Psychedelic Sixties
Real hippies say if you remember the 60's you weren't there. My good friends, Rick and Julie were married in the early 70s, but are hippies at heart, so I decide to throw them a twenty-fifth anniversary party they would never forget.
The invitations had a cartoon hippie on the outside of the card holding up a peace sign. Inside were the party details and a request for everyone to wear their funkiest hippie fashions and bring a plain white t-shirt to tie dye.
I enlisted the help of three of Rick and Julie's friends and split up the work. Party planning is fun, but it wouldn't have been so much fun if someone had to do it all by themselves. Patrick rented a spin art table. I had never heard of one before. It was really amazing. You put a piece of paper on a turntable with a splatter guard and, squirted paint onto the spinning paper to create wild circular designs. Sandra did a fantastic job reserving a large room at the community recreation centre as well as covering the floor with sheets of plastic to protect it from any spatters of paint or dye. I went to a party supply warehouse to get the food and drinks, and I even found some cool matching rainbow peace sign plates, cups and napkins made from hemp paper. I also bought rainbow streamers, and a Happy 25th Anniversary banner.
Rick's brother Mike agreed to have his band come and play sixties rock and roll songs of groups like the Grateful Dead, Jimmy Hendrix, the Doors and the Rolling Stones. I started getting really excited about the party when they started playing.
Guests began arriving in ones and twos. Some were dressed almost normal in jeans and t-shirts, but others wore sandles, love beads, and bellbottoms. I almost didn't recognise Rick and Julie. They went all out wearing some of the clothes they still had from the late sixties that, amazingly, still fit.
There were bowls of sweets, crisps, brownies and other snacks to munch on. There was soft drinks and punch for those who didn't drink or were underage. Beer and other alcoholic beverages were for the adults. The guests were eating, dancing, singing along with the band, making spin art and tie-dying. I saw Rick getting more dye on his skin more than his shirt. These attractions were a success. By the end of the evening everyone had made tie-dyed T-shirts and spin art pictures to take home as mementos of this awesome party.
Later on, the built in movie screen was pulled down and an edited film was shown of Rick and Julie's wedding. After it was over we had a toasting session. People who had known them since school stood up and told funny stories about couple. Rick and Julie had a good sense of humour and laughed along comfortably with the rest of us. I must have taken about 200 photos of the whole occasion.
We had a competition of 'guess that sixties tune' amongst the adults, as the kids were all standing around the spin art table trying every colour combination they could think of. Anyway the younger kids would not have recognised most of the songs. The person who made the most correct answers received a lava lamp for a prize.
At the end of the evening Rick and Julie thanked me for a great party. They said they really enjoyed themselves and could not think of a better way to have celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary.
