I gave a summer party, 1968,
just after junior high, going into high school;
a basement party,
a backyard party,
a party where the local thugs down the street, left over from the 50’s,
wanted in, threatening bodily harm…
a party with all the prettiest handsomest and most social,
a party my two handsomest social friends manipulated me into hosting
because I had a great finished basement with a bar…
It was a time of blacklight posters
glowing with the dimness of a future
that loomed much larger than any of our decade-and-a-third existences…
It was a time of party-hard rock ‘guy’ music
and dancing, simple-and-sweet Motown ‘girl’ music
clashing, never really understanding each other, yet mingling on the airwaves…
My older sister, much more experienced than I
in the ways of the street counter-culture
which was alive and well somewhere beyond our sleepy suburban block,
took me out for a suitable party wardrobe;
my bland apparel glorifying cowboys, farmers, and sports
would not do in such an aesthete, sophisticate’s world…
Fluorescent orange…
bell-bottom pants, oozing with hipness…
I never knew they could make pants so bright…
and neither could the excruciatingly desirable girls at the party
or the tough guys expert at humiliation,
the muscled, t-shirted 50's guys who once had the market cornered on coolness,
but were now growing as extinct as the dinosaurs;
they left cigarette butts in the half-inch of soda pop
that I mopped up the following day,
so I could I pondered my ways, and the ages, old and new…
As the party swirled in psychedelic paisleys I spun my hard 'guy' music on the turntable upstairs,
the large stereo speakers blaring the amplified concerts down into the basement,
and out into the manicured street, electrifying the plastic curlers in Mrs. Tillywiggy's hair;
the girls tolerated my selections as they basked in the flattering blacklit ambiance,
more concerned about their beauty, image, and desirability…
It was an evening with illuminated concert posters carrying the young and homebound away
to dreamy places where a new, unshaven, hair-flowered anti-establishment coolness reigned;
where life was paid for and easy,
where hand-made fluorescent-paint posters proclaimed peace and love in Peter Max vivacity;
mine, courtesy of my artful sister and her doting friends…
I glowed…
Author notes
the pants pictured are way too wild for the 60's, a 90's or later costume remake, in my estimation... but the bright orange pants, yes, they did exist, and haunt me to this day...
In a list
A contest entry
- days of vinyl & flowers in your hair by Nicolette.
2200 points, ended October 12, 2008, 16 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 6 of 6
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lol. i couldn't help think: "oh, how the other half lived."
once, i went to a band-house party of an aquaintence of mine, the bass-player in a rival band, in an old farmhouse in rural Illinois.
the place was deep in shadow inside, and full of freaky folks.
he handed me a joint wrapped in an American flag paper, and told me to smoke it myself.
i did.
then someone there put on 'Gypsy' by Uriah Heep.
i had never heard such music before, and it was SO loud and SO intense, i ran out of the house and hid in my car...turning on the radio to try and counteract that heavy metal blasting coming from the house. lol
i was transformed that night, on many levels.
so, i know EXACTLY what you're saying in this piece.
haunted, yes.
i remember throwing away my flowered red bell-bottoms the next day and bought a much darker wardrobe
thanks for this excellent entry, and the 'trip' down memory lane
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Hey, I've got one- How do you know you're in the country? Because the bands are still playing Led Zeppelin... (from personal experience, you know, Saturday night barn parties lol...)
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this made me smile -->
somehow I don't think the time of blacklight posters to be past
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well then, we'll just get out the ol' 8 tracks and have a party...!
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I wish I still had some of those 
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"It was a time of party-hard rock ‘guy’ music"
I think my co-judge will love that line as his name is Guy and he is/was a musician and played in a band.
I had to smile at the bell-bottoms - man, they were groovy and would you believe it i wore then too, lol. I even owned a pair of red bell-bottoms until a few years ago - well, it was more a modern version and I simply loved them (actually I still love them). And do I remember those garage parties - sigh!
I liked the way "glowed" hangs there... so many ways to interpet that glow! Nicely done... you took me way way back with this memory-lane trip of yours.
Thank you so much for you entry.
~ Nicolette
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