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FASHION AND
MUSIC INTO MY HIGH SCHOOL YEARS
In the 50s, I had play clothes. I wore corduroy pants, and
in the summer, I wore short sets. On Sunday, we all wore our “Sunday Best” to
church. During the 60s, women rarely were seen outside of the home without a
dress on. Mimi never wore pants. Girls were required to wear dresses to school.
When I was a sophomore, a new dress code allowed girls to wear pants to school,
but only in the form of a pant suit!
It was a great day!
As the 1950s gave way to the 1960s, beatniks gave way to a
new counterculture, the hippie. Culture closely followed America’s involvement
in the Vietnam War which empowered the Hippie Movement. They did not protest;
they just wanted “to do their thing.”
Hippies listened to folk music and rock, not jazz. They wore ripped
jeans, tie-dyed clothing and flowers in their hair. They sought spiritual
perfection through psychedelic drugs, i.e. LSD. Though this culture was miles
away from my little home town, I lived some of these things vicariously through
music and fashion during the early 1970s, my high school years. I wore hip
huggers, bell bottoms, stretchy tops, crop tops, large platform heels and
tie-dyed t-shirts. I loved the new age folk music and hard rock: Joan Baez, The
Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Santana, Crosby Stills, Nash and
Young, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Then came Woodstock Music Festival in the summer of 1969.
Nearly 400,000 people flocked to New York State. It was sickening to see this
play out on television, and their behavior under the influence of heavy drugs only
confirmed in my mind that I would NEVER be a part of the drug culture. I was
appalled at their behavior, yet at the same time, I enjoyed this new
‘revolution’ type behavior. But in my world, the youth were held in check by
small community ethics and Christian values.
The hippie movement was waning in the late 60s. Attitudes
towards the “love generation” changed drastically when 5 people died at another
large music festival, coupled with other violent acts: the Manson Murders and
Kent State. There was growing opposition to the Vietnam War, and once again,
times were changing.
