From Zero to Ten...in '60s fashion
The "Just a Chubby Girl in Knee Socks" Years (1956-1966)
My birthday is in five weeks, and I'm going to celebrate, in part, by writing a brief review of the past five (and then some) decades of my life thus far. Self-serving, yes. But hopefully entertaining. It will give you insights into times gone by and prompt us all to realize just how much has changed in a relatively brief period.
I was named after Nancy Drew and Nancy Sinatra (of "These Boots are Made for Walking" fame). Nancy was considered a cool name back then. (There were four of us in my grade school class.) It's all but obsolete now, according to this graph.
I walked to school every day starting at age seven (without fear of going missing), and my family ate lots of red meat and sugary cereals (without fear of clogged arteries and rotten teeth). I had a pen pal named Ann Owens who lived in Nebraska, which was so exotic. (Ann: If you're on Facebook, friend me!) We wrote letters with pencils and paper and mailed them to each other every couple of weeks.
I made potholders on a loom and sold them door-to-door to moms who wore aprons. My brothers and I also sold our comic books after we finished reading them. I was the entrepreneurial star of 195th Street and Union Turnpike.
Girls wore skirts back then (like on Mad Men), and pantyhose hadn't yet been invented, so it was a totally lame fashion era. I owned lots of knee socks and dresses with matching hats. Not only did little girls look ridiculous, we froze our asses off in winter.
We had a black-and-white TV (just one) and only got a few channels. We watched Ed Sullivan on Sunday nights and seeing the Beatles for the first time was definitely better than watching "American Idol." The first kid in the neighborhood who had a color TV died of leukemia and my mother freaked out and said it was caused by new technology.
The highlight of that decade was, by far, the World's Fair. I still get weepy when I drive by the Unisphere. We all believed we would ride around on monorails in "the future."
I said I wanted to be a teacher or an actress or a nurse (the recommended professions) when I grew up, although I dressed as a spy (Honey West) on Halloween. And I really looked forward to those teen years, when I could wear go-go boots like my namesake. (Betcha can't wait to read about that decade!)
To be continued...
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