Photo Found on Facebook

I was around sixteen years old when I received a hairdryer for Christmas. It was in a plastic avocado green case with the bonnet and hose…the whole shebang. It even had a little knob with a pipe cleaner attached to it that I pulled out, dipped in perfume, and put back in. When the air blew through the tube into the bonnet, it picked up the scent from the perfume and just like that…my hair smelled like some Avon stuff I found in the bathroom closet. It was trés chic, to be sure.

My foster sister and I took turns using the dryer on our long locks. We only had one set of curlers, so we took turns with that, as well. We washed our hair with Prell or Herbal Essence shampoo…something that smelled vaguely of sage and pine cones. We used some sort of hair rinse. It was a green liquid and you added some to warm water in a measuring cup and poured it over your head. I always had a lot of static in my hair in the winter, so I started using fabric softener instead of the green stuff. Créme Rinse was something older ladies used. We didn’t have money for the fancy stuff. 

When we rolled our hair up on those monstrous rollers, we used Dippity Doo to help make the curls stay in longer. Some girls used orange juice cans. We couldn’t afford juice so there was none of that. I remember later on in high school, we ironed our hair so it would be long and stick straight. Never mind that we were frying it in the process. Oy!

My foster sister and I painted each other’s fingernails while the hair dryer blew Evening in Paris over our sage and pine scented hair. It was always a pale neutral color, or more likely clear since that’s what we had handy to stop the runs in our pantyhose. There was a small vent in the base of the dryer case that would help blow the polish dry. 

We did all this without our noses pressed to a phone screen. We figured out how to take care of our beauty needs without the benefit of Google searches. We weren’t texting our friends or taking selfies. The extent of our self-absorption was limited by how long we could stay in the bathroom before someone started pounding on the door and yelling, “What on earth are you doing in there??? It’s been twenty minutes! Hurry up…the commercial is almost over!!!”

Our evening entertainment was limited to the little handheld transistor radio where we caught the evening radio show on WPAR… “The Station With the Happy Difference!” We finished up our homework then went in to grab some milk and cookies and kiss the folks goodnight. I am so glad we didn’t grow up with the internet. It was a simpler time. And, our tomfoolery wasn’t recorded for all posterity!

I wax poetic because I met some of my high school friends for lunch yesterday and we were chatting about times past. There was a lot of what-happened-to-so-and-so going on. As we were getting ready to leave, one of the gals came back over to the table and quietly asked if turning 70 bothered us. This one said yes, another said a little, everyone allowed it is indeed a monumental birthday. 

When it came to my turn to chime in, I said it didn’t bother me at all. As a matter of fact, I embrace the change. There are so many of us who haven’t been blessed with as many years as we have. Mr. Virgo, for one. And my dear friend, Sparky. I am obligated to live…really LIVE every day of my life! I don’t have time for this “I’m too old” nonsense. Oh, I was having a few moments of uncertainty a few months ago. But I’ll take aging over the alternative…any day of the week!

Besides, the temperature was a balmy 75° yesterday. How could anyone feel bad on a warm, sunny spring day with friends?! I finished my errands with the sunroof open, wind blowing in my hair. We had warmed up pizza for supper and I “yard camped” last night! 

It was a wonderful and much needed break!

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“My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!”

1 John 4:11-12 MSG