What You Didn't Know About A Charlie Brown Christmas

If you've always wanted your very own sorry looking Charlie Brown Christmas tree, I'm happy to report that I'm seeing these 18" tall artificial renditions for sale just about everywhere this year, from Target to Sears. Walgreen's has one of the lowest prices at $9.99 but CVS has it on sale this week for only $7.99 (which, let's face it, is pretty much all that it's worth.) Or you could save yourself the eight dollars by just gathering a few twigs from outside, attaching them to a couple of pieces of wood, and hanging an old bulb from it.



Despite its awfulness, I'm still tempted to buy one of these for the novelty value. The program still remains my favorite holiday special and after viewing it I really get into the holiday spirit. It's pretty remarkable that it's still showing some 45 years after their debut, because A Charlie Brown Christmas was not supposed to be the lasting success it turned out to be. Some reasons why (pulled from Wikipedia, of course):

*The program's soundtrack was poorly edited. In one scene where Schroeder stops playing his piano, the characters keep dancing for a few seconds more.

*TV executives originally didn't want Linus delivering his soliloquy about the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke. Bible passages were considered controversial, but the Peanuts' creator Charles Schulz insisted, "If we don't tell the true meaning of Christmas, who will?"

*If the character's lines sound choppy in their delivery, that's because they were. In particular the child actor who voiced Sally couldn't read, and needed to be cued line by line during the soundtrack recording. Executives had wanted adults to play the parts.

*The special was supposed to have a laugh track, which Schulz wanted left out, explaining that audiences should be able to enjoy the show at their own pace and decide when to laugh.

*The executives didn't like the jazz soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi, fearing that it wouldn't work for children's programming.

As a result, when the head honchos saw the final product they were horrified, and were certain the show would flop; the rest as we know is history, and the special remains a timeless classic.

ABC is showing A Charlie Brown Christmas this Tuesday night - December 1, at 8 PM and repeating it on December 8. The jazz soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi remains one of my favorite Christmas albums.

Continue Reading... Label: Retro things to buy

Bad Cover Art: The Yuletide Edition

What a find! I pulled most of these doozies from a great site that you've probably seen before, called BizarreRecords.com. I could easily post 25 album covers, but I'm not because I think some of these are meant to be savored in smaller servings, and I want to spread them out during the month of December. I'm sure you've seen some of them or posted them before on your own blog but, hey, this stuff was meant to be recycled and shared. Had to throw in the Wham! album at the end because it's so delightfully cheesy.

Continue Reading... Label: bad cover art

Christmastime is Here!

Now that Thanksgiving has been properly celebrated, I can begin getting ready for my favorite holiday, Christmas. This is such a great time of the year to be a fan of all things retro, since there's no shortage of holiday-related vintage topics to explore. In December I hope to highlight some of them - ornaments and trees, traditions, movies, music, and more, as time allows. Let the Christmas season begin!

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Much to Be Grateful For

Happy Thanksgiving from GoRetro to all of my readers, both regular (now 41 and counting - whoo hoo!) and new ones! For those in the U.S. who celebrate this holiday, may you all find plenty of things to be grateful for this holiday...and if you don't celebrate, may you still have a lot to be thankful for. I know I do. I decided to post a quick list of the many things I am grateful for in my life...

* My health. I've never had to have an operation, have never even broken a bone, or had to stay in the hospital for any tests or for an extended amount of time. I'm extremely fortunate to have enjoyed tremendous health and a complete body that works well for me. I thank it by eating healthy food, drinking water, exercising regularly, not smoking, and getting plenty of sleep. And, I'm grateful for happy mental health, too.

* My family. Although I could never be best friends with certain members I'm lucky to have a family that is basically supportive and to spend the holidays with.

* My friends. Ahhhh...friends truly are God's way of apologizing for your relatives. In the past 18 months I've attracted several good friends who are supportive and non-judgemental into my life, in addition to my old friends. All are worth more than their weight in gold.

* My job. I know I'm beyond lucky to have a paying, full-time job with benefits in this economy, and most of the time I'm doing fun marketing projects that I enjoy.

* My writing. I'm grateful that I have a hobby I'm passionate about that feels like it's improving day by day, and that has helped me earn a little extra dough. I've been able to publish a few articles through Helium.com this year and last year (if you're an inspiring writer, check the site out.) That little bit of extra money once in a while is like manna to me. But more importantly, I'm grateful for a working creative mind that helps me put the right words into the right sequences of sentences and paragraphs to communicate effectively.

* My cat. Life just wouldn't be the same without animals.

* This blog, and the never ending chasm of vintage pop culture topics to talk about. Needless to say, I'm grateful to you readers out there who pop in from time to time and leave comments.

I could go on and on waxing sappy poetic, but you get the idea. Have a wonderful and safe holiday.

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Hairball and Hairbrain

I love cats, so it's always bothered me to see them get sh*tted on in various movies and TV series throughout the years. Some examples: Ripley dropping and banging Jonesy around in his cat carrier as she runs from the monster in Alien; the Tanner's family cat constantly trying to avoid being eaten by the title character on Alf; the cat who electrocutes himself in National Lampoon's Christmas, etc. I could on and on, but the truth is, the entertainment industry hasn't treated felines very well on-screen. If they're not being the butt of jokes or tortured by brats and dogs, they're also pretty much being neglected in ways that would be considered animal abuse today.

And perhaps the worst example of this, and one that really got me riled up this weekend, is an old Art Carney movie called Harry and Tonto that PBS aired. This 1974 film is about a widower named Harry who lugs his poor cat Tonto (a Morris lookalike) across the country as he visits relatives and old girlfriends as well as new people, after his Upper West Side apartment building is demolished and he has no other place to go. It's a good thing this movie was released in the 70s, because if it came out today PETA and the ASPCA would be all over its behind. Here are some of the ridiculous myths about cat care that this movie propagates:

MYTH#1: Cats love to travel

FACT: OK, so some cats - like Cleveland Amory's Snowball in the 1987 non-fiction hit "The Cat Who Came for Christmas" - don't mind being lugged around in trains, planes, and automobiles and staying in strange motel rooms and apartments. However, that's the exception and definitely not the rule - most are smart enough to know that pulling out the cat carrier means they're going to be taken someplace they don't want to go. You also cannot bring a cat in a movie theater, a book store, a casino, or just about any other public place like Harry does in the movie.



Not to mention that not once in the film did I see Tonto using a litter box, a required accessory of any trip involving a cat. They cannot tolerate a long drive for hours at a time.

MYTH #2: Cats can survive on nothing but milk and water.
All throughout the film, Harry feeds Tonto nothing but milk and water. "Drink your milk, Tonto" he drunkingly slurs at one point outside of a Las Vegas casino. "It's got proteins and vitamins and minerals for you."

FACT: The classic scene of giving a cat milk in a movie or TV show just drives me insane. Cats are carnivores. They need MEAT and cat food (and not just the dry stuff either; that can damage their intestinal track if they receive nothing but dry food.) Certainly in the 18th century cats had to forage for their own food and were the household's official mousetrap but by the 70s we knew better - and we had the 9Lives commercials to prove it!

MYTH#3: You can walk a cat on a leash.

FACT: The cat will walk you. "Walking" a cat does not so much mean leading one, but following him or her around as they investigate their surroundings.

I don't recommend this movie for any cat lover - at the end of the film, Tonto dies. Alone in what looks like an awful mini prison for cats while Harry sings an Irish drinking song to him. We don't even see Harry bringing Tonto to a vet to find out what's wrong - and it takes one of Harry's chess mates to point out to him that "Tonto doesn't look so good." Well of course he doesn't - he hasn't been feeding him! Some concerned pet owner.

What's weird is that the critics loved this movie. This poster is full of glowing comments including a headliner from Today Show movie reviewer Gene Shalit. One critic even goes so far as to say that Harry and Tonto is "One of the best movies of the seventies so far"! In fact, Carney won an Oscar for his performance in the film, which I'm guessing was the Academy's way of recognizing him late in his career.



And poor Tonto? Well, I hope he fired his agent or at least clawed him after this dog of a movie.

Continue Reading... Label: 1970s, Retro movies

Whatever Happened to...Waiting Until *After* Thanksgiving to Celebrate Christmas?

There's no easy way to say this: in recent years, Thanksgiving is really getting pooped upon. There's no respect for the holiday anymore. The proof is in overzealous advertisers running Christmas campaigns, retailers playing Christmas music and average American citizens who jump the gun on putting up Christmas decorations before we've even had a chance to finish off the Halloween candy (well, I realize some people don't finish up the Halloween candy until Easter, but I'm just saying...)

I'll admit that Thanksgiving may not be the most exciting holiday. We don't dress up (well, unless you have a nutty relative or two around your dinner table) and we don't exchange gifts. However, it's a day to practice gratitude and celebrate what I consider to be the end of the fall season, before the snow starts flying.

I am not a grinch, by the way. Christmas is my favorite holiday - I look forward to the day after Thanksgiving, when I can start playing my favorite Christmas music, decorating, watching the old Christmas TV specials, and planning my list of greeting card recipients.

However, the key word in that last sentence is "after" - *after* Thanksgiving (and, as you noticed, not *after* Halloween.) So why, then, do retailers and advertisers insist on running holiday campaigns before we've had a chance to begin wearing our winter coats? Why are Christmas decorations for sale in most major stores by the beginning of October? Do they really think by rolling the merchandise out nearly three months in advance, that they're somehow going to make more money, especially during a lousy economy? It's bad enough that Halloween advertising seems to begin the minute the kids are back in school.

And it isn't just companies trying to capitalize on the holiday - one radio station that I listen to started playing LOTS of holiday music regularly as soon as Halloween was over! It just feels wrong - listening to such songs before Thanksgiving gives me no emotional enjoyment whatsoever, because it's simply too early. When I was a kid, it was an unspoken rule that radio stations couldn't play any holiday music until the day after Thanksgiving. And on the day after Christmas, they removed them from their playlists. There's something to be said about delayed gratification and for me, it always applies to Christmas music.

But if all this isn't enough to get my panties in a bunch, I've noticed, while driving home from work at night, that a lot of people have decorated their houses already and are displaying lights and lawn nativity arrangements. I guess if people want to jack up their electric bill so soon it's their prerogative, but how about a little more respect for Thanksgiving, please? Like the Byrds once sang, there's a time for everything...and that should include a time for Thanksgiving as well.

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Claims That Went Up In Smoke: A Look at Vintage Cigarette Advertising, Part 1

Today is the annual Great American Smokeout day in the U.S., and I can't think of a better way to recognize the event by celebrating some of the bad, weird, and delusional cigarette advertising that was so prevalent in the first half of the 20th century. To catalog every single cigarette ad would use up my blog's bandwith, so for today's post I'm just going to focus on the use of doctors, babies, and Santa Claus in cigarette ads. To understand how the use of such unusual spokesfigures came to be, what follows is just a brief history of cigarette advertising.

The origins of tobacco advertising can be traced to a snuff advertisement in 1789 in a New York newspaper. The late 1800s saw the invention of the cigarette dispensing machine and greater transportation methods of distributing tobacco products across the country. But some might say that nicotine addiction didn't really take off until World War 2, when U.S. soldiers were issued free cigarettes by tobacco companies. When they returned home, what better way to feed their habit than with advertising? Slogans such as "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should" started to catch on, as well as endorsements from doctors, dentists, and celebrities.

Camel's famous campaign, "More doctors smoke camels than any other cigarette", was launched in 1946 and lasted for eight years. Now really, who would doubt the advice of any of these kindly looking family physicians?







Your dentist wants you to smoke as well, but why? Do Viceroys help prevent cavities?


This one is interesting because of the female doctor image, and the copy implies that Camel had started to survey male and female medical professionals on their choice of cigarette.



Look carefully at the last guy in the top of row in the bottom right-hand corner of this particular ad - that's Mike Douglas, who went on to host his own TV talk show.



Not to be left out, Lucky Strikes got in on the act as well. They claimed their cigarette was also less irritating to throats.



The original mad men behind these ads weren't exactly lying, by the way. Many doctors really did smoke cigarettes. It wasn't until 1964 that the U.S. Surgeon General, Luther Terry, released the Advisory Committee Report on Smoking and Health that showed a connection between smoking and lung cancer and other diseases. However, in the decades to come, smoking would still be portrayed as glamorous and endorsed by celebrities - many of whom died from diseases caused by the habit.

Here's a baby ad for Marlboro, marketed towards moms. Was it supposed to make mommy feel guilty if she didn't smoke Marlboros?


Not to be outdone, and just in time for the holidays, Santa got into the act as well. He was quite fond of Pall Malls and Chesterfields:





There's way more where these came from. Check out Stanford University's online exhibit of cigarette ads for more examples.

Coming soon in part two: the promotion of cigarettes for enhanced althetic ability! And, need I say it, but if you are a smoker please consider kicking the habit, starting today.

Continue Reading... Label: 1940s, 1950s, funny vintage ads

Trippin' on Beggin'

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons have become hot all over again, thanks to the smash bio-musical hit "The Jersey Boys." They're so hot that someone decided to make a nifty music video to a remix of their song "Beggin." I came across it on YouTube the other day and it has just enough slightly disturbing surreal imagery that I couldn't look away. It's trippy for sure. Salvadore Dali would love this:

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Bad Car Names

I'm going to try to make it over to the New England Auto Expo next month. I've gone before and, even though I probably won't buy a new car for a few more years, I love looking at the new models, finding out what new features are available, sitting inside the vehicles, and inhaling that new car smell.

In anticipation, I thought it might be fun to come up with a list of the worst car names in history that I could think of. Certainly not the most unique retro post, but a road that's worth revisiting. You see, a car's name is everything - it's the brand and has the power to make or break a legacy. Unfortunately, there have been a few instances where automobile marketers dropped the ball big time when coming up with a good name. Get that foghorn ready:


1. Ford Probe
A painful name - in more ways then one. I don't know about you, but anything that sounds like something that would be inserted into any of my bodily orifices during a medical examination or procedure is definitely a turnoff to me. What was Ford thinking when they came up with this gem? Shame, because the car itself was a sporty little 80s number.


2. Ford Escort
If the car had actually been sleek and sexy, Ford might have gotten away with such a scandalous name. But they didn't, which makes it all the more laughable. I think the Ford Companion would've sounded better and less like a forbidden listing in the yellow pages.


3. MG Midget
A real head scratcher. MGs were already unbearably tiny cars. How was the Midget series any different? And saying that you drive a Midget just sounds weird.

4. Dodge Diplomat
Despite a long production run (from 1977 to 1989) I've never heard of anyone who owned a Diplomat, and I'm not sure that those who did really did feel all that more important. Check out the vintage ad I've posted above - shuttle diplomacy? A misguided advertising attempt to make a soccer mom feel like she's royalty or something.


5. AMC Gremlin
It's cute, but you mustn't let it near bright sunlight, get water on it, or feed it after midnight.

6. Hummer
Yep. No explanation needed.


7. Subaru Brat
Who wants to drive a brat? It was really an acronym for "Bi-drive Recreational All-Terrain Transporter." Gotcha. Couldn't they have come up with something cooler...like KITT?


8. Renault Le Car
Thinking of Renault's unoriginal moniker reminds me of when Madonna released an album titled "Music." And the car was so le fugly, I don't think even Inspector Clousteau would've been caught driving one.


9. Toyota Estima Lucida G Luxury Joyful Canopy
I'm cheating here - this van was actually called the Toyota Previa in the U.S. It's "real" name, as coined by the Japanese, sounds like one of those silly show dog names.


10. Ford Edsel
A bad car name list would not be complete without the king. The Edsel proved that naming a car after one of your offspring was not always a good idea, especially if their name sounds like a hiccup.

If I missed any interesting ones, let me know.

Continue Reading... Label: Retro cars

Were Your Parents Awesome?

It's hard for some of us to think that there was a time when our parents were younger and were actually considered cool. But a new site is out to prove that wrong.

Just to be clear, the long-haired hippies in this photo are not my parents, but they were somebody's parents...somebody who (correctly) thought they were cool enough to be included in a blog I heard about on NPR, called MyParentsWereAwesome.com. I highly recommend giving it a visit - you'll be mesmerized by the many pages of photos submitted of people's parents usually before they became parents...and no era is spared. Some look like they come from the Victorian age! Here's a few favorites I quickly pulled:









The site has inspired me to get a scanner soon and upload some of my own family photos. And yes, your parents were awesome.

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Just a Scary Random Thought

I can remembering hearing Prince's "1999" in the mid-80s and thinking that the year seemed SO far away. Now it's the year - gasp - 2009. A full decade AFTER 1999. Where DOES the time go?

As if my mind couldn't be boggled enough, when 2010 arrives, it will mean that three decades have passed since the 80s began. What? Remember how we all thought that era was so futuristic, with its fashion, music, and technology (and by technology, I mean VHS VCRs and Sony Walkmans.)

Probably best not to mull over this too much. Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

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Whatever Happened to Great Instrumental Music?

By instrumental I don't mean easy listening, elevator music, or anyone like Percy Faith (although I do like "Theme From A Summer Place".) I'm talking about all of the stupendous groups and artists whose memorable melodies charted in the 60s, like The Surfaris, Booker T and the MGs, Hugh Masekela, the Mar-Keys, and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. Those names just touch the surface of a genre that is sometimes poo-pood by music critics as a passing novelty, but if that's true, then how come I love the songs so much? Since my knowledge in this musical area is still in the novice stages, I will just briefly list a few of my favorites that I am familiar with.



Take Booker T and the MGs, for instance. I can't think of the 60s without thinking about their smash 1962 hit, "Green Onions" with its underlying organ and guitar rift. Some of their other memorable compositions include "Hip Hug-Her", "Boot-Leg", and "The Horse" (which really does remind me of a prancing horse when I listen to it.) How good were Booker T and the MGs? Well, so good that the Beatles - especially John Lennon (who called them "Booked Table and the Maitre'Ds") were inspired fans.

Here's a totally bad ass clip of Booker T and the MGs performing "Green Onions" on Shindig, backed by some of the grooviest dancers I've ever seen:



One of my favorite 60s instrumentals is "Soulful Strut" which was released in 1968 by singer Barbara Acklin and Young-Holt Unlimited. With Acklin's vocals, the song is known as "Am I the Same Girl" - which was later remade by Swing Out Sister in the 90s and was a hit. Interestingly, the version of the song with Acklin's vocals didn't chart as high as the non-vocal version.

Another awesome tune is Junior Walker & The All-Stars' "Tune Up" - it just makes you want to get up and dance. Gotta love that rip roaring sax.



But I must admit my all-time favorite instrumental artist is Herb Alpert of the Tijuana Brass. Yes, I wholeheartedly admit to enjoying the theme song from The Dating Game. You can say what you want about TTB, but they were outsold by only three artists during the 60s: Elvis, Sinatra, and the Beatles. I'd say that isn't bad competition to have. The group also produced some of the most delightfully cheesy album covers of the era, and are best known for the girl covered with nothing but shaving cream on their popular album, Whipped Cream and Other Delights.

Here's a rare video of TTB performing one of their hits, "A Taste of Honey." The twirling blonde at the opening, not to mention the addition of an orchestra and the crashing waves of the beach, lend a nice, wistful touch to this version.



Back to my original question - whatever happened to great instrumental music? Well today we still have non-vocal music being produced, except it's all techno and other synthetically produced junk that in my opinion, really doesn't stand up to music made with real instruments. It's too bad that after Woodstock, popular instrumental music pretty much stopped getting radio play.

Who are your favorite instrumental artists of past eras? I'd love to know - and to help me expand my knowledge base.

Continue Reading... Label: 1960s, Whatever happened to...

Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day to all the veterans out there, and to anyone who knows a veteran.

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Today's Blog Post Is Brought to You By The Numbers Four and Zero

It's pretty rare that I hear about a kid who doesn't like Sesame Street. When it does happen, however, I wonder how the parents are going to deal with having a future serial killer on their hands. Seriously, how could *anyone* not like Elmo, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Snufalufagus, and the rest of the gang?

Fortunately, Sesame Street still has a ton of fans because the PBS program celebrates its 40th birthday today. Of course, we all know that the muppets were the creation of Jim Henson. But the show was the brainchild of Joan Ganz Cooney, who wanted to study how the media could prepare children, especially those from inner-city, low income households, for school. Cooney wanted to create a program that would have a lasting affect on those who watched it for years to come.

I think we can safely say she accomplished her goal. I can still remember numerous skits, songs ("Rubber Duckie", "C Is For Cookie", "I Love Trash"), and celebrity appearances. Speaking of the latter, there are probably few celebs who haven't appeared on the show - even Robert De Niro, James Gandolfini, Ice-T, and Peter Jennings were all guests.

My favorite character was Big Bird, even though -let's face it - he could be very annoying and naive at times. Least favorite? Perhaps Oscar the Grouch, because I never understood what he was so grouchy about!

Never a show to miss the boat on modern pop culture, Sesame Street recently did a silly parody of Mad Men, featuring Guy Smiley as Don Draper. Here's to the next forty years.

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Deja V

Hi followers, I was away on a business trip in NYC most of the week, and need to get back to blog posting this weekend. Since I was having dinner with coworkers every night, I wasn't able to watch ABC's premiere of its new series "V." I'd be curious to know from anyone who watched it what they thought. One evening while getting ready for dinner, I did catch part of the original 1983 series on the SciFi channel (which is available on DVD.)

Yes, in case you didn't know, the "V" series is actually a remake of a miniseries, and I'd forgotten how delightfully campy, cheesy, and creepy it was. "V" was based on a novel and told the story of extraterrestrials who land on earth with the premise of coming in peace and asking for help from us earthlings - as their natural resources are drying up. They look and speak like us, and their fearless female leader, Diana, is a cool brunette beauty. But as you may have guessed, the "visitors" are not what they seem. A TV reporter (played by Marc Singer in the original) breaks into one of their spaceships with a camera and witnesses the aliens swallowing guinea pigs whole (in the days before sophisticated computer graphics, this is accomplished on-screen with the help of a plastic mannequin...and don't worry, no rodents were harmed in the making of the series.) He then has a fight with one of the aliens, discovering that their human form is just a mask - underneath they're really reptilian monsters with red eyes, scaly skin, and venomous tongues.



Sounds cheesy, doesn't it? Well, it actually was an entertaining series that creeped me out and fascinated me at the same time in the 80s. The part that everyone remembers most (and which still haunts my memories) is when one of the female characters falls in love with and is impregnated by one of the visitors - you can guess what happens next. She becomes the not-so-proud mother of a lizard...and a human looking girl who has a lizard tongue.



The series touched upon the Holocaust - the visitors' orange jumpsuits and propaganda posters does not fool one of the oldest characters, a concentration camp survivor, who likens the systematic invasion to the Nazis and encourages others that they must fight the aliens to not let history happen again.

Some useless trivia for you: most of the original cast were no-names, but Robert Englund, who later became famous as Freddy Kreuger from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, has a small supporting role as one of the aliens.

As is usually the case with remakes, I just don't know if the new series will live up to the original, even with today's computer effects (I also doubt that it will follow some of the storylines of the original.) There's always a certain charm about television produced in the 80s, especially scifi coming hot on the heels of the Star Wars phenomenon. But if you watched it, let me know what you thought.

Continue Reading... Label: 1980s

It's a Hoot: the Owl Obsession of the 1970s

Do you remember a period during the 70s where it seemed everything from clothing to household objects had an owl theme? As a kid, I can remember owl necklaces, owl print fabric, owl figurines, owl candles, owl salt and pepper shakers, and owl shaped canisters. There was also Woodsy Owl, who asked us to, "Give a hoot - don't pollute!" and Charlie the Owl from New Zoo Revue. The whole world, it seemed, went hooters for owls. I've never been able to figure out where the owl obsession originated from, but it does seem like the hippie thing to like, along with doves and mushrooms. And, they are quite cool.

Owl motifs are definitely making a comeback. Here's a sampling of some of items I've seen for sale on retro clothing sites.

The first four items are from ModCloth, one of my favorite vintage store sites:

The "Owl Be Back" Dress - unfortunately, the site says it is out of stock, but you can ask to be notified when more are available. It retails for $49.99.


The "Hoot for Loot" wallet is made of faux leather and has a 70s applique look. Price: $19.99


This ceramic Owl Warm and Cozy Tea Set will add some quirky vintage style to your next tea party. Price: $49.99


Not exactly vintage, but very cute, is the "Owl Never Leave USB Toy." Plug this guy into your computer, and perch him atop his stump or your monitor, and he keeps you entertained by opening and closing his eyes and turning his head. He also comes in a snowy owl version. Definitely a splurge, but it sounds like the kind of thing that could've kept a stoned hippie entertained for hours. Price: $27.99


From Urban Outfitters comes this t-shirt designed by the artist who did the graphics for "Where The Wild Things Are." Price: $28.00


This colorful throw rug (also from Urban Outfitters) brightens up a small space (it's only 2' X 3', and retails for $18.00)


Unfortunately, most of the owl necklaces on ModCloth are currently sold out. But from Buy.com comes this silver toned one reminiscent of ones that were available in the 70s. Price: $21.99


And for fun, here's one of those 70s PSA commercials with Woodsy that I remember so well. Help keep American looking good!

Continue Reading... Label: 1970s, Retro things to buy