Sister Mercy! Did you hear? Bell bottoms are back in style this year.
Be still my Brady Bunch heart. I haven’t been this excited about a fashion trend since the Who Shot JR t-shirt in 1980. They say you’re too old to wear a trend if you wore it the first time it came around, but I’ve been known to wear white shoes after Labor Day, so I may throw caution to the wind and jump on board this train at the risk of looking like one of those middle aged ladies you see at the water park wearing a leopard print cover-up and gold shoes.
My love of bell bottoms goes way back to 1976, the year of the bicentennial. It was also the year I held a grudge against mama for weeks because she wouldn’t take me to Kaintuck Territory to see Dr. Hook perform live. Something about hippies, drugs and lyrics laced with sexual innuendo not being appropriate for a sixth grader. Whatever. I wasn’t mature enough to go, but I was a hippie at heart in my wide bells, as evidenced by this pep band photo.
That was my favorite pair of pants during sixth grade. The style back then was to sew patchwork material onto the bottom of your bells to give them a hippie edge. Mama latched onto that with gusto because it meant she got another four or five months of wear out of our pants after a growth spurt. I wore those pants OUT, and I remember being sad when I had to give them up. Sadder than when I outgrew my black patent loafers in fourth grade and even sadder than when I spilled soda on my ivory satin disco pants at Homecoming in 1979. And that’s sayin’ something because those satin pants were hot, hot, hot with my satin shirt and matching satin ball cap and purse. And Candie’s shoes. Don’t forget the Candie’s.
I think of those patchwork bell bottoms every now and then whenever I slide on a favorite pair of jeans or try on a pair that fits just right. I smile with memories of grade school band and playground games and old friends. And I yearn for days when the only things I had to worry about were math quizzes, saving money for the Bay City Rollers album and whether I should circle yes or no when DB asked me to “go with him”. Those bell bottoms gave way to disco satin, peg leg denim and high heels just a couple of years later, which makes me wonder if those will make their way back onto the fashion racks soon, too. If so, I’m gonna have to buy some Spanx. Or get a leopard print cover-up to hide my backside.
Be still my Brady Bunch heart. I haven’t been this excited about a fashion trend since the Who Shot JR t-shirt in 1980. They say you’re too old to wear a trend if you wore it the first time it came around, but I’ve been known to wear white shoes after Labor Day, so I may throw caution to the wind and jump on board this train at the risk of looking like one of those middle aged ladies you see at the water park wearing a leopard print cover-up and gold shoes.
My love of bell bottoms goes way back to 1976, the year of the bicentennial. It was also the year I held a grudge against mama for weeks because she wouldn’t take me to Kaintuck Territory to see Dr. Hook perform live. Something about hippies, drugs and lyrics laced with sexual innuendo not being appropriate for a sixth grader. Whatever. I wasn’t mature enough to go, but I was a hippie at heart in my wide bells, as evidenced by this pep band photo.
That was my favorite pair of pants during sixth grade. The style back then was to sew patchwork material onto the bottom of your bells to give them a hippie edge. Mama latched onto that with gusto because it meant she got another four or five months of wear out of our pants after a growth spurt. I wore those pants OUT, and I remember being sad when I had to give them up. Sadder than when I outgrew my black patent loafers in fourth grade and even sadder than when I spilled soda on my ivory satin disco pants at Homecoming in 1979. And that’s sayin’ something because those satin pants were hot, hot, hot with my satin shirt and matching satin ball cap and purse. And Candie’s shoes. Don’t forget the Candie’s.
I think of those patchwork bell bottoms every now and then whenever I slide on a favorite pair of jeans or try on a pair that fits just right. I smile with memories of grade school band and playground games and old friends. And I yearn for days when the only things I had to worry about were math quizzes, saving money for the Bay City Rollers album and whether I should circle yes or no when DB asked me to “go with him”. Those bell bottoms gave way to disco satin, peg leg denim and high heels just a couple of years later, which makes me wonder if those will make their way back onto the fashion racks soon, too. If so, I’m gonna have to buy some Spanx. Or get a leopard print cover-up to hide my backside.
