LANE

ing chairs lined the walls of the church’s community room, the polished linoleum floor gleaming in the dim lights. Wearing Yardley pearlescent lipstick and Windsong perfume, I suited up for dancing to Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Do You Believe in Magic?” and Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love.”

A few photo album pages later, I am in my hippie days, with embroidered peace signs on my frayed hip-hugger jeans, a fringed suede jacket, tie-dyed henley shirt and Frye boots. The proliferation of singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Bob Dylan inspired me to get a guitar and start writing songs. Yeah, I wanted to be cool, Flower Power and all that. I begged my mother to let me go to the hip counterculture extravaganza that was Woodstock but was secretly glad when she said no. All that mud.

After high school I took off for art school in Boston for a brief stint before realizing tuition and art supplies were a luxury trumped by rent and groceries. Dropping out, my idealism was crowded out by pragmatism, evolving with my

Recalling our past in the present

BY VALERIE DELACRUZ

paycheck and “grown-up” concerns, along with my style.

A few pages further in the photo album, I see the more sophisticated mid-’70s styles: flared pants so long they covered my platform shoes, Diane Von Furstenberg’s iconic knitted jersey wrap dress, paisley and flame-stitch prints and lots of no-iron polyester. By the end of decade, disco had turned everything upside-down and the Bee Gees’ “Saturday Night Fever” spawned the catchy “Stayin’ Alive” and John Travolta’s white three-piece suit. My long straight hair was tortured into curly perms.

On a mission to streamline “stuff,” I’m condensing all of these photos into one concise album showing the timeline of these changes. It’s true what they say about everything coming back around. I’m wearing bell bottoms and listening to the soundtrack of my youth as I sift through them.

And on the night of the reunion, I took my time gussying up, shaving my legs (why? no one would see them), carefully applying makeup and styling my hair. I was ready for my close-up.

I even sprayed on some Windsong perfume. n