Macabre Macrame

Halloween is fast approaching and I was thinking back to when I was a kid and Trick or Treat was the ultimate holiday. You had to wait until it got dark then turned loose on the streets for the sugary treasure. When we got home, Mom would confiscate all the candy and "inspect it for razorblades". Apples -out, bags of popcorn - out, unwrapped candy-out, Baby Ruth mini-bars - might have a razorblade and she had to taste to make sure. We got back a little less but much safer bag of candy back.

I can also recall the annual trip to Walgreen's to pick out the costume. No hand made refrigerator box costumes for us, we wanted the ones that came in a convenient box. It had two parts, a plastic poncho thing with a printed costume and a plastic mask. Let me see if I can find a picture of one in a box..back in a sec...

There! One stop costume shopping. I am trying to recall one that I wore andI can't remember any specific one. I think I had a Fred Flinstone one but not sure.

Another random 70's memory. I was walking down a street the other day that had a jasmine bush out front and it was very fragrant. My mind raced back to a particular summer where the smell of jasmine was in the air - no that Seals and Croft song - Summer Breeze- but close. So the jasmine was in bloom, the smell of a dying bbq, the front door open and a speaker was pointing outside and three albums were played over and over and over again:

These albums would play over and over while we played hide and seek or whatever. I read somewhere that the sense of smell invokes the strongest memories - probably left over from our cave men days. I think it's true because the smell of that jasmine bush took me directly back to that memory. Let's try to guess the year by the albums.

Hotel California - released 1977

Aja-Steel Dan - released 1977

Blue Bayou - released 1977

Wow! What a great year in music considering that was the height of disco. What were the top albums of 1977 you ask? Good question, let's take a look

1. Rumors - Fleetwood Mac (31 weeks at #1)

2. Songs in the Key of Life - Stevie Wonder

3. Star is Born - Streisand

4. Hotel California - Eagles

5. Boston - Boston

What else was popular in 1977 in our household/world?

Beer Can Hats - You couldn't go anywhere without putting on a beer hat. (goofy expression was optional)

LeMans Speedway - Southland Mall with birdcages, fountains, sculptures, giant dripping oil lamp in front of Sears, totem poles, Shibui Gift Emporium, a paradise on Earth.

Ponchos were the height of fashion and when combined with a pair of gauchos - fashion nirvana. And lastly:

No home was complete with a twisted rope sculpture of an owl. Macrame. Yeah! We started with Halloween and ended with macrame. The 70's were a great time in American history and even if you looked liked a hippy back then you could still be something later in life. Just ask these two: