They say that being a senior is just like being a teenager again, only you have more money. You have no responsibilities, don’t have to work and can stay up late and party all night, if you wish. While many of the today’s younger seniors may remember Woodstock, you definitely know you’re getting older when a local retirement home holds a Woodstock 50th anniversary night and you agree to go because your neighbor has free tickets and it would be a shame to waste a nice meal. My mother agrees to go with us, although neither of us really remembers Woodstock. My neighbor has more recollection of it, but I feel like I missed the whole hippy era, as at almost 13, I was just a bit too young and by the time I was old enough to peace out, disco had arrived. While I remember much of the music from the era, I was more into the clean-cut Monkees than the Beatles, who had by then morphed into those long haired dudes strolling across Abbey Road. My mother was a forty-something housewife back then who only listened to our music because the radio was on in the morning while we were getting ready for school, but I’m sure the station got changed as soon as we left for the bus.
For those of you younger folk who may be unfamiliar, Woodstock was a famous music festival held on a dairy farm in upstate New York in Aug 1969, which attracted almost half a million young people and which became a symbol of the hippy era. It rained over the three days, people camped and slept outdoors in the mud and listened to music and generally a peaceful groovy time was had by all. Surprisingly there was no violence, considering the size of the crowd, but then the mood was mellow-yellow.
Peace, Love and Fame!
(The couple in this iconic photo of the era, which first appeared on the Woodstock album cover, got married a few years later and are now seventy years old. In a recent interview they said they didn’t even recall the photo being taken because they had just woken up. Here’s a link to more on their story.)
Woodstock had a music lineup of some of the best rock and roll groups of the time. A friend of mine has a copy of the original festival poster, with the band playlist. She was on her way to the show with a group of friends, complete with camping gear, when for reasons she doesn’t remember, they turned around and came back to Canada. Most likely it was due to the negative publicity at the beginning – the drugs, the rain, the traffic, the lack of washroom facilities etc. As she later went on to work in the music industry, she recalls it as one of the regrets of her life. Here’s the playlist. 
Of the groups who played, I only remember Creedence Clearwater Revival CCR (Bad Moon Rising), Blood Sweat and Tears (And When I Die), Janis Joplin (Me and Bobby McGee), Jefferson Airplane (White Rabbit, Somebody to Love), Santana (Evil Ways), and Sly and the Family Stone (Hot Fun in the Summer Time). While I recognize some of the others, (Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Jimi Hendrix), I don’t recall what they sang, so Linda over at Walking,Writing,Wit and Whimsy (who has a great Woodstock post), shared this link with me,where you can check out the songs each band played at the venue. https://www.woodstock.com/lineup/ The site also has some great photos and videos, and man do those kids look young, as do the performers. Of course that was in the day when we didn’t trust anyone over thirty.
Many of the musicians who were asked to play, turned it down, (The Doors, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Chicago, The Moody Blues, Simon and Garfunkel) and have expressed regret, including Joni Mitchell, who went on to write this famous song, after seeing the news clips on TV.
I was surprised to read that the music went on so late, but being out in the country there were no noise bylaws, although I’m sure the neighboring towns weren’t too thrilled about the sudden descent of half a million hippies. John Fogerty of CCR, remarked that most of the fans were asleep on the muddy ground by the time they went on at 3am, so he played to one guy way at the back, who was flicking a Bic lighter. (Wikipedia link)
Imagine hosting that kind of party today, half a million people united by music, singing in peace and harmony.
Not likely to happen – there’s too much violence in the world now. The organizers of the 50th anniversary bash ended up cancelling. (Sorry Jay Z and Miley Cyrus, no soggy fields for you, although I’m not sure why you got invited in the first place). There will never be another Woodstock. There was however a smaller anniversary gig held in Bethel Woods, with performances by Arlo Guthrie, John Fogerty and Carlos Santana, who were all there at the first one – what a trip that must have been for them to play again at the same site so many years later.
But back to my Woodstock party….
So maybe it was a good thing the retirement home stepped in to fill the void – keeping the flame alive for all us aging hippies. (I believe they are called hipsters now if Taylor Swift lyrics are correct).
This particular retirement home is a bit of a white elephant, the product of a poorly developed plan hatched by some company in Toronto where the rest of their buildings are located and fully occupied. It opened several years ago, and fewer than 25% of the units are rented. I’m not sure who it’s actually marketed for, as many in this small town could not afford the high prices, most seventy somethings would want more space (the apartments are very small), and the over-eighty crowd who might inhabit such a place, might need some medical help of which there is none available. But I give them A for effort, as they are trying hard to fill it up. One of their marketing ploys is to offer community events and free dinner tickets to anyone who might have expressed even the slightest bit of interest. (My friend went to a yoga class there. They even sent my mother a Christmas gift in the mail – a puzzle of one of her art works). They host monthly theme nights, Roaring Twenties, Casino, Neil Diamond, and while older people in the community might support the events, it seems no one actually wants to live there.
There is a big atrium, like in a fancy hotel, wasted space, but it’s supposed to be a social area. A perfect spot for a sit in or a love-in or at least a free buffet with some folk music.
I have a hard time deciding what to wear, and have to visit the basement and unearth a few old Seventeen magazines to refresh my memory of the clothes of the era. I found the magazines in the attic when my mother moved off the farm. They’re from 1970, the summer I entered high school, when I must have been worried about looking hip, although why I don’t know, as we wore uniforms, other than the first Friday of the month which was Dress Up Day.
Dig those blue tinted shades!
Back then, Seventeen magazine came in the the big twelve-inch size format, like Life and Look magazines. The ads alone were a trip down memory lane. We seemed to be consumed with lightening our hair (Sun-In, Lemon Go Lightly), darkening our tans (Coppertone, Johnson’s Baby Oil, Sea and Ski, Noxzema), and wearing blue eye shadow (Bonne Bell, Yardley, Max Factor).
But back to the fashions, and the all important question, when Jupiter aligns with Mars will you be dressed for it?
You will if you sew your own threads!
That song was far out – Aquarius – by the Fifth Dimension.
In the fashion pages, we wore bell bottoms, embroidered peasant shirts and gauzy skirts, mini skirts, maxi skirts, tie-dye, leather sandals, headbands, love beads, rose or blue tinted granny glasses and anything with fringe.
Model Susan Dey before The Partridge Family and L.A. Law
And don’t forget the flower for your hair, preferably a daisy.
The song San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) was written by John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas,to promote the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. It also gave birth to the flower-child movement and the phrase flower-power.
At age ten, I remember being annoyed when my first pair of bell bottoms got caught in the spokes of my bike, but later being quite envious of my grade eight teachers mini skirts and especially her long black maxi coat. By high school short skirts were all the rage even in Canada, and my mother, who made our navy uniforms, made them short, but we still rolled them shorter, until the nuns caught you out. By grade eleven she had given in, but it does make me cringe now looking my high school year book that they were that short. I believe the nuns had given up by then too. One year hot pants were in, but not part of the uniform. The nuns would have fainted at that. I had a pair I wore under a matching mini dress. By grade twelve we were allowed to wear navy pants, but nobody did as jeans were in, wide and flared by then.
But back to party prep….(which as I recall was often the best part of a night out).
I found a pink cotton embroidered shirt, last worn fifteen years ago, in the back of a closet, and piled on some beads and bracelets. As luck would have it, I had also found a suede necklace with a peace symbol at an outdoor craft show the weekend before, a bargain at $10.
Finishing touch, some dangling feather earrings. I had a problem with my gold chain headband, as I have bangs and it did not sit quite right. Alas, I did not have any bell bottom blue jeans, faded or otherwise, as in this famous Cat Stevens song, so regular skinny jeans had to do. (How is it that I now own only one pair of jeans, which I admit haven’t been worn in two years, and seemed a bit snug, but isn’t that why yoga pants were invented).
The residents really got into the spirit of the evening. There were prizes for best costumes and I got some great ideas should I decide to resurrect my hippy costume for Halloween. Daisy chain headbands, flowing caftans, ponchos, embroidered jean jackets, with most of the guys looking like cool cats in their bandannas. Obviously, many of these people had lived through the era, and had a better idea than I did. Someone had tie-died some white sheets to hang as a backdrop behind the stage. As my only memory of tie-dye was a blue and white t-shirt which came out uneven, I had no idea it could be so colorful.
Unfortunately, after Bad Moon rising, the musician/guitar player wandered into the wrong decade and stayed there, as I’m sure Tequila Sunrise and Margaritaville were not played at Woodstock. His final nod to the sixties was Love Potion Number Nine, when really it was Diovol I needed, as the food was – well the polite word might be – institutionalized. Can you dig it? No I could not, and this is coming from someone who ate hospital food for years way better than that. Unlike the original Woodstock, no drugs were allowed, well at least no psychedelic ones. Although marijuana is legal now in Canada and they are even trialing it in nursing homes for pain control (don’t get me started), there was none in evidence. Thank God, smoking inside buildings is not allowed.
As parties go, it ended fairly early, but I was tired (one of the disadvantages of getting older is you can stay out all night but you don’t want to), and this hippy-chick was happy to go home to my nice comfy bed and grateful I did not have to sleep out in the mud with half a million other people. While not quite as exciting as the first Woodstock, it was a fun happening. Maybe they can do it again in another fifty years and invite the Rolling Stones – they’ll be 125 and on their final world tour.
PS. In these strange and tumultuous times, maybe we need to be reminded of those famous slogans, “Make Love, Not War” and “Give Peace a Chance.”
PS. Do you remember Woodstock and the hippy era? Do you remember any of the fashions and music?
PS. I think we had much better music back then, a lot of which is still listened to today. I may be showing my age, but I have a dislike for much of the current music scene, especially rap, which I feel is totally lacking in lyrics and melody. I listen to classic rock, oldies but goodies stations, and even the really old classics like Sinatra and the Big Band era. Younger readers, how do you feel about your generation’s music versus the older stuff? Do you think it will have staying power? I read recently that Drake has now surpassed the Beatles record of eleven number one hits in a single year/album, but I could not tell you one single song Drake song, or Beyonce or Justin Beiber for that matter – I guess I have turned into my mother and just change the station!
thehomeplaceweb 
All we are saying… is give peace a chance. 🎶
I think it’s way cool and far out, man, that you got to be a hippie chick for one night of your life. Your costume [?] is perfect, like I’m totally digging it. As for Woodstock I know most of what I know from what I’ve read about it. Such a trippy moment in time. ☮️
I also love seeing Seventeen magazine again. I’d pour over it for hours. Those clothes, that hair, the accessories. *sigh*
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Thanks Ally! It was a fun post to write. How did you do that little peace icon above? I loved 17 magazine too, (and also Glamour and Mademoiselle when I was older) and thought I might write a post about them sometime later, as they were our social media back then. Looking through them, some of the issues are the same, relationships, birth control etc, but I might compare then and now in terms of what is different for young people today. Do they even sell 17 and Glamour anymore – I’ll have to check. Glamour was my bible during my early working years – the clothes were so classy and elegant, then it turned trashy about 1990 and I stopped buying it.
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I’ve the same story with those magazines. I was in a small town and those magazines were a lifeline to a world I wanted to get into.
I have an iMac and I found the peace sign on the “Emoji & Symbols” dropdown page which is in Edit. There are lots of other symbols available in little purple boxes, too– look above Flags, below Objects, near the hearts.
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Thanks Ally!
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I loved this. What a wonderful trip down memory lane!
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Thanks Claudette! I had fun doing it!
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Terrific reflection of the time. I wasn’t there, but just around the corner, a little to old already
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Thanks Marilee! It sees that most of my readers were either a bit too young or a bit too old to have been there.
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Wow, you shore is hip, ma’am, in yore leather strings and fringe. What, no bell bottoms no mo’? Today it’s palazzo pants, and I love ’em. But bell bottoms I did wear back then. I never could get my hair long and straight, however, nor did I (at the time) like those slanted dark glasses like the ones on the Seventeen cover.
Speaking of Seventeen, I LIVED by that magazine in my 20s, especially the popular “flip” page-boy hair style often featured. I was never a true Hippie but more of a prep-school type — in public schools, no less! — then learned to copy high fashion as a young office professional. By August 1969, I was newly engaged to be married and too busy planning my marriage to pay attention to muddy Woodstock. What silliness.
The folk music of the era, on the other hand, was my genre, both listening and singing along with friends at Hootenanny parties in coffee houses and each other’s homes on Friday nights. I was enthralled with Joan Baez and Simon & Garfunkle, Peter Paul & Mary, but never caught Beatle mania. Eventually, hard rock took over and I changed the radio station.
Did I go to Woodstock? Of course not. I lived in Orlando, Florida. But Orlando’s downtown park around Lake Eola was literally taken over by hippies camping out day and night — “Flower Children” — an outgrowth of the Viet Nam protest era. They found other things to protest. Not me.
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Thanks Jo! Your observations about the music and the hippies are interesting. My hip grade 8 teacher (she was only 19) let us listen to Simon and Garfunkel’s music in class, as she said it was poetry, and it is. I had wavy hair and wish they had had those flatiron straighteners back then – best thing ever invented. I straighten my hair every day. I remember Marlo Thomas as that girl had a flip up hair do, used to love that show. I thought I might do a post on 17 magazine sometime later, as I really enjoyed looking through it. Glamour magazine was my fashion bible during my young working years -I guess those magazines were our forms of social media, similar to young people today watching the Kardashians etc. only a lot more classy back then. I don’t remember there being too many protests in Canada, probably nothing to protest, but we only got US news and TV stations back then, so I was well tuned in.
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I came at the tail end of the baby boom. At age 10 I was far too young for Woodstock. And have mixed feelings about the era.
Early boomers set the tone and if it felt good they did it. My age group laughed at herpes jokes. Boomers got Mustangs, we got Mustang IIs. Boomers got Beatles, we got Disco. On the other hand older boomers were getting sent to Viet Nam but we didn’t even have to register for a draft. In the end I’m cool with older boomers and Woodstock. It really was a generational touchstone.
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That’s an interesting point of view, esp the Mustangs! What a relief not to have to worry about the draft. I remember the draft dodgers coming to Canada.
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Living in a retirement home is probably more fun than it used to be, as long as you’re in reasonably good health. In the future all the residents will stay in their rooms and look at their phones.
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HA! Yes, that is probably true, on both counts. As they never learned to communicate face to face, they will be room-dwellers.
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WHAT a fun read! I live on the wrong continent for Woodstock, but well remember wearing my hair long, bell-bottoms, and the music … oh the music then was SO much better than today. Thank goodness for You-Tube so I can listen to all those golden oldies whenever I want to! Thank you for the music and the memories.
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Thanks Anne! I had such fun writing it, it was like a trip down memory lane. Agree about the music. I wish some younger readers, (they follow to get follows, but don’t ever seem to read), would answer my question re do they think their music is good? I was shopping today and they were playing some Justin Beiber song in th store (I recognized his voice as he is Canadian and from Ontario although nobody here seems to care), and it was just generic garbage….nothing memorable about it at all.
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Joni—
This post was quite the “trip,” albeit without the ill effects I remember hearing about from people who “dropped acid,” aka LSD. You really made it a fun ride.
I LOVE the idea of a Woodstock anniversary celebration in a retirement home. Seize the moment! Glad you were interested and game enough to go—and your mom too.
I wish we could recapture a bit of that “Make love, not War” approach to life these days!
On a separate issue, I had a snafu publishing my most recent post.—on climate change, which I know concerns you. If you tried to access it and couldn’t, it’s intact and readable now.
Cheers!
Annie
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Thanks Annie. I had fun doing it, even though it was well over 2000 words. While I was writing it, I was thinking about the difference in the eras. Even though that was an era of protest and unrest and a difference of opinion on many things such as civil rights and the Vietnam war, it was still a different atmosphere than what exists today. Perhaps people had more respect in general. That might be a topic you could explore more eloquently than I could. I saw your post when I scrolled down, but am several days behind in Reader – hope to get caught up tonight.
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You transferred your sense of fun to us very delightfully!
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There is no comparison, 70s music is still the best!
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Agree. I can even listen to some 80’s (Michael Jackson, Bowie, Prince), but nothing after 1990…..
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Yes there are some exceptions i agree and i like some older music also like nat king Cole
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I really enjoyed this post Joni, from the first word to the last – I never knew the story about the couple on the iconic Woodstock album cover. I liked reading about the past and listening to the tunes you gave us, singing to “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” and I remembered all the words. Thank you for the shout-out as well and I am glad you could put the great Woodstock.com link to good use. I especially liked the “Seventeen” magazine pictures – I can relate as that and “Glamour” magazine were my teenage dog-eared mandatory reading as well and I looked at that girl and said “that’s Susan Dey” – recognized her right away. I remember tripping over my wide-leg bell bottoms back in the day and you will laugh when I tell you that I also rolled my skirts as my parents would not let me wear them short. I’d dip into the alley, undo my coat and roll it up – one day I was busted when the neighbor across the street saw me and the tattletale told my mother. I got scolded, but I still did it – hated wearing dresses and would insist on a belt and pouf the material up to pull the dress up higher. The good ol’ days. I like your outfit you wore – I’ll bet the seniors had a ball – who wouldn’t like to go back in time and relive “cool” all over again!
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Thanks Linda! I enjoyed writing the post, in fact, that and getting dressed for it, was probably more fun than the party! It was over 2000 words and I edited the heck out of it, and it could probably have used some more, but I’d already wasted enough time on it, and sometimes enough is enough. Remember the Coke commercial to that I’d Like to Teach song, with all those kids on a hilltop somewhere. I thought I might do a blog on 17 and Glamour (I have a few Glamour and Mademoiselle’s in the basement too) sometime, and compare then and today, as they were our form of social media. That’s how we learned to dress, how to act. I esp remember reading Glamour during my early working years, when those suits and little bow ties were in – the clothes had style. Did you keep any of your magazines Linda? I also thought I might do a post on sewing, as those 17’s were full of ads for patterns, even a winter coat! I could copy the ads. (I know you discussed your home sewing recently, but we think alike!) These are ideas for winter sometime, when it’s dull out and I’m home more. So many ideas now, so little time. Even though it was hot and humid today, I ran errands from 12-6pm, finally found some bathroom vanity lights from Lowe’s but they look too cheap so they may have to go back. The prices were crazy – $200 for a light fixture? And ugly. Took a quick look around our almost empty mall at fall clothes – equally ugly and everything seems to be brown. I just need some new yoga/track pants, as I live in them, but it may be too early for that. I used to love shopping…..sigh….. Don’t wish for Fall yet Linda, as remember Winter is just behind it!
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Hi Joni – I wanted to reply this morning but had lots to say and I had a post ready to go but wanted to proof it again, so decided to wait until tonight. I could tell you put a lot of effort into it – the songs, the historical aspect, everything and it showed. I have had long blog posts and thought “should I give them a haircut?” but then I figure I put all that time into it, that it is hard to decide what should stay and what should go, so I’ve left it intact. I like the idea of using the magazines from years ago, especially since you have them to use and photograph or scan in pages and what you can’t find, there is so much on Pinterest. I created an account years ago, never posted myself, but a fellow blogger always put quotes that she got on her blog – this woman was bi-polar and followed me and I followed back, but while she was nice, she did about 6-8 posts a day about her mood at the present time, and I had to stop following her as I spent all my time reading/commenting and doing a back-and-forth, but she got all her graphics and pictures from Pinterest. There’s just a wealth of stuff there and you could easy supplement whatever you don’t have in magazines there. I had all three magazines and when I got older I just had Glamour only. I kept thinking I’d let the subscription lapse and it kept getting skinnier and skinnier each month, but they often had coupons for products I used, and the subscription was so cheap, maybe $12.00/year, so it paid for itself with the coupons. It was our Bible on how to dress, apply make-up, how-tos galore – a wealth of information. I have no magazines at all – except my AARP subscription and they are piling up unread for years … yes, why can’t I read it when it arrives once/month. One month it is a magazine and the next month they call it a “bulletin” – I told myself AARP subscriptions get you deals and they have a wealth of info online at their site, still I don’t go. I must allot more time for other things, but when? I think it would be a fun blog – if I had anything from the our teenaged/early 20s years, I’d take a picture and send it to you. Nothing sticks out in my mind right now. You could begin your post by saying “I always loved magazines, even when I was a little girl and my mom got “McCall’s” and I got to cut out one page which was Betsy McCall and her outfit of the month and I loved magazines after that.” I’m willing to bet, as similar as our backgrounds are in so many ways, that you had those paper dolls too. Now that’s a great subject, paper dolls because every little girl had paper dolls back in the day. They usually were in a “cut-out book” – wasn’t that what they called them? And my mom would “punch out” the girl and her clothes as I might have punched out/torn it by mistake. A book of cutouts and the cutout girl’s outfits and accessories would entertain me for hours. Bet you could find cutouts on Pinterest too. Then if it wasn’t cutouts, it was colorforms – do you remember those Joni? They were vinyl and colors – you would press them onto something, whether it was a “girl figure” and they peeled off, much like those clings that people use at Christmas or holidays on their windows, but heavier. You did a post on toys I think if memory serves me right, but this could be just Betsy McCall, paper dolls and colorforms. In the Winter. When you have more time. What say you? I don’t have any pics playing with paper dolls. I’ll bet kids would not know what they were – probably you could dress your doll at some online site though. I still like our era better. P.S. – just Googled “Glamour magazine” and got this synopsis from Wikipedia – it looks like it is not available in hard copy anymore. I didn’t realize it was published for that long!
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Glamour is an online women’s magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Founded in 1939 and first published in April 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood.
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It sounds like you’ve written YOUR post on McCalls dolls! Go to it! My mother didn’t get McCall’s until I was way past the paper doll age, but I remember her getting it and Redbook when I was a teenager. I liked Redbook the best as it always had short stories in it, and I was always hungry for anything to read, having already worked my way through most of the local library. I opened a Pinterest account last year, with the idea of promoting the blog and mom’s artwork, but found it just overwhelming, so many things to view and lots of spam followers. I last used in in May when I was trying to decide on kitchen pulls versus knobs, so it’s useful for that kind of thing, or recipes, but I think it would be too addicting, and kind of a waste of time too…..like Instagram. I hardly ever even go on Facebook anymore, just to check messages. I prefer to hang out here, with Parker. He’s certainly a creative little dude for such a short fellow. I’ve got enough magazines to do a post sometime in the winter, but I think you should do one about the McCall’s dolls. I had other paper dolls, and loved them. I also liked colorforms – we used to have a TV show here called Romper Room, similar to Sesame Street but Canadian, and I loved it, as they were always using colorforms. Did you watch the show when you lived here? The only magazine subscription I take now is Victoria magazine, which is a home decor/travelling/gardening kind of magazine. It was popular in the 1990’s, was d/c, then brought back. I finally got a subscription last year as it is almost $9/issue to buy it at the newsstand and I can get a subscription rate of $3. It’s very thin, but the photos are lovely, and I just find it inspiring in general. I didn’t know Glamour was not available anymore. I grew tired of it in the 90’s as it got kind of trashy, more like Cosmo, which I never liked. I don’t like looking at magazines online, although the library has an extensive free collection you can sign up for – I downloaded one of their Oprah mags once and didn’t like it – too much scrolling up and down and sideways to get the article – that’s another one I used to read around 2000, and now it’s just thin and boring and the same thing every month- I sometimes browse through it at the library for book reviews. I don’t know why she doesn’t just pack it in. I don’t see the point of editing a blog post just to keep it below a certain word set-point, although I did remove the lyrics to the Woodstock song. I figure if people are bored, they can just stop reading. I hope you are enjoying the cooler weather, and Parker too! PS. I read Hugh’s latest post and found it interesting, thanks for directing me to his blog.
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You could do the paper dolls – it would be suitable to your blog as you discuss homespun ideas – sewing, reading, all homespun family-type topics. That’s okay, do the paper dolls and you could find lots of ideas on Pinterest or Etsy. I only go to Pinterest if looking for something for a post and get off there – the other day when looking for the Woodstock poster – just looking for anything to use for the first Woodstock post and found that poster right away, they wanted me to pick 10 things or 8 things that I was interested in to come into my “feed” – I didn’t know there was a feed and no thanks. Too much to read or process now. Twitter I’m on for the news and weather and to see trending items. I could write on Barbie dolls and might have even done so already as I have a pic of a Barbie doll case from one Christmas and my mom used to knit my Barbie clothes. It’s hard to read online, especially a newspaper. My mom had the newspaper delivered daily for years and after she passed away, I had the remainder of her subscription – called to cancel it. For the months she was confined to bed, she didn’t read the newspaper in bed, and I never picked it up. “The Detroit News” circulation department said – well before you cancel, try it online and read it there instead – if you’re not used to reading the newspaper on a regular basis (my excuse for cancelling the rest of the subscription) … I lasted one day and called back again – just cancel it … what a mess trying to read it online … especially a laptop. I had the whole lyrics to the Woodstock song originally too. 🙂 And then eliminated it too. My feeling exactly – a fellow blogger said that no post should be over 900 words and have lots of white space and pictures or people will stop reading … so be it. We write for ourselves too. My mom had Redbook for years too. Forgot about Redbook. And she had Good Housekeeping and said it changed a lot the last few years of her life – “too young” and the recipes were not to her liking and rarely cut them out any more. I have not gone to Reader yet – was slow leaving, my boss called coming back from a meeting and that was 5:30 and talked for a long time. And then caught up on some e-mails after I wrote to you. And I only communicate with one or two people on Facebook, the one not very much at all, but she wanted to tell me some news, so had a back-and-forth there and suddenly it is 8:30. I’ve not been to comments re: this morning’s post.
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I wondered if your boss was back already….too bad he didn’t stay away and give you a bit more time off!
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I still was swamped with work he left that I didn’t finish while he was gone. It is already almost month end already!
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It’s a testament to how you covered this that you held my attention for 2000+ words! This was a fun read. I was way too young for Woodstock (just 7) and I loved the Monkees (still do!)
My magazines started off with Young Miss and Tiger Beat. By the time I was 13, I had to have Seventeen. Then by 17, I graduated to Cosmopolitan.
Groovy post!
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Thanks Eilene! I did enjoy Tiger Beat too, and Glamour and Mademoiselle in my young working years.
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Thanks for the blast from the past! Sun-In…I used that a lot!
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Sun-In never really worked for me…..I guess I didn’t use it enough! I’m trying to remember was it a low level of peroxide or just lemon juice?
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They still make it, I can’t believe it! It says it is made with lemon juice and chamomile.
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Probably why it never worked for me……I never sat in the sun long enough to work, as I would burn. I checked the ad in 17, and there wasn’t an ingredient list, but I noticed there was Super Sun-In too, for darker browns.
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After I logged off last night, I remembered I didn’t answer your question about Romper Room … yes I watched Romper Room and I think that was before starting kindergarten and I can recall my mom saying that I would open up the lower cupboard drawers and pull out a few pots and pans and walk around the house clanging them together. I canmpt imagine her permitting that noise to be honest, yet they say you can remember things you did at three or four years old and I seem to remember doing that. I’m sure they encouraged it on the show but I’m sure my mom, who would have been home with me as she didn’t work after I was born, didn’t tolerate the noise for too long – my mom (and my father) didn’t tolerate a lot of noise or even sillness… remember I was an only child and raised strictly and under the rule “children should be seen and not heard”; I also remember watching Captain Kangaroo and loving that show, and in the afternoon there was The Mickey Mouse Club and Captain Andy. I think Captain Andy was a Canadian show because I’ve mentioned it to people here and they never heard of it, but they had a show just here in Detroit that was sponsored by Twin Pines Dairy. On the show they had a clown (Milky the Clown) and Clarabelle the Clown. I hear people reminisce about it, or there is a local forum on Facebook about Downriver Memories. People from this part of Michigan (“Downriver” communities which there are a lot of cities in this group) (and “Downriver” being literally down the river from Detroit, as opposed to the northern suburbs), will write about their memories of Boblo Island, local TV shows and mostly restaurants or events that happened through the years in our area.
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What I remember from Romper Room is those stick horses the kids used to ride around on, I wanted one so bad, and the Do Bee and Don’t Bee instructions for what to do good and bad. I watched Captain Kangaroo too, but loved the Mickey Mouse show – esp Annette who went on to star as Gidget I think? Captain Andy doesn’t sound familiar, but the clowns do, and Twin Pine Dairy as we had Detroit TV stations, although I believe Romper Room was based out of Kitchener-Waterloo as I still watch their version of the 6pm news and when they have the anniversary shows they always mention it. Our mothers were not afraid to plunk us down in front of the tv so they could get some work done. I know parents now who don’t let their kids watch any tv, which is a shame as there are so many kids programs. I see Disney is starting up a Disney streaming service now, similar to Netflix, for less than $10 a month it’s good entertainment. They are also making a movie of Mr. Rodgers, starring Tom Hanks – I never watched that show but my younger brother did. I guess they are tapping into nostalgia for the boomers.
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I do think I had a horse on a stick and weren’t they called hobby horses? I think you should do a post on toys we had as kids? I had a rocking horse, but not the one on springs that many kids had, mine matched my bedroom furniture and it was a black and white speckled particle board and the rocking horse matched that furniture exactly. I think I have a picture of me sitting on it from way back. Toys like Colorforms, paper dolls, Barbies and dollhouses back then were fun and entertained us for hours. I remember the Do Bee and Don’t Bee and where was Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop? Were they on Romper Room or Captain Kangaroo? I don’t remember much about Captain Andy except I watched it – can’t remember any of the character names. Are you thinking of Sally Field who played Gidget and then the Flying Nun? Or was Annette Funicello on Gidget too? I can’t really remember Annette Funicello except her “Mouse Days” – I don’t remember the beach movies at all. I never watched Mr. Rodgers either but I heard that Tom Hanks does a very believable and moving performance as Mr. Rodgers. Us boomers had quality TV shows and movies – the Disney movies were my favorite. Went to see some of them at the show like “Bambi”, “101 Dalmations”, “Old Yeller” – and how about “Mary Poppins”? And saw them on TV when they were there on Disney on Sunday night. Nostalgia is good for the soul – happier times.
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I was wrong Annette Funicello was in those 60’s beach movies with Frankie Avalon, not Gidget. Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop – that’s another one. Mary Poppins was another one I liked, great soundtrack. Same with Oliver, which I listened to over and over. Sunday nights were Disney nights, then Ponderosa came on after with Michael Landon. I always liked Haley Mills in the Disney movies, Polyanna, The Trouble with Angels, The Parent Trap, so last year I watched her in the Moon-Spinners, which was set in Greece. Her hair and clothes were still enviable!
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I remember all those shows … our family watched Bonanza too, Sundays at 9:00 p.m. wasn’t it? I just mentioned the Bonanza theme song on Ally’s blog post about the grocery store. We have a “horsey ride” and it plays the Bonanza theme – so cute and it brings back memories of me riding the horse at the grocery store when I was a kid. I wasn’t sure if Annette Funicello did Gidget too – I’m not sure I watched that show unless the tail end of the series, but did watch the Flying Nun. I loved those Disney movies and the Patty Duke show with the cousins. All nice and wholesome shows when we were kids.
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Oh Joni, I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this post. Although I was way too young for Woodstock, I did go to my fair share of Grateful Dead Concerts 🙂 Listening to all this music brought back a ton of memories, I haven’t heard Aquarius in decades! Classic rock will always be my favorite genre of music but having a 15 yr old who only listens to rap has turned my interest to a very different type of music….for now. I hope she will one day appreciate rock, right now she hates it! Youth today is very different than back in the day. Maybe when she gets older? IDK…I’m hoping. Thanks again for the walk down memory lane.
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Thanks Denise! I’m glad you liked it…..I had fun reliving all that great music too. As for rap….well…..I wish someone could explain to me what they find appealing about it? It’s like chanting to a tuneless beat. I know some young people who do like the older classic rock, so your daughter may someday. I just hope she isn’t a Justin Bieber fan, as no one in Canada can figure out his staying power? He’s from Stratford Ont. and I remember seeing an early interview with him when he was 15 and the journalist asked, how to you know you won’t just be a teen age wonder like David Cassidy and so many before you, and he gave the most arrogant reply. Ugh. It must be difficult to raise a teenager today with all the social media influences.
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Hi Joni – I am on the phone with Robb – he had to take a call that came in (he’s in the car) … went to Facebook to read my news feed and Carol’s posts – she posted this and it applies to Canada – I sure hope this is not your model of stove: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2019/whirlpool-recalls-glass-cooktops-with-touch-controls-due-to-burn-and-fire-hazards?fbclid=IwAR3iPOn02E7YHJzKF6c1d9XocFjU9fQxTBNCHIpaT85L6RlJPgjR6W6qMzQ
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Thanks Linda! I had heard something about it on the news, but not what brand. I wonder how it turns itself on – all these electronics are great if they work right. I didn’t upgrade my fridge and stove when I did the reno – so I still have my 20 year old GE General Electric glass top stove, and my 20 year old Maytag fridge – they are both white, and even though I would like new stainless steel ones to match the kitchen and dishwasher, I think I will wait until they quit. Those newer models only last five years because of the electronics in them.
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Whew, that’s good Joni. I was pretty sure you only got a dishwasher, but remembered you mentioning the total new look and that was likely when you were first pricing everything and had the kitchen reno person meet with you. My fridge is from around 1990 and the stove is about ten years younger – the 1990 stove had a major issue under the glasstop and the appliance repairman said it was better to get a new one and apply the service call to it, so we did that. My mom never liked the second stove. They are both Kitchenaid products and in ivory. Years and years ago we had a coppertone set and the electric burners were in an a pull-out, like a drawer and there was an oven up top and on the bottom … the double oven feature was good for my mom, she didn’t have to bend over as it was difficult for her to do.
I sent the link to Diane who you also follow, as she just got a new stove a few months ago. She said hers is a Frigidaire. All these items with lots of electronics are a pain – all the more to go wrong with them. I’m not a fan of a lot of bells and whistles on anything.
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Better to keep that old stuff. My mom still has a garage fridge she moved off the farm, it’s got to be over 30 years old, and probably isn’t energy efficient, but it still works great. Thanks, I did see your gmail message – I checked in there the other day and there were over 700 notifications, it had been 2 months. I wanted to ask you if you have a backup copy of your photos and your blog? I went to the library yesterday where the computer tech helped me back up all my photos onto a USB stick (I had never done that before and it seems quite simple), but it took over an hour, as I had 500 folders. We also backed up my blog (through Tools and Export) onto the stick, which was very quick for my 100 posts, but it’s in some kind of code so I can’t tell if it’s all there, but at least I have a copy. But when I tried to export my Blog Media Files, it was a downloaded file, but we couldn’t read it with any of my current apps. The tech said she’d have to study it a bit (she’s a Mac person), so I booked a follow up appt. in 2 weeks. You probably already know all about USB backups from your work, but have you ever backed up your blog through Tools and Export. I know WP says this is unnecesssary but I feel better for having a record somewhere else.
I may try to redo it, as it backed up all the comments etc, which I didn’t want, as she didn’t select just the posts, and the library was closing so we didn’t have any more time.
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No, I didn’t know you could back it up with a USB drive using Tools and Export. I will have to read up on that. I am behind (as usual) in archiving my posts and pictures as some are in the computer I set aside after the disk fail. But I do have all but the last four months of blog posts and their pictures, on a flash drive. I separate the pictures and then the documents. I didn’t know you could do it in one fell swoop – that would be great!
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Does a flash drive allow you to read them, if so, then maybe it’s better to stick with it. It’s in a funny format using the Export Tool. Although first we stored it on a computer file then put it on the USB stick.
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No, I type the posts in Word and then cut-and-paste them over, so I have them each day as a separate dated document. And I have the corresponding photos done the same way and even subdivided down if there are lots of photos … by the end of this year I think I will have 1,400 posts from the looks of it and if WordPress would shut down or have a massive breach, can you imagine what time/effort it would take to recreate the blog? Would you recreate it if they had a catastrophe? I will have the posts and photos to do it, but it would be a massive undertaking I’d think. I have to look at the export tool idea though. Have you been getting tons of spam the last week or so?
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You sound so organized. I started with Word, and sometimes still do a rough draft there, but mainly compose on WPress now. I wouldn’t recreate my whole blog, but there are certain posts I would like to keep, and the photos as they are my best ones. I haven’t checked my spam lately.
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I was very organized until this Summer and because I do posts in the kitchen at that laptop (and was doing them with the laptop that had the disk problem and stuff is still on that computer) and I do posts here at the old laptop that’s 10 years old, I have stuff, here there and everywhere. But it is organized by quarter but needs to be organized and put onto a flash drive. I had thought I’d do that this weekend and had hoped I might have time with Robb gone at the cabin yesterday, but had lots of stuff to do as it was month end and still backed up with work after month end and the bills go out. It would not take that long and I have archived each quarter, but I need to merge everything as well. I am typing in Word as I sometimes do the posts at the other free blogging place. I’ve been bad and did not put the last two posts about Oakwoods Metropark there as there were so many photos and you have resize/crop each one and it’s a pain. There has been at least 10-15 spams a day the last week.
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I did check, I had 12 spams today, but that might have been over a few days.
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I am getting that many a day and even more sometimes. It just started the last week or so. It had been under control before that.
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Maybe you have been “harvested”?
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You know, I just looked and I cleared out all the SPAM this morning when I was here and in 13 hours I have received 24 SPAMs … I will write a Happiness Engineer and leave them there as they are all targeting the same post, one from a while ago.
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That is strange – definitely needs to be reported. I notice my spam tends to be from older posts too, but never that many. I only check once a week or whenever I think about it.
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Well I heard back and the H.E. Sarah checked it out and said all from the same IP address and I told her the SPAMs were not as bad as the last week or so, some of them were child p*orn sites. She gave me this link and said keep checking … well I left the 24 comments in there for them to see and this morning there are 68 comments. It takes a while to go through and delete them so I’ll have to do it later – we are having rain this afternoon, so I want to get out and walk and fnish up in the house (by no means finished, but finished for now as next week I hope the weather cooperates for the sunflower fest on Saturday and the lighthouse tour) … I think that even if it is not sunny next Saturday, I’ll just go to the sunflower fest, rather than waiting … of course if I wait, it will be sunny the following week, but the weather is iffy and hopefully the dregs of the tropical storms are going to be an issue – next year, I’m doing the lavender festival and that’s it … it is July. And I’ll get a Metroparks card for $35.00 and a state parks enhancement for my driver’s license (about $11.00) and call it done. I am not going to worry about the weather anymore than I do now. Would you do that Joni – just go even if overcast next Saturday? I think it is too far to go on the 8th after the lighthouse tour – far apart from one another. Here is what the H.E. sent me – by the time I return here tonight it will be 100 spams and they are targeting all the same post: https://en.support.wordpress.com/unwanted-comments/
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That’s crazy and scary too – I don’t usually read the spam, but lots of selling Amoxil and you can make money stuff, and lots of just nonsense. Is she going to do anything about it, as in blocking that IP address? Think of the time involved in deleting them all. It looks nice out today, so I’m just going to putter around the house and yard maybe walk as I’m trying to start again, I couldn’t sleep last night due to worrying about the wasps, so I’ll probably need a nap…..it will be a semi-labour-semi-rest day.
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I got over 100 in two days but only after I deleted five. don’t know what drove me to look in spam in the first place. Maybe deleting is like answering robocalls.
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That’s an interesting point Marilee! I wonder…..
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I reached out to them and they said not to worry, but to keep checking regular comments – but I check the spam filter too so last night waded through 100 spams – write to them again as they were all junk. She says “ignore the spam filter” – but I had 171 spams this morning.
So, now I am behind in my comments … frustrated. We had several bouts of rain/storms yesterday and have strong storms later today. I did a long post to launch at 5:30 today … I did that in parts over the weekend. I was behind in comments and Reader and the storms did not help me getting caught up here. Likely I won’t be on her tonight if the storms are as bad as they are predicting.
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That is bizarre and time consuming – can you delete them in batches or just one at a time. One of my followers mentioned she had over a 100 spam too, so maybe it is a new thing going around. I have been okay so far. We did not get the rain yesterday, a dark sky but it blew away. Tonight overnight they are forecasting severe thunderstorms and hail, but I’m hoping it misses us. On the storm tracker it looked like it was more south.
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I’m glad I’m not the only one then. They said “leave it and we’ll clean it up” – I’m still going through there to ensure there are no legitimate comments, but it is a pain.
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My other follower said she wondered if deleting them one by one wasn’t just attracting more – she had 60 or so and the next day there were 100 – the way telemarketers keep calling if you answer once. She wondered if that was just enouraging them, which was an interesting point, but I’m not sure how they would know you were deleting them, unless you clicked on the link? It must be time-consuming – I think I would just let WP clean it up?
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Your follower has a good point – and it WAS time-consuming. I think I’ll leave it alone – the H.E. said “they will take care of it” … so I’ll leave it then.
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Maybe you should report it to a H.E.?
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Going to do it right now – likely they are short-staffed, but 24 SPAMS in 13 hours is excessive.
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