W-a-a-a-a-y back to school

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Aug 17, 2004 | by Contributors: Deb Acord, Dave Philipps, Bill Reed, Bill Radford,

PROM SONGS: The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Who and other groups that would become legends took over the airwaves. But at the prom, where romance was the theme, you'd be more likely to hear the Bachelors crooning "Marie" and Ken Dodd singing "Tears."

CLOTHES: At first, conservative styles from the '50s hung on. Boys wore plaid, buttondown shirts; girls were required to wear kneelength dresses. But by the middle of the decade, miniskirts made dress codes a headache for school principals everywhere. Many schools still required dresses to be knee-length, but that didn't mean girls didn't push the envelope. This was the first decade that saw major lunch detention for clothing violations.

HAIR: Talk about style changes. At the beginning of the '60s, boys wore neat, trim crew cuts and girls with fashion sense had big hair called the bouffant. By the end of the decade, hippie fashion was all the rage, with teen boys and girls sporting long locks, and men of all ages favoring beards and mustaches.

IN THE CLASSROOM: This was the age of social awakening. Teens read Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" and Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Science ruled as Alan Shepard explored space in 1961, John Glenn became the first man in space to circumnavigate the globe in 1962, and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in 1969.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES: This was still a paper-and-pencil decade, with chalkboards in every classroom. If you were lucky, you got to work on an IBM Selectric in typing class. Best smell: the ink from the mimeograph machine.

LUNCH: At home, Mom was enthralled with convenience foods -- think instant mashed potatoes, Spaghetti-Os and TV dinners. Kids toted Huckleberry Hound and Rifleman lunch boxes.

SHOW AND TELL: Mattel had introduced Barbie in 1959, and by the end of this decade she was the hottest plastic babe around. G.I. Joe often joined her. Troll dolls were the toy to collect and trade.

WHAT YOU WANTED TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP: A rock 'n' roll singer with your own band and your own 45-rpm record. Or, for the more serious-minded kid, an astronaut.

ONCE HOMEWORK WAS DONE, YOU: Went outside to play kick-the-can or a neighborhood game of baseball. If you were really cool, man, you hopped on your skateboard. Of course, you wore your candy necklace and carried your candy cigarettes in your shirt pocket.

PLAYGROUND MOVIE/TV TALK: "Did you see 'Mary Poppins'? Was it as good as '101 Dalmatians'?" On TV, kids could take a fantasy trip with "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie" or camp it up with "Batman." Older kids saw the TV revolution play out with "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In."

the '70s

THE TIMES: Vietnam came to a messy end, Watergate brought down a president, and disco reared its (some would say ugly) head. PROM SONGS: Proms were battlegrounds between rock and disco -- with a little of Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life" thrown in for good measure. The disco crowd, led by the Bee Gees, reigned supreme for a year or two, but Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" was THE prom staple for most of the decade.