Witness To A Wedgie

credit: Pam MacDonald, 1987 Cactus

Intent on Jehovah-knows-what, Miss Radley performs one of her duties as a member of Bevo’s Babes, a group of gals who served the men’s and women’s swim team. One job was to “boost the spirit of the swimmers.” Said the secretary of Bevo’s Babes, “We don’t want the girls who just want to look at guys in Speedos.” Personally, I’ve never met a girl who enjoyed that sight in the least. But to each her own.

The Babes also hosted and timed the National Collegiate Athletic Association swim meets, which lent some legitimacy to the organization. However, we all know the term “babe” is highly offensive in modern times and would not fly in 2018. While we’re at it, DJ’s should stop playing “I Got You, Babe” and Styxx’s “Babe,” and hurl the LP’s atop the pile of recent radio victim “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” It’s a dirty four-letter-word now, problematic and sexist, so–as you can well imagine, the group is now defunct, babe.

Mid-Century Uber

French barouche, Holiday June 1952
ba·rouche
/bəˈro͞oSH
noun
a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with a collapsible hood over the rear half, a seat in front for the driver, and seats facing each other for the passengers, used especially in the 19th century

Armageddon Has Come, Folks Gather Kindling For Fires, And Pepsi Is STILL NOT OKAY

UT ’79

What dystopian circumstances have arisen that require these students to build a fire inside a library, presumably from the unread pages of old Encyclopedia Brittanicas? What chaos has ensued that they must sit in weakly-constructed patio chairs and grow their sloven bangs out just to retain head heat? Who can say? All we know is Pepsi was still not okay.

http://www.quickmeme.com

Elevate Enchiladas With New Lice Flour Tortillas

1979 Cactus

Honey, I wish I knew what was going on here. I can’t fathom a reason to stack perfectly good tortillas on a fellow’s head. But it was 1979, and honestly, this yearbook is plumb full of things I can’t explain. Like this frisbee-contorting carb-deprived student.

Or this wand to his lips. I like the faces on the couple in back.

Or why grown men would be piggy-backing. 

Or doing that to their hair and bodies. Just another confirmation that clowns are evil.

This seems like a dozen too many hula hoops.

This last one shows a group of Zeta Beta Tau dudes building sets for a party at Pat O’Brien’s. But that doesn’t explain the duck. 

 

Nightskating Deserves A Quiet Night

christmasgator.net

Perhaps it is only dusk or overcast, but the lights pop and glow so shimmery, that it looks like evening to me. This is one of my favorite Christmas images, though I confess (living the entirety of my life in Texas), I’ve never ridden a sleigh nor skated on an actual lake (just a rink). In this scene, the kids to the left are dressed for a frosty night and yet the couple on the ice seems to have tossed their coats aside. Perhaps they have worked up quite a sweat.

What about you? Have you ridden in a sleigh? Was it one-horse and open? Have you skated on a lake? Did the ice break and you fell through and someone reached to grab you and administered CPR before you came to an untimely death? No, wait, that was a Hallmark movie…

On Trend Accessory For 2019: Ferns In Face

Nat Geo 1983

We’ve all seen the hibiscus worn in the hair, but this (as the carriage driver said in the Emerald City) is a horse of a different color.  Kauai-born Sherrie Hamamura is literally sporting a crown of ferns, as well as a necklace of ferns. It looks itchy and uncomfortable, to be honest, especially in a downpour.

However, her Hawaiian name is Wailana, or Peaceful Water, so she probably doesn’t sweat the small stuff. I hope that fabric is moisture-wicking and allows for movement as she performs her classical hula.

Perhaps fellow WordPress blogger and former Hawaii-dweller, Tom, may understand this Hawaiian saying printed next to her in the National Geographic: I ka olelo no ke ola; I ka olelo no ka make. “In the language is life and death.”

Evidently, fern fashion is still alive and well, as evidenced here. Long live tradition!

New Floating Ornaments All The Rage

Nat Geo 11/83

This boy would be in his 40s now, but back in 1983, his top priority was honing his soccer skills in the old section of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. These days, he might be more inclined to simply hang this ornament from his Christmas tree.

oldworldchristmas.com

 

It’s No Sleep Number

Roxie, our Hurricane Harvey rescue pooch from just over a year ago, doesn’t know how to leave a good thing alone. She keeps dragging her dog bed out into the middle of the yard, despite the 35mph winds, and curls up into it when she could be protected on the porch.

Lest you find her bed too diminutive, be aware that she chewed her dog bed up, and has now procured the bed of Tonto, our senior heeler/basset. During a water break, the wind flipped her bed over, and she decided to nest on the blue flamingo cushioned chairs instead.

I remember the vet telling us she “didn’t know how to dog.” She couldn’t take stairs, exclusively army-crawled through the house, wouldn’t get within two feet of the utility room, and leashes still freak her out (yes, we have a harness). She goes flat as a pancake on the ground and trembles at the Petco like she’s in a San Francisco earthquake. So we don’t take her. Instead, she spends her days in the back yard, free to run and play and bark at grackles, incite a weary 9-year-old Tonto into wrestling, and move any cushions/bedding/sprinkler heads/scrub brushes into the middle of the yard, sans consent. But when she gets to come inside, she curls up into my lap.

For a few minutes anyway.