When I Was Your Age...Madison!

To My Granddaughters...
I've watched you grow up...eight beautiful girls!  I think I know you pretty well...but perhaps not as well as I should.  But here is a question...How well do you know me?  Like you, I grew up with two loving grandmothers, but I really didn't know what they were like when they were young.  Where did they go to school?  What kind of music did they like?  What were their hobbies and other favorite things?  Who were their friends?  I sure wish I knew!

So...I got this great idea...I will tell each of you what I was like when I was your age.  Madison...you are the oldest, the first grandchild.  We were so excited to be grandparents!  I cannot believe you will be in high school this fall.  Yikes!

When I was Madison's Age...

I was born in 1955.  It was a VERY good year!  Disneyland opened for the very first time that long ago summer.  Now you know why I love Disneyland so very much...and why I will never get too old to have fun! 

Eighth and Ninth Grades...

This is a picture from my ninth grade yearbook.  Not my best hair day...lol!  When I was in the eighth and ninth grades I loved to write and enter speech and poetry contests...I was pretty good.  I learned to sew and made all my own school clothes.  In ninth grade I was on the yearbook staff and wrote for the school newspaper.

I wore my hair long and in a "flip" like Marlo Thomas in "That Girl,"a TV series that I liked a lot.  Sometimes the boys would tease me and call me "Marlo."  I didn't like being teased...but there are worse things in life than being compared to a pretty actress.  My big dream back then, was to go to BYU, major in Drama...and be a stage actress.

You know how much you love your ipod?  I loved my transistor radio.  I had an earbud...it wasn't stereo...and sometimes I would put it under my pillow and listen to my favorite station...KCPX...all night long. (They hadn't invented ipod pillows yet)  Sometimes in the middle of the night I would get a station playing the Wolfman Jack show...but that was only when the weather was clear.  My favorite group when I was in junior high was...

The Monkees!  Yay!

The Monkees were THE boy band of my day...before NSYNC or New Kids on the Block...or the Jonas Brothers.  I also listened to Sonny and Cher and The Rolling Stones...the Stones have been around since the Stone Age...pun not intended. =D

Beauty and Fashion...

Twiggy was the Super Model when I was your age.  She wore the cutest clothes, but was so skinny that she was controversial.  Here she is on the cover of Seventeen Magazine.  I adored Seventeen, but I couldn't afford it...so I went to the library to read it.  Sometimes for kicks and giggles I would go down to the basement of the library and read the back issues from the decade before and laugh at the outdated styles.

Our dresses were either very, very short or long "Granny Dresses."  If you were lucky, you could afford a pair of...Go Go Boots!  The coolest boots ever!  I wasn't lucky enough to own a pair, but I did get some fishnet stockings...which we held up with garter belts since panty hose hadn't been invented yet.  I wasn't "allowed" to wear makeup, but I was sneaky and bought some of this...

...with my babysitting money (25 cents per hour of torture).  When my mother caught me with it...I told her I needed the brush to get the tangles out of my eyelashes. I once had very long eyelashes like you and your sisters.  Later I bought...

...Great Lash Mascara...the best mascara in the world...and I still use it to this day.  But my eyelashes are no longer so long or full as they used to be.

You have blowdryers, curling irons and crimper/straighteners to style your hair.  I had this portable hair dryer with a bonnet to put on over my rollers...it took forever to dry.  Sometimes I would iron my hair like the hippie girls to make it stick straight.  But it was a losing battle.

An Exciting Era...

The late 60's was an exciting time to be alive.  Everything was progessing so swiftly...the modern age was upon us!  I was so intrigued by the thought of space travel.  I watched the rockets as they were launched into space...and I was glued to the radio in my parents' car on the day that Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.  I have always loved science fiction...I admit I am a bit of a nerd...and the most handsome man in the world to me at the time was...

Captain Kirk!

It tickles my funny bone to see how science today is gradually creating the scientific wonders found on Star Trek...especially communicators.  Cell phones!  Who would have thought it? One day...if you are very, very good...you will quit losing your Ipod Touch and may even have a cell phone of your own. 

The Impossible Dream...

In ninth grade I wrote a poem about the moon landing for Americanism Week and won first place!  It's pretty cheesy...but cut me some slack...I was only 14 when I wrote it.

The Impossible Dream

On alien soil lie the prints

Of strangers from a planet far.

A dream fulfilled since first mankind

Hitched his wagon to a star.

In silence tense, a world awaits,

And counts each second ticking by.

Rockets burst!  The glowing flame

Lights the early morning sky.

The missle gleaming in the sun,

Soon swallowed up among the clouds,

Leaves a wisp of smokey trail

For the watchful, earth-bound crowds.

The mighty "Eagle" landed

On a vast and barren sea.

Neil Armstrong took mankinds' first step

On the Base of Tranquility.

Gone now, but something left behind

Remains to tell the story.

Planted firm in lunar soil,

Stand proud and free "Old Glory."

Well, Madison...

That was me in a nutshell.  I could probably tell you more...and I would love to share stories with you sometime.  I wish you lived closer so we could spend more time together.  I love you and...

Love, Grandma Shirley

New Picture...American Fork Junior High

Added February 29, 2012