It was May 1973, and I had just walked home the 3 and a half blocks from Monroe grade school to our home on Tiara Strip. I had sung Imagine by John Lennon to our graduating class and parents less than a half hour ago and before that, the rest of us crooned On Top Of The World by The Carpenters and Last Song by Edward Bear. It was going to be a great Summer!
The past two years were a great time to be alive! Puberty had visited us all and hormones were the rage. Every weekend saw another house party hosted by the parents of school girls eager to join the social rankings of the beautiful and esteemed. It was the days of school parties, dances, potato chips and dip, kisses and breath mints.
The 1960's were officially over several years before but in the Midwest, it was still bell bottoms and incense. In fact, every party had to have the obligatory black light and black light posters.
Girls bras were illuminated like electric X Ray vision apon entering the basement of some Mardel Manor household. The boys watched in eager anticipation and tried not to blow their cool.
It was around this time that I was told I could paint my room any color I liked since I would be going into high school soon. I chose burnt orange and painted it myself. Mom got into the action painting the dresser and desk black with yellow and orange drawers. Yellow shag carpet completed the look but the icing on the cake was the black vinyl hide a bed that I purchased from the furniture store that I would later work for.
I had the coolest crib in the neighborhood and soon everyone hung out in my orange room. My parents even let us smoke in that room too.
I've decided to focus on the years I lived in that room as a starting point for my weekly blogs. I'll be turning 60 this year and I'm ready to test my memory and put things in a central location for my kids and perhaps theirs someday.
I learned how to make love in that room, I read books and magazines, listened to music, practiced the guitar, got high and everything else in between.
My favorite period for a short spell in 1974.... WWTO before it became the Album Station played The Four Corners show at 10:00 on Saturday nights and followed with The National Lampoon Radio Hour. It was headphone heaven before I could drive.
I wish their were more pictures of my old burnt orange room but its all intact in my mind.
Come visit the Orange room often!!!!
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