Go Go Boots a la 1966

My parents bought me a pair of white Go Go boots about 1965 when I was in the 5th grade, a year before these were featured in the 1966 Fall/Winter Catalog. I loved them and felt so stylish and teenagery.

Go Go boots were absolutely the In Thing. I remember seeing lots of pairs of them unevenly lined up under the benches at The Wheel on Friday nights. The Wheel was the roller rink at the edge of Mohawk Park in Tulsa and my friend Judy would pick me up to go with her. When you rented the skates, you simply put your shoes/boots under the bench – not in a locker. Our friend, Carol had her Go Go boots stolen one night. Carol’s boots were probably a big temptation because her family had more money than the rest of us in Mingo, and I’m sure that her boots were probably more expensive.

It was always a little scary there to me because we were just about 10 years old and the greasers were there, too. Remember how the kids looked in “The Outsiders“? That’s them. Something about how they just looked made me uneasy – and I never ever saw anything worse than somebody smoking outside the door. But the boys did have the greased back hair and and wore pointed-toed black shoes (kind of like the ones that the band members are wearing in the Pretty Woman link below). The girls had lots of eye make-up and would crowd into the tiny girls’ bathroom. Roy Orbison’s played on the p.a. (public address system) a lot. The kids seemed to really like it.

Whenever I hear that song I don’t think about the hooker movie; no, I’m back at The Wheel.

Perhaps Susie Hinton was there, too. She went to Rogers High School and was writing “The Outsiders” at that time. These are the people she was writing about.

Aren’t these knee socks and stockings just the coolest thing?! We wore lots of them.

Here I’m striking an embarrassingly silly pose on the back of my dad and brother’s work truck in our front yard. This would’ve been about 1966 (not ’65 as I tagged the photo) and the knee socks look just like the ones from the catalog, so Mama may’ve ordered them from that very page.

But I confess, I even wore them with my cowboy boots – no photo of that (and you should be grateful)!

Vintage Christmas Cards, 1968

These are pages 360 and 361 from the 1968 Sears Christmas Catalog.

It surprises me that Christmas cards have changed so little since 1968. With the exceptions of Numbers 1, 2, 13,19, and 21, they look similar to current ones.

1920’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s cards are a little easier to date by their unique styling. The sketchy style of the angel (#13) and the lion & the lamb (#21) are somewhat typical of the modern look of the 1960s, but I’ve seen 1950s illustrations that are similar.

I hope this helps anyone who’s hoping to date vintage cards, and I do apologize for the scratchy look of the scan. Old catalogs and magazines are really not easy to scan clearly.

1968 Evening Dress

1968 Sears Spring/Summer Catalog

What a snazzy little number this is.

Not exactly a Little Black Dress, or is it?

1968 Swimsuits

Well, it’s real summertime here in Texas (never mind that it officially begins next week), and my thoughts turn to something cooler. Like swimming.

I had the white eyelet one with yellow -eye daisies (on the far right).

If memory serves me right, the only time I had a real two piece with the midriff bare was when I was in the 6th grade, and I remember how embarrassed I was to be that exposed. There’s no way I would’ve worn that pink number.

The prices on the swimsuits are rather surprising. Product costs are now about 5 times what they were in 1968, and I just don’t think I’d pay $75 for a swimsuit. Some of the dresses were half the price of a swimsuit. Why? There’s certainly less fabric.

1968 Sears Spring Summer Catalog: Purses, Shoes and Gloves

If these photos had been from a Nieman Marcus catalog, or even a Spiegel, I probably would have said “handbags” instead of purses. But the source is Sears, and we called them “purses”.

I have always loved these green high heels.  If they were still available and I was 30 years younger, I’d buy them.  And did you notice that there was a purse to match every color?

The ubiquitous daisy, even in black and white.

One difference in footwear is that there were only a page or two of sandals then.  They weren’t nearly as common then as they are now.

1968 Sears Spring/Summer Fashions, Junior Fashions

Here are a few pages of fashions from the Sears Junior Bazaar collection.