A Foot in Two Worlds
Fads in the ’60s featured white go-go boots, mini dresses, hot pants, and bell bottoms. One hairdo many of us wore was the “flip”. It required sleeping in big rollers and using gobs of hair spray. The midwestern humidity didn’t make it easy to maintain.
I remember liking mini skirts with turtle necks and Jackets to match. We wore opaque stockings and heavy-heeled shoes. I think I enjoyed showing a hint of fad dressing without going to extremes. In high school, we saw white boots and big collars become popular.
More memorable to me was our attitude toward the politics of the day and our feelings about sending our guys to VietNam to fight an unwinnable war. I joined a group of my peers to protest the war at the Capitol building in Madison. Out of this dissatisfaction came the hippie movement and the flower children. Make love not war was the slogan.
I was caught between two worlds
I went to work in my first bank in 1968. The dress code was strict and geared to the professional nature of our customers. This took us out of the realm of radical dress and into a more conservative presentation. We wore classic dresses and pants were not allowed to be worn by women in the workplace. Tattoos could not show and piercings were only allowed on the ear lobes. The dresses were still short but always tasteful.
My casual dress on the weekends was the opposite of the bank clothing I wore for work. On the weekends, I wore my hop sack bell bottoms with brightly colored vests over turtle necks. I had two totally different looks. One for work and one for fun. We made many of our own clothes. This gave us the freedom to express our individual tastes in fabrics and styles. I remember favoring the Indian prints.
Beatlemania was all the rage in the 60’s. I remember coming out of a theater on State Street in Madison after watching “Yellow Submarine” starring the Beatles and being tear-gassed by the Madison Police. There were anti-war protests all over Madison and the officers saw a crowd dispersing from the movie and mistook us for protesters. I remember the taste and smell of the tear gas like it was yesterday
I enjoyed the Beatles music and especially identified with Sonny and Cher. During their time together, Cher wore bell bottoms all of the time. This was considered to be a bit radical and expressed a bit of defiance as a performer.
I wish we had our camera phones to immortalize these times. Back in these days, pictures were not as plentiful and were expensive to develop. Still, the memories are vivid.
Click here to check out other Sidetracked opinions
Click here to listen to the Overcoming Writer’s Block podcast
Want to create your own legacy? Join the Sidetracked Sisters and start now!
Ever thought about working with a Life Coach? Are you creative or a writer who is frustrated with your inability to do the work you so desperately feel called to do? Check out Lisa Hoffman Coaching.
#sidetrackedsisters #sidetrackedjudy #sidetrackedlegacies #legacywriting #legacystories #writeyourownlegacy #LisaHoffmanCoaching #Beatlemania #miniskirts #hotpants #hippies #flowerchildren
