02 March 2010

Flashback...


Look where the Way-Back Machine has taken us today...all the way back to 1985 (I think) where a few of the girls I hung out with and I were getting ready to go to a concert.

Sweet Shawna (the cutie in the blue and black houndstooth sweater) just dug out this photo when she was home and I am thrilled.  I remember this like it was yesterday (well, I remember snatches of it like it was yesterday, I don't hardly remember yesterday so really...who are we kidding here?) and I swear we didn't take too many pictures of us back in the day.  I am wondering if it's because we had real live film cameras and it was expensive...not like these youngsters today that have all this digital whatnot...

So.

There we were...totally amassed for The Tompson Twins concert, with OMD opening for them, which made Heidi (the cutie up there in the red pants and who still apparently retains this t-shirt and uses it when dying her hair nowadays) very excited because she really liked OMD just as much as The Thompson Twins so it was like a two-for concert for her...

I have to admit that I hadn't heard too much of OMD at this point...but it was a great concert nonetheless.  One of The Thompson Twins was celebrating a birthday if I remember correctly...although, Jayne (the gal in the black and white standing next to Heidi) and I both had horrible colds an I for one, was loosing my voice.

We were traveling down to the big city to be dropped off for the concert and then picked back up...and then were staying at someone's mother's friends condo?  Or apartment?  We had such cool parents for letting us do things like this...my mother was a big believer in seeing the music of your generation in concert and always encouraged me to do so, including driving a few of us down to The Valley to do so.

I remember at this particular concert that the group of boys behind us were smoking pot.
(gasp)

I can remember being slightly scandalized by this realization.

(it became slightly less scandalous when I realized most groups of people sitting behind, in front, and to the side of me were doing the same things at other concerts in the future...)
(such innocence is kind of sweet though and it is one of the snatches from this concert I remember so I had to note it here...in case I forget.)



The other gal up there with the short blond hair is me.

( I know.)
(Don't I look young?!)
(And thin?!)
(I think I topped out at 103 lbs in high school)
(it's a damned shame that baggy clothes were all the rage in the 80's...seriously.)

I was sporting a black dress with a Vintage Men's PJ top over it (I happen to LOVE Vintage Men's PJs even now)  and we had all gotten together to get ready for the concert, because it happened to be down at The Coliseum in Phoenix, which was a much larger and hence cooler city than Prescott...so we really had to work at looking like we totally fit in.

Out with the overalls and corn cob pipes and in with the crazy hair and cool clothes.  OK.  Actually, I thought we all had cool clothes all the time...the group I hung out with.  I can remember someone calling us MOD at a school dance once...which totally made me giggle.
(You'll be happy to know that we didn't usually wear our hair like this to school)

Which meant that we had to slick back my hair and do the part in a whole bunch of triangle lines and I had to wear eye-liner.

Which makes me look dead.
Which was also probably made me look cool.

Cause' mostly?  When I think back to that time, I think I felt a lot like I look in the second picture up there...excited and happy, but a stepping behind people a little bit and looking for a shoulder to lean on.  I want to be silly and crazy and join in while doing silly and dramatic posing, but I was too scared to look silly and dramatic.

Oh teenaged me.

I wish we knew then what we know now.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can tell which one of the girls in the picture is you!
~Roz

Chickenbells said...

Well I certainly HOPE so Rozz, I mean I look the same (only older and um, heavier...)

And I AM your aunt! :)

Tonya said...

You look adorable! I remember being at some house with you and Dina when we were young and you were listening to the Tompson twins. I thought you were so cool! And I still do! You always had the coolest clothes and listened to the coolest music.

Suzanne said...

That is GREAT to look back at! Thompson Twins was my first concert too, having gone with Becky Dalke and Laura Bellingham. Laura even touched the lead singer's hand and just about died! Thanks for the great flashback!

Chickenbells said...

This wasn't my first concert by any means...but it was a wonderful one! And unfortunately it may be the only one I actually have pictures from...

Heidi said...

We were SO totally mod! It was all about the Extra Strength Aqua Net (in the black can, please) and Wet 'N' Wild black kohl eyeliner.

I think I may actually have been wearing concealer stick on my lips. Why? Because I was 15 and trying to look cool.

Speaking of skinny, I graduated high school at 108 pounds. I used to lament being unable to gain weight. Ha! Be careful what you wish for, as they say.

Heidi said...

Oh and speaking of first concerts, you were responsible for mine. Remember when your mom drove us down to the State Fair so we could see Howard Jones? I think we even missed school for that. My parents almost didn't let me go because they thought I would be riding in the back of the truck with the camper shell without a seat belt so we convinced them I would sit up front, but then we totally switched when we got down the road.

When we got in line with all of the cool Phoenix kids I felt so out of place. I remember walking around some of the vendors inside the Coliseum, looking for a place to buy eyeliner so I could fit in!

sulu-design said...

Oh. My. Goodness. These are priceless. Seriously, if we only knew then what we know now. But since we realize now how fabulous things were then, maybe we can envision ourselves as little wrinkly 90 year old women thinking back on this time in our lives and realize how good it is, too.
And yay to March! Adios, February!

Chickenbells said...

Heidi - I couldn't remember if you were in the back of the truck with us or not for Howard Jones...and I TOTALLY forgot the whole eyeliner thing! I am SO glad you remembered that...

And yeah? About the gaining weight things...all I ever wanted to do was go on a diet in high school...but it was a little nuts to think of that when you weighed 100lbs...Now that I may need to go on one? It's just not as appealing...

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