Deck the Halls-Sixties Style

One year, my grandmother put up an aluminum tree. I thought it was the most remarkable thing. She even had the rotating color wheel that made the tree sparkle in every color on the wheel. I often wonder if that tree is still packed away in her basement.

My other grandmother had bubble lights on her tree. I can barely remember them but they were so neat. I feel like she had had them since the 1940's much like these Noma ones. In modern times we have learned that the chemical in bubble-lights were highly toxic. A few years ago they were back on the market minus the toxins. I bought them and put them on my "vintage tree" that held all my collection of ornaments from the sixties. They lasted a year or two, then they became leaky and finally stopped working. Now they are very hard to find. I did see some this year, but I resisted buying them, since it's seems they just won't work without the toxins.

Elves just like my gift from an old friend.

When I was three or four years old, we lived next door to an elderly man who spent a lot of his time rocking on his porch. I would go down and rock with him almost every day. It must have been something special about him because I was intensely shy and would have nothing to do with most people. After he passed away his family called my mother and asked if she would come and get something the old man had left for me. It was a Christmas table arrangement with reindeers pulling a sleigh full of elves. It was pretty bizarre by today's standards but it taught me one of my first lessons of giving, kindness and compassion. I wish I still had it, but it was made of styrofoam and did not survive the passing of time. 

My Vintage Ornaments

My most special ornament made by my son in kindergarden. It's just a paper chain but it has held up for  twenty-one years now.

We would walk into the woods around our house and cut down a cedar tree for our Christmas tree. My most memorable tree was the year we made ALL the decorations. We strung popcorn for the garland and made paper chains and ornaments from construction paper. We also made our own wrapping paper that year from finger- painted freezer paper. What a great memory. 

There's Always Tomorrow by Janet Orenstein

Everybody's Favorites-Rankin Bass

Rankin- Bass was a stop-animation company made popular in the Sixties by their TV specials including , Rudolph the Red- Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, The Little Drummer Boy, Santa Claus is Coming Town and many more. They used a technique they called Animagic to create doll-like characters. They would project cell animation over top of the Animagic to create things like falling snow. The company was founded by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass in the early sixties as Video Craft International. Most of the work was created in Japan, headed by animator, Tadahito Mochinaga. The traditional animation was done by Toei Animation, Crawley Films and Mushi Productions. Rankin-Bass  went on to do Thundercats and Silverhawks in the Eighties, quite a diversion from Rudolph. 

Santa Claus is Coming To Town is my personal favorite. Kris and Jessica had my dream wedding.

  

Jessica 

Jessica was voiced by Robie Lester, a popular, Grammy-nominated voice actress and singer. Robie worked with Henry Mancini and Herb Alpert. She was the voice in many Kellogg cereal commercials. Her most well- known line is from her work with Disney's Read-Along Storybooks. She was the voice that said," When Tinkerbell rings her bell, turn the page."

Kris Kringle was voiced by Micky Rooney.

Frosty the Snowman was voiced by Jimmy Durante. 

The Little Drummer Boy voice cast included Jose Ferrer and Greer Garson.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is probably the most beloved of the Rankin-Bass specials. Rudolph was voiced by a lady named Billie Mae Richards.

Mrs. Richards was the voice of Tenderheart Bear in the Care Bear movie and did voices in Spiderman  and Maniac Mansion. Billie Mae Richards passed away this year at the age of 89.

Clarice was voiced by Janet Orenstein, whose only claim to fame seems to be the part of Clarice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUgMaL89Lqc

All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth....NOT

This is all that remains of my Snow Queen book.

One Christmas in the late sixties, Santa brought my sister and me these cool books. I got the Snow Queen and she got Thumbelina. We loved them. They were big and colorful and like no other books we had ever had. The covers had a holographic illustrations and rainbow colors that were irresistible to us kids. They were illustrated by Japanese designers, Tadasu Izawa and Shigemi Hijikata. Hans Christian Anderson stories were told with photos of puppets and handmade backgrounds. I haven't seen one yet that wasn't well loved and falling apart. The 3D plastic inset on the cover was a lot of weight for the cardboard covers to bear.

Velvet- The Little Sister

Crissy- the Cool, Fashionable Big Sister

Crissy and Velvet's hair could be lengthened and shortened by turning a knob on their backs. 

So much fun until the wheel in their backs got off track.

I loved the Flatsy Doll - neat and compact and easy to store.

Miss Peep was a beautiful doll and the most life- like doll I ever had. I think I got Miss Peep the year my before my little brother was born. I liked Miss Peep better.

That Kid was a talking doll and he was a smart-mouth. If you hugged him and the button on his back was pushed he would say "Hey, put me down you're funny looking!" What a brat! Santa brought him the year I was in first grade. We were allowed to bring one Christmas toy to show to the class. I chose him to take and carried him on the bus with a paper bag over his head. I guess I thought it wasn't cool to carry a doll. After I got him to school and unveiled him I caused a mob scene. His buttons were pushed so much that he never spoke another word.

Carrickfergus Was Sung at JFK Jr's Burial

Who Is That Extra Child?

Beautiful Boy

Anthony and cousin Caroline 

Aunt Jackie

Anthony with unknown injury

Best Friends

Anthony and Caroline

Radziwill Family

Lee Radziwill-younger sister of Jackie

Best Man

As I looked through pictures of the Kennedys from the early sixties I kept coming across pictures of a cute little boy with dark hair. Who was this kid who wasn't John-John but was in photographs with Jackie? I found out it was Anthony Radziwill, son of Jackie's sister Lee. His father was Polish Prince Stanislas Radziwill. Anthony was very close to his aunt and cousins and became John-John's best friend. Anthony  became a respected television executive and filmmaker. He developed metastasized testicular cancer in his thirties and fought it for many years. Anthony served as John's best man at his secret wedding to Carolyn Bessette. Carol Radziwill, Anthony's wife, was one of the first to hear of John and Carolyn's disappearance  in the summer of 1999.  Anthony notified the family, spoke at the memorial service in the last stages of his cancer. A week after his best friend's burial at sea, Anthony passed away at age forty.

Camelot

Thoughts of the Sixties bring about thoughts of the Kennedys. The only thing I remember is the day John F. Kennedy died,  Friday November 22, 1963 at 12:30 PM.  I can remember sitting on the sofa while my mom put on my lacy socks when the special report came on. I was three almost four and should have been putting my own socks on. I was lazy or uncoordinated, I don't know which. My brother would have been at school and my sister a six-month-old,  probably napping. My memory is that I had on a yellow dress and was getting ready for the birthday party of a neighborhood kid. I may not be remembering it right because I'm not sure a birthday party would have been held on a Friday afternoon. I do remember my mom doing lots of shushing so she could hear the news report. As I grew up I was very interested in reading about the Kennedy kids and was very taken with John-John, who was my age. I think of Jackie, and I think of her marvelous sixties style. President Kennedy never made much of an impression on me. I guess he was gone before I was old enough to notice.