Now & Then: From the 90's to the 60's & back to the 90's

"Hey mama welcome to the 60's!"

When I was in 5th grade I saw the movie Now & Then and instantly became obsessed with the 60's. Something about the neon flowers and rainbow tie die really spoke to me, who am I kidding, that makes complete sense. This was around the time that "bell bottoms" were coming back into style (only to be replaced by their cousins "flare" & "boot cut" a decade later) and the Austin Powers movies were at an all time high.

"Groovy" became part of my every day vocabulary and I signed my passed notes with peace, love & happiness (but drawn out as a peace sign, heart & happy face). After seeing Now & Then on VHS at a sleepover or something (who knows where) I fell in LOVE with the music and rushed to Sam Goody to get the, you guessed it, CASSETTE TAPE, CDs were WAAAY out of my budget. Let me tell you there is little else more frustrating than trying to skip a song you don't like when listening to a cassette tape. These kids today won't know the horror of fast forwarding too far. It sounded a little like this: "wait, no that's too far, maybe if I just do rewind for a quick second, nope--that's the song before..ahhhhh"

This love of the 60's was of course welcomed by my mother who was in her late teens in the 60's living like a heathen flower child in Santa Monica. She broke out the stories of driving to San Francisco in her hippie friend's VW Bus just like that scene in Forrest Gump where Jenny's picked up on the side of the road by a bunch of strangers. My mom even had the bone straight down to her butt blonde hair that's perfect for adorning with flower crowns or wearing in whimsical pig tail braids. I soaked up all those stories and wished so hard that I could have been born in that decade. Little did I know that being born in that decade with my current Queer woman of color identity would have been the fucking worst. My carefree 90's kid self knew not about the bummer part of the 60's, just the technicolor fun and civil rights wins.

I thought it was all MLK "I Have A Dream" and Go Go Dancers all the time!

My attempt at 90's valley girl still ended up being 60's with this groovy daisy shirt.

I didn't know that I was living in what was soon to become the "cool" decade. 

I was just listening to Brandy with my two tiny front braids not knowing that the 90's were gonna come back so hard and I'd have nothing but ill-executed 60's wannabe outfits to show for them! If only I had known then that I should have gone HARDER on the 90's and left the 60's to my mom.

Yesterday my teens were at a youth-created music studio space looking at a mural of women artists of our time who have passed away. When I pointed out that one of them was "Left Eye" they all looked and me in confusion exclaiming: "Who's Left Eye?!" That's the thing about time, you don't know how much has passed until someone reminds you, usually much younger someones.

My 5th grade bedroom covered in flower wall stickies and a tie die bean bag chair with stuffed animals carefully placed on top for "decor" was just an homage to a time I had never experienced. Just like the kids who painted murals of "old" Hip-Hop and R&B divas trying to live in any time but this one.

I wish I could tell them that the 90's were cool and all but I was too busy looking for a good pair of bell bottoms to have noticed.