world lost its mind after a series of cultural revolutions and the fallout resulted in the Captain and Tenille, trucker chic, and Herpes.
The Chevy Vega.
Polyester leisure suits.
Leading women's magazines touted the opinion that not only "could good" girls 'do it' on the first date, good girls should do it on the first date." Men stopped trying to get women to sleep with them the old way: snappy dressing, chocolates and general gallantry and got into silky polyester shirts, unbuttoned them to the navel and started using astrology.
I think parents just gave up.
I'm pretty sure mine did--at least after giving their previous four kids the ol' college try.
My mother made a sort of little playpen in an out-of-the-way corner of her antique shop by making walls of stacks of vintage Playboy magazines. I remember long winter afternoons, learning to read (they do have excellent articles!) and learning a few other marginally useful things besides. None of which included writing thank you notes, or bringing hostess gifts, or matching your purse and shoes. My mother, proper Kentucky girl that she was, sent me to White Gloves and Party Manners and hoped I would learn all that from the little set of yellow workbooks with its insipid illustrations and step by step instructions on how to curtsy, use finger bowls, and
clean one's white gloves with a glove brush, and a small dish of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
I learned about the thank you notes and hostess gifts through trial and error.
The other stuff has come in pretty useful, though.
First of all, if I had all those vintage Playboys now--geez! I could buy all the white gloves I wanted!
The Chevy Vega.
Polyester leisure suits.
Leading women's magazines touted the opinion that not only "could good" girls 'do it' on the first date, good girls should do it on the first date." Men stopped trying to get women to sleep with them the old way: snappy dressing, chocolates and general gallantry and got into silky polyester shirts, unbuttoned them to the navel and started using astrology.
I think parents just gave up.
I'm pretty sure mine did--at least after giving their previous four kids the ol' college try.
My mother made a sort of little playpen in an out-of-the-way corner of her antique shop by making walls of stacks of vintage Playboy magazines. I remember long winter afternoons, learning to read (they do have excellent articles!) and learning a few other marginally useful things besides. None of which included writing thank you notes, or bringing hostess gifts, or matching your purse and shoes. My mother, proper Kentucky girl that she was, sent me to White Gloves and Party Manners and hoped I would learn all that from the little set of yellow workbooks with its insipid illustrations and step by step instructions on how to curtsy, use finger bowls, and
I learned about the thank you notes and hostess gifts through trial and error.
The other stuff has come in pretty useful, though.
First of all, if I had all those vintage Playboys now--geez! I could buy all the white gloves I wanted!
Comments
Post a Comment