That 70's Party

Earlier this week Ben turned 39. Soon our friend Paul of Paulboo fame will be something more than 39 but his real age won’t be reveled because I don’t remember. Early onstage Alzheimer’s I imagine. Judyboo and I decided we’d do a 70’s birthday party for the boys and have it between the two birthdays. After sending out the invitations we rapidly discovered that it’s graduation season and for some reason that was more important to people than a party. Hurmph. But that didn’t squelch the joy that is shopping for a theme party. Beth and I wandered the local Salvation Army seeking the perfect 70’s garb; Judy and I sought party paraphernalia. No, not THAT type of paraphernalia, the party wasn’t that authentic. We borrowed a lava lamp but weren’t able to pull off the Pong game.

We had foods of the 70’s as you can see from the pictures. Since we were all either kids or not too far from being kids it was mostly candy and snacks. We thought about making Hamburger Helper and Stovetop Stuffing but somehow never got around to it. But the Jiffy Pop was a hit because it was fun to watch and worked just like it does in the commercials. Beverages were Snapple (no one drank that for some reason), Tab (doesn’t taste as nasty since they replaced saccharine with Nutrisweet), Miller Lite, Country Time Lemonade, and Perrier supplemented with more standard issue current beverages. Peter also brought a timeline of 70’s food and facts to entertain the group.

The Pop Rocks weren’t nearly as exciting as they used to be. The Pixie Sticks (there’s no sugar in Pixie Sticks!) were more fun to talk about than eat. The Jelly Bellys disappeared. The Reeses Pieces managed to disappear fairly well too. The smiley face cake wasn’t a hit but the yellow color matched the rest of the smiley face party gear perfectly.

We had 70’s picture contests and Dicky won that one hands down. With his long hair he was awarded the useless prizes (the mushroom tile thing and the oddball salt and pepper shakers) for both best male and female pictures. Unfortunately I neglected to take a picture of the pictures but they were impressive.

The competition for the best costume was more mixed and there were two different awards given. What to choose, what to choose? Beth in her disco gear? Gwen in Annie Hall meets prep? Me in my tricked out jeans and busy top? But the prize had to go to Judy for best female costume since she had authentic 70’s shoes and peace necklace saved from that time although I think she may have really won it because she was showing lots o’ leg. And best male contest was really an even split but it ended up going to Peter for his preppy garb which he assured us was 70s and NOT 80’s as we all assumed. It was close though since Paul had the great hairdo, Dicky had the tee shirt and hair, Ben had his KISS tee shirt and Bill, well, he had lack of planning.

Dicky borrowed the hairdo did a vignette of the Dictators Go Girl Crazy album cover. Which is which?

Much Miller Lite was consumed relative to the amount of Miller Lite consumed by anyone in this crowd in the previous 10 years.