1976

In 1976 I graduated from high school. I had just turned 18 and that summer before I left for college (my personal summer of love), I didn't have a care in the world. During the day I worked at a stable, training horses, teaching kids to ride, and getting high. At night though, we went to the disco. (Hey, don't make fun, we were really cool!) I would come home, shower, put on three different colors of eyeshadow, curl my hair into Farrah wings, don four inch platform heels and a silky, clingy, polyester number and head out the door. I drove a 1973 Dodge Charger...

like this, only copper color with a white top. (Yanno, I always had to drive, I had the cool car.) Three or four of us would go to The Lighthouse (a disco with lighted dance floor and mirrored ball, think Saturday Night Fever) in Cincinnati and stay until they kicked us out at 2:00AM. At eighteen, we were old enough to get in and drink 3.2 beer (Google it if you're under 40). Of course, there were always plenty of older guys to buy us actual liquor. We would go dancing 3 or 4 nights out of every week.

During the day, we wore tank tops (no bras, that was before gravity had effected us) and WIDE bell bottom, hip hugger jeans, while we worked and played and did I mention getting high? Personal computers, VCRs, and video games were all unknown. We did play pinball (the kind that actually had a ball) and you would nudge the machine with your hips to put a little english on the ball. There was technology, my father took me to his work to show me the computer, it was housed in a climate controlled room, bigger than my living room. It processed things at snail speed, compared to computers today. For music, we had vinyl and eight-tracks (yep, my car had an eight-track). We listened to disco, R&B, rock and roll, and folk music. Gas and cigarettes were both 50 cents. I was oblivious to the economy, the world's problems or politics (though I did know I was going to vote for Jimmy Carter in November).

We thought we were Charlie's Angels or Chrissie (Three's Company) and we were going to grow up to be Carol Brady. We were young and invincible and probably insufferable. Where are they now? Jeanine is a trophy wife (she hates it when I call her that), living in North Carolina. Laura is an engineer turned jazz musician/singer, living in Seattle. Amy is a fire-fighter turned graphic artist, living in Louisville. Kate is...hell I wish I knew where Kate was, but somewhere, she is the fiesty mother of twins (and probably a grandma now too). And me, I'm here writing this blog, fondly remembering a summer from 32 years ago.

Now let's...Play That Funky Music