Non-School Parties

I haven't really decided yet how I am going to divide this section of the website. I think I will end up putting each party on a separate page. Or I might have a page for each person who hosted a lot of parties. Right now I am going to put some photos of mine on this page and organize it later.
I am very thankful for all the parents who were willing to put up with the noise and mess of teen-age parties. I don't recall everyone whose parties I attended but I know that both LindaH and MaryJaneB had several. And I remember attending at least one party at each of these people's houses: RayM, BobbieM, KeetaS, GaryW, RonW and MarkW. Unfortunately I didn't take very many photos of those years.

These three photos were taken at a party at my house in the spring of 1962. I think it my 15th birthday so it would have been in April. The people I have identified in the first photo are AnnS, LindaL2, FranC, DennyD, and Larry Wolken. In the foreground of the center photo are MaryJaneB, PeteS, Patty Calahan, TerryC, Wendy Clark, LindaL2 and FranC. In the background are SkipB (behind MaryJaneB) and DennyD and RonM (behind and left of TerryC). If anyone recognizes anyone else in the photos please let me know. The photo on the right is my brother, Doug, dancing with JanisM.

party in my garage

These next three photos were taken at an impromptu "come-as-you-are" party at my house a few days after the party above. What prompted me to start thinking about the circumstances of these two parties is in the yearbook section of this website.

come-as-you-are party

From the photos and what I recall of the party at the top of the page, we spent most of the time dancing or talking. There were quite a few people there and they seemed to have a good time. But before the weekend was over someone started spreading completely untrue rumors about the party. At the time we figured it was someone who was upset about not being invited.
Deciding who to ask to a party was always a challenge. You started with your best friends, then added friends of theirs. Then you asked all the boys any of you were going with or those you wanted to go with. And if you didn't want to look obvious you had to ask friends of the boy you wanted to go with so he wouldn't realize you had targeted him specifically ;-)
Unfortunately parents usually put a limit on the number of guests so you couldn't invite all the people you wanted to ask. And there was sometimes 'feuds' going on where certain people wouldn't come to your party if certain other people were going to be there. Because of those things it was not uncommon for hurt feelings to arise among people who didn't get asked to a party.
At first some of us were upset about the rumors. But it soon became apparent that the things being said were either ridiculous or impossible. One rumor was that my step-father had spiked the punch and everyone got drunk. Anyone who knew him knew he wouldn't do that. Another rumor was that all the girls at the party got pregnant. Of course, since the rumors started the day after the party, no one could have possibly known that yet even if it were true.
On Monday several of us, KeetaS and I among them, decided to have a little fun. We came to school wearing our largest blouses hanging out over our skirts instead of tucked in like they usually were. That is what inspired GenelleB and AnnS and FranC to write what they did in my yearbook - and years later had me trying to explain it all to my teen-age daughters!
A few days after the first party some friends were over at my house and we were talking about the rumors. At some point we decided to have a come-as-you-are party and to stage some photos to make it look like we really were having a wild party. Not that we did a very good job of it - even if I had kept my hand over the words "CocaCola", it would have still been evident that it was not a beer bottle I was holding. An the end, because of our old camera, most of the photos didn't turn out anyway. Of course I never attended any wild parties so can't really say what they look like ;-).