I’m feeling nostalgic lately, and old, as with the passing of Brian Wilson and Sly Stone this month, the soundtrack of my youth is slowly dying.
The Beach Boys were always there in the background with their summertime music. I can’t pick a particular favorite song, as there were so many, (Let’s Go Surfing, California Girls, Little Deuce Coupe, see the whole Best Hits Album) but perhaps, Fun, Fun, Fun and Good Vibrations remind me the most of a summer day.
As for Sly and the Family Stone their hits Everyday People and Dance to the Music, were popular with lots of radio play, but my favorite was always Hot Fun in the Summertime.
The song was released in August 1969, around the time of their performance at Woodstock, which greatly increased their fame, and reached number two on the billboard in October, long after summer was over.
So where was I in 1969? Certainly not at Woodstock – I was 13, almost 14 and getting ready to start high school, so I was probably at the beach or in the backyard, working on my (very light) tan, lying on a scratchy wool blanket, and reading the latest copy of Seventeen, with the scent of Coppertone in the air, and Sun-in in my hair, because “Sun-In and Sunlight, and you’ll be blonder tonight.”
I tried Sun-In once but it never did much for me, as the formula was so weak and my hair was already kind of blondish, and I probably didn’t sit out in the sun long enough for it to work, as I burnt so easily. (Remember Noxzema? Deep dark tans were the goal, and many people applied baby oil, but after a couple of blistering sunburns I knew that was not an option for me.) Although one summer I dyed my hair lighter, with Summer Blonde, but the smell of the peroxide scared me and I ended up rinsing it out sooner than I was supposed to but it was still plenty light enough and it took forever to grow out, as we wore our hair straight and parted in the middle which showed the roots.
I liked my grade 8 graduation dress – white lace dresses were in style then, and mine had a green satin bow and matching bell bottom pants, which I wore because my mother thought the dress was too short without them. I grew my bangs out in high school, but have worn bangs ever since.
What an ugly uniform – white shirts with navy sweaters and skirts, although pants were an option later. They must have wanted us to look like nuns. A plaid kilt would have been much more preppy. I remember my mother sewing my early uniforms, out of some polyester material, a long open vest and a plain skirt, which got progressively shorter over the years so the skirt was the same length as the vest!
I thought you might enjoy a peek at these 1970 copies of Seventeen Magazine which I rescued from the attic when my mom moved off the farm. They are summer issues, and the magazine was in a large size format then, similar in dimensions to Look and Life. They cost 50 cents and in the July issue they are already gearing up for fall clothes – and so was I as I prepared to enter high school that fall, with some trepidation, so it was important to look cool. The Fall issue of Seventeen was always a big deal, as although we girls had to wear those ugly uniforms, we had dress-up day once a month, which was like a fashion show, except for the guys who got to wear jeans and t-shirts all the time. Now the guys must wear ugly uniforms too, which is only fair.
I wanted to look like this ad, but instead ended up buying a brown striped t-shirt-like dress which I wore with a gold chain belt, an outfit I bought at a store in the mall called Cojana, which was so dark inside, that you could hardly see the clothes. It was the epitome of cool though, with beaded curtains and funky music. I was not happy with my first-day-of-high-school outfit, because it didn’t look like anything in the magazine, but we were always behind the U.S. in fashions by several years. Plus, my father, who never ever shopped, was along on our shopping expedition, and he said he liked it, and how embarrassing was that! (I suspect my dad only gave it the stamp of approval because he wanted to go home as I’d dithered long enough over the perfect outfit!)
My fashion obsession started young, and because we were so behind in styles, I turned to home sewing, (yes, me an expert with one year of mandatory grade 8 home economics) and these issues are full of ads for sewing patterns. Only mine never turned out that great, and were usually finished by my ever-patient mother, who once smocked a dress for me, like this one only with sleeves, which I wore exactly once. I would enjoy picking out the material and the pattern, and cutting out the pieces, maybe a bit of straight seam sewing, but anything else was beyond me – blame the old Singer sewing machine as it was so temperamental, not like today’s sleek models with their electronic programs.
I was allowed to wear makeup when I was 12, and I remember a brief period when mascara came in a powder cake, and you added a bit of water and applied it with a tiny brush, so the advent of mascara in a tube was a big improvement, as you could always add an extra coat in the girl’s washroom between classes! I had the exact same eyeshadow palette as I got it for Christmas that year – looking back I’m amazed that my mother was so hip at forty-four! Although, I only ever wore the blue, as blue eyeshadow was cool….
As were blue aviators. I’m sure I had a pair. I also had a blue checked summer blazer made out of seersucker material which I loved.
I had a two-piece bathing suit like this, made from some imitation blue jean material, which I thought was really hip and I had a poncho too, but who would wear a poncho to the beach? The wool blankets were already scratchy enough – I think blankets only came in wool back then, but if they came in synthetic or crochet or something softer, you certainly wouldn’t be allowed to take one to the beach! Beach towels were just old bath towels. Beverages came in a thermos, and were usually Freshie or Kool-aid in colors and flavors I cringe to remember. There was Tab or Fresca for those who were dieting, both tasted awful – pass me the sugar please. A snack on the beach was a bag of chips, french fries or ice cream. There were no beach umbrellas, if you started to burn you moved to the shade of a tree.
Nobody I knew went to summer camp, or if they did it was only for a week, not the whole summer like kids do now, with soccer camp, hockey camp, theatre camp, church camp, Girl Guide camp, and what-ever-else-so-we-don’t-have-to-pay-a babysitter camp. A vacation was a trip to Niagara Falls or renting a (rustic) cottage for a week, or perhaps a weekend trip to visit your cousins in Michigan. I wonder about kids living such a scheduled life so young. Do they ever get a chance to be bored, or is constant stimulation and no downtime just normal to them? It’s one thing to be influenced by reading a monthly magazine with pretty pictures, but quite another to be constantly bombarded every day with social media. No wonder so many kids are struggling with mental health issues.
13-14 is an awkward age anyway, with no wheels and when you lived in the country like I did, that could be a problem. My young teenage life was nothing like the magazines or movies. So, what did I do that summer while I was waiting for high school to start and real life to arrive?
I read a lot, (I would go to the library once a week and get a stack of books), and watched tv – reruns at night which were new to me as I never watched much during the school year as the bus came so early, and soap operas in the afternoon, (my mother’s General Hospital and Dark Shadows, a vintage vampire soap). I had a few chores in the house, and the garden (my mother canned a lot) but nothing on the farm, unlike my brothers and dad who were forever baling straw or hay, first cut, second cut, third cut if you were lucky, it was all hot dusty work. My cousin, who was three weeks older than me, lived right next door and she was always up for something. We would ride our ten speed bikes two miles down to the corner store to get ice cream, or I would visit with my grandma who lived across the road, for homemade root beer. And if I was really bored, I would go watch my younger brother’s baseball games, as my uncle was the coach, and there was an ice cream shop next to the baseball diamond.
On Wednesdays, my mother would drive into the city to go grocery shopping, and I went along to shop for clothes, although I seldom bought anything as we didn’t have much money and the styles were so boring. Although you could make 50cents/hour babysitting, I only did that occasionally, as the family down the road had 4 or 5 kids, most of them bratty. My mother would visit three different grocery stores looking for the weekly sales (something I do myself now that I’m retired and groceries are so expensive) and then afterwards we would go to Macdonald’s for a treat – a hamburger, fries and a chocolate milkshake. (75 cents) The only other fast-food restaurant in town was the A&W drive-in, where you could get a big refillable amber jug of frothy yeasty root beer which tasted far superior to their root beer now, and KFC, whose finger-licking-good buckets were usually reserved for picnics.
In fact my life in retirement looks a lot like my early teen years, and I’m okay with that, with no set schedule and lots of time to do nothing, except I can get in my car and drive someplace if I want to. The past few years have been challenging, so when people ask me what I’m doing this summer, I’m happy to say – I have no plans. A normal life is highly underrated – you don’t appreciate it, until it’s at risk. So, I want to do absolutely nothing until I’m rested and totally bored, and then I’ll figure out what I want to do next that’s fun.
PS. And every single Sunday during the summer we went to the beach – I don’t remember it ever raining on a weekend or being this hot? The weather was just pleasantly warm and if you were lucky your favorite song would come on the radio, the perfect soundtrack to a summer day.
I love this new TV ad for the retro Volkswagon, and the song lyrics are stuck in my head, Are You Having Any Fun? The shot of the little girl at the end with the beach towel, is priceless and says hello summer! Wishing you all a summer of leisure, simple pleasures and fun! As for me, I’m going to have an ice cream cone to welcome the season.
What were you doing in the summer of 1970?
thehomeplaceweb 
Talk about a blast from the past! What a fun post! What I like is how the old styles of our younger days are coming back!
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Fun post! I used Sun-In religiously and it worked on my hair. Made my hair dry & brittle but I was blonde. I remember drinking Carnation Instant Breakfast, probably while wearing a crocheted vest like the girl in the ad. “To find your future, read his palm” seems like antiquated advice but oh so 1970s.
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Thanks Ally! Yes, the articles are interesting looking back….and the ads. I wish I had more issues. There was also an ad for Lemon Go Lightly shampoo which I think had lemon juice in it and was supposed to lighten your hair?
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I don’t know about that one. Now that you mention it I remember putting lemon juice on my hair after I shampooed but before I conditioned. Can you even imagine! 😜
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I did that once too…….it made your hair stiff and horrible…
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🥴
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I was already working by 1970 but I can relate to all of this. The songs kicked me back to my late teens. I was also affected by Brian Wilson’s death. It was like the end of an era of summer. I have sandy colored hair so I used Sun-in, lemon juice and everything else to get it lighter and streaky. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not so much. That was a great time to grow up in.
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I agree it really was, looking back. I wouldn’t want to be a teenager now!
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I recognize the Beach Boys and Sly songs you mention, even though I was only 7 in 1969. Credit my older brothers, who played their records on the home stereo every afternoon after school. In other words, my education in pop music started at a younger age than most. Also, I recognized Susan Dey the moment I scrolled down to her face. She was the very definition of a teen crush back then. Safe to say “The Partridge Family” had a lot to do with that status!
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I hear you, at 8 I was too young for the early Beatles, the Monkies were more my thing, but I am familiar with most 60”s songs due to older siblings. Susan Dey was in LA Law later, I wonder if she has retired from acting?
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Hi. This essay is very enjoyable. Last week I had my first ice cream cone of Summer 2025. It’s time for another one!
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Thanks!
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Joni – I enjoyed this post and a look-back at your life which mirrored mine in several ways as we have often discussed since we are the same age. I, too, thought a lot about the Summer songs and those popular singers after the deaths of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson, especially Brian Wilson. In fact, I had a few paragraphs about Brian Wilson I intended to include in my recent “Sunseekers of the World Unite” post and left it out at the last minute. I agree that the Beach Boys epitomized Summer back in those days. I read a lot about Brian Wilson and how the group was formed after his death – I probably knew some of those facts, but, read it anyway, not unlike when teen idol Bobby Sherman died earlier this week. I read articles, watched videos of him singing and in the show “Here Come the Brides” which took me back to the same time frame as you mention here … I was more into bubblegum music than Woodstock-type music.
I laughed at the Sun-In – I remember that and Lemon Go Lightly. I wanted to put them on my hair, but was not allowed any type of “dye” but my mom would liberally sprinkle lemon juice on my head if I insisted on laying outside … I can still picture her with that yellow plastic lemon spritzing it on my long locks back in the day – then it was sticky in your hair and you had to wash it out when you came inside.
I have to say that in your Grade 8 Grad photo you looked a little like Diana Spencer as a young girl – her “Shy Di” look as she had eyes down under a fringe of bangs. Your high school photo looks very similar to a girl I worked with at the diner. Leslie was the manager’s granddaughter and we worked together in the Summer and on Saturdays during the school year. I do concede that we all looked alike in the early 70s. If I were to look at my high school yearbook pics, out of our class of 613 grads in the June 1973 class, probably 90% of us had long hair parted in the middle and that would include the guys too.
I recognized Susan Dey of The Partridge Family fame in the two pictures and as to the Carnation Instant Breakfast model – I remember that style of crocheted vest … everyone wore those long crocheted vests and also a few years later, the “potholder-style” crocheted vests. Some strange things we wore back in the day!
I was not allowed to wear makeup until I got braces on my teeth and at that point it was just a little mascara, nothing garish as to eyeshadow or blush and light-colored lip gloss to detract from my “brace-face” which was metal, wraparound-each-tooth braces. I had headgear of two types – to pull back and to pull up but that was strictly for inside the house and after dinner I put them on. That was around the time of huge curlers, the size of orange juice cans, so how I slept at night is beyond me.
Life in 1970 was not too exciting. I, too, had chores. While I didn’t cut the lawn, I was expected to pull weeds (something I hated to do and still do). Also raking leaves was another chore and helping to shovel snow. I think I had small chores inside the house like dusting at that point. When I started high school in the Fall of 1970, our millage did not pass, so we only went to school half days for 10th grade and 11th grade. It was not until the school year 1972 – 1973 that we finally had full days and that meant we could finally take college prep classes like a language, have amenities like music, drama, sports, clubs, school dances, so everyone made the most of it.
Thanks for a nice look-back and the first time I’ve seen pics of you Joni.
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I did not know Bobby Sherman had died! I always like him in that tv show – it was so popular. Yea, I was more into the Monkies than the Beatles, and Janis Joplan/JimiHendrix/the Stones. I think you had to be older than we were for those.
There was an ad in the magazine for Lemon go Lightly, and I remember trying the Lemon juice thing too, once, but it made your hair all stiff and icky and didn’t even work for all the mess. I’ve heard the Lady Di comparison before, particularly in the 80’s when the hairstyle was popular, but it never looked good on me as my hair is too curly at the back. I think it had something to do with the way I roll my eyes, like she did, as I certainly never saw any resemblance? I suspect we did all look the same in high school – straight hair parted down the middle, just different colors! I remember trying to wear curlers to bed, occasionally, but it was just too uncomfortable – oh the things we did to look good! When I said I was allowed to wear makeup, it was just mascara and a bit of eyeshadow, not blush, or foundation, maybe a bit of lip gloss, not lipstick, and not every day to school, just special occasions. My Saturday chores included dusting the bureaus in the upstairs bedrooms and hallway, every week and oiling them with that Lemon scented furniture polish – ugh….I hardly even dust now! I get the maids in once every 3 months. I would occasionally cut the grass, and it was a big lawn, and an orchard too, that was hard work, with a push mower. Otherwise I had it pretty easy, as my mother never let anyone in her kitchen other than to wash the dishes and set the table sometimes, but not in the school year, as homework was the priority then. I don’t understand how your municipality got away with half school days, but I do remember my Michigan relatives complaining about the mill rate increasing, Lord how they hated paying taxes! That seemed to be the only politics they were interested in, the local tax rate, as they never discussed anything federally in such a tumultuous decade of the 60’s with the JFK assassination, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam protests – it’s like they were oblivious to it all? I remember that, as my parents always talked politics at the dinner table.
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I was never into the “rock-type” music and those other singers either – it was more bubblegum music for me. I watched a video after Bobby Sherman died. It was an interview re: a tour called “The Teen Idols Tour” he did with Davy Jones (Monkees) and Peter Noune (Herman’s Hermits) in 1998 and it was an “Entertainment Tonight” interview, mostly with him, but the others too. He looked about the same – it was 30 years later after he had been so popular. He never got into drugs/alcohol, or stuff that he would end up like David Cassidy, bankrupt etc. and had the job as an EMT for many years and auxiliary police officer. Bobby Sherman would have been 82 in July and like you, I kept thinking about all the stars we grew up with now are gone. I saw the Beach Boys three or four times, the last time at the Toronto Exhibition in 1976. I took a friend from work to Toronto for a week and we spent two days at the “Ex” and saw Chicago the other time.
My parents were very strict, so no makeup, no doing anything to my hair – that’s okay though. I didn’t really balk at much as they were so strict and I had no siblings to pave the way for me to get “privileges” and it was a hassle asking for permission and when I finally got permission to go out on a date and the guy never showed up that night. The problem for me was I graduated high school when I had just turned 17 due to being double-promoted in Canada. They double-promoted our entire class from Grade 2 to Grade 4, so I was a year younger than my friends and all my classmates – the youngest person in my graduating class at high school (613 students). So that made it a bit tough plus my parents being strict.
My parents also talked about current events at dinner too, so I learned a lot about what was going on in the world. They both read the newspaper after dinner/dishes while I did my homework so I don’t think we watched the TV news at all, but the radio news: CFRB. I have always said I wished I would have born earlier and been a teenager in the 50s. I think I mentioned I had some friends the last year of high school and one guy had a 50s-type band and we used to go to their gigs sometimes, just us girls and dress up in 50s clothing. We were all just friends, nothing more. I like a simpler time … yes, the late 60s/early 70s, were not really simple times.
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wow, they double promoted your whole class? I can only remember a few kids who skipped a year, and then that was only one year, usually only because the parents got involved and insisted, or they were a real braniac like one of my fellow pharmacy students who was attending university at age 16. He was only 20 when we graduated so they had to change the college rules as you were supposed to be 21 in order to practice! I do remember them failing kids too, something that never happens now.
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Yes, the whole class but this was because we had Mrs. Jamieson for Grade Two and then we (all the same students) had her for Grade Four. The school said that Grade three was basically a review grade, reviewing things you learned in Grade Two, so since we were having the same teacher, that’s what happened. I had a great Grade One teacher and Mrs. Jamieson was wonderful too. I wished I could have had her for Grade Five, but we had Miss Roosien, whom I didn’t care for. She had been a gym teacher, but decided to change to elementary education, so we got her. That’s interesting that you had to be 21 to practice. At our high school since we had two years of half-days and only one year of college prep, you could be dumb as a doornail and still pass. Our education was lousy and when I went to community college first (before transferring to Wayne State University), I knew right away just how awful our curriculum was as we’d read none of the classic books, we couldn’t take a language, we had no real skills and all my classmates had read classics that I’d never heard of.
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PS. I have posted childhood pics of me before, me with my 4H calf, and me selling rhubarb at the front of the house, , but probably not one of grown up me, other than that one of the hammock, which I might have taken down.
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I wonder if those pics were before we started following one another? I think you were going to post some baseball pics from your youth. You posted a pic during COVID of your bangs being very long and you tried to trim them … all you could see was a mask and your bangs. 🙂
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Maybe. I did post a baseball pic but my brother and I were standing with our backs to the camera showing off the team sponsor logos on our t-shirts. Yes I remember the Covid hair pic – mostly because I liked the hairstyle, my new hairdresser cuts it differently now, so I should print that for her. I always have my bangs long, preferably covering my eyebrows!
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I do think I remember that baseball pic. Or take a photo of the pic from your blog to show her on your phone.
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PS. I didn’t have a lot of photos to chose from, as I have twelve heavy boxes of art in the basement right in front of the bookcase with all the older photo albums on it, and I didn’t feel like moving them – a project for next winter. I did get one closet cleaned out today, as I had to put all the clothes back in after the A/C guy accessed the attic, but that is my everyday closet so I didn’t really achieve much in terms of throwing out….that’s another rainy day project…
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I don’t seem to get going much on my decluttering project and my big goal for 2025 was to be able to move my laptop and a table into the den where the TV used to be (still is, but unplugged for 15 years) as I never sit in there now. I wanted to move there to get as far away as possible from this dog next door, but it was such a big job and now, the dog is dead, just about 10 days now; I am hoping and praying that she does not get another dog. And if she does, hopefully one not as stupid as this one that whined and cried just like the two poodles she had (at the same time) before this one that nearly drove my mom crazy as well as me. I am enjoying the peace and quiet and ability to read again or just think. I guess I will table the job to the Winter. If I’d quit when I wanted to, I’d have done it with a clear head in the Winter months of early 2024 and been done with it. Too much going on these days but at least no dog now. I’m never going to wear those clothes plus there are lots of things to get rid of.
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I didn’t know the dog had died! Congratulations on peace and quiet! Did it die of old age or of being alone so much?
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I am ecstatic about that Joni – peace and quiet at last. I’m thinking maybe of old age – It was about 12 years old as I remember the second of her two poodles died right after my mom passed away, so I thought “poor Mom would have given her eyeteeth for this quiet” … then she got this dog. But she had a brother who lived with her for a few years, so I got a break as he was a double amputee, didn’t drive and was always home, but he died, so I was back to the noise again. She got it at a shelter – I always thought that is why it was at the shelter. I had a coworker many years ago and her boyfriend bought her a Bichon Frise puppy and she lived in an apartment, but they were allowed to have pets. It whined while she was at work and the apartment manager said it had to go. It also could not be house trained and would “go” on her bed all the time when she was at work. My neighbor Marge had a shelter pet too – it belonged to a man/wife and the man beat the dog all the time and the woman took it to the shelter as the dog was small and she figured he’d kill it eventually. Marge adopted that dog – never heard a peep out of it while she was at work. But it barked and growled and bared its teeth when any man came to the house and Marge had to put the dog into a room if she had a repairman in, cable guy, etc. And it did the same thing if I visited Marge in Winter with my hat on. 🙂
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Delightful, Joni. Lots of nostalgia here–the Beach Boys, etc. I think your mom was more sophisticated than mine. Though I don’t remember when I was allowed to wear makeup, I was definitely older than 12. I do recall, as you did here, earning 50 cents an hour babysitting.
Thanks for this delightful trip down Memory Lane! I hope you have a wonderful and restorative summer. You certainly deserve one!
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Thanks Annie! I was allowed to wear a bit of makeup in grade 7, and not every day, probably as I had an older sister? I see Trump threw a hissy fit today and the trade negotiations with Canada are now totally OFF? I had never heard of this digital tax thing but it’s something Trudeau and the last parliament session passed apparently, and nothing at all to do with Carney’s decision, so I suspect they may have to recall parliament, which just broke for the summer vacation, in order to rescind the law? I’m guessing, it’s such new news I’ll have to listen to the National tonight. Besides which it’s a tax aimed at all the big companies, apple, google etc. so it’s not like that can’t afford it, they don’t even pay any taxes here?
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I had an older sister too! And a very protective mom, bless her heart.
Joni, my operating thesis re: Trump is that he has an uncanny ability to mess up anything and everything he’s involved in. The combination of narcissism, ignorance, and impaired mental faculties is quite remarkable—in a bad way.
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What a fun read, Joni. I was only 5 so don’t remember much about 1970 except I started Kindergarten that fall. The beachboys have always been my go-to music for summer fun. I didn’t know that A&W Root Beer was different. Even if it has changed it is still the best root beer there is.
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You know I’ve been thinking about that root beer in the big brown jugs, and I’m wondering now if it was Tab’s Root beer and that’s was why it was different. Tabs was a local drive-in where the waitresses brought the trays out to your car. It had a yeastier taste. But when I goggled A&W root beer also came in those big brown gallon jugs – they are collectibles now. A&W is my favorite too!
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We have three A&W’s fairly close to us. The one in Yale, Michigan has been there since 1960 and the one in Lexington since 1964. They both offer drive-in service where they deliver the tray of food to the car. Not sure if either of them sell root beer in the gallon jugs but the one in Marysville has only been there about 6 years but I know they sell root beer in the glass gallon jugs. I love to go in and get the root beer served in the frosted mug. No need for ice. 🙂
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This look back was so much fun!
When I heard that Brian Wilson had died, “Little Deuce Coupe” was stuck in my head all day. I was in Reitman’s the other day and saw a smocked dress–I remember loving the look, but it never looked as good as on the hanger! The magazine section in stores is so small now…I remember waiting in line and reading the headlines and the waits were always so much shorter (even though the lines were longer).
Thanks for triggering all these memories…its funny how each ‘boring’ day is packed with tons of memory potential!
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Thanks Deb!
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I miss magazines too….there’s something missing with the online stuff.
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