Some Reminders of my Early Teens

Amost the same age as Shirley Temple, I was one of those little girls who had poker straight hair and that was just not right! Permanent waves were the answer - my very first one was from this torturous contraption where your hair was wound on rods and then clamps with wires attached were clamped down on the rod. The beautician put pads under and around everything and when the thing was heating she would fan the hot spots. Can you imagine? Beauty must suffer! I think they were actually pretty good perms, though.Then I spent lots of time "putting my hair up" which was winding it in pin curls and securing the curl with a bobby pin. Why, oh why, did we not have the freedom of having straight hair? There are so many ways we think we should be or how we should look - it's a puzzlement. While the pincurls were drying, I wrapped a bandanna around my head.

Now here is something all of the young teenage girls loved - Tangee! It was orange - really orange - but it turned pink when you put it on your lips. For some reason, that was the first lipstick for all the girls. I can still almost taste Tangee and feel it's waxiness on my lips.

And the wonderful little blue glass bottle of Evening in Paris with the pretty tassel. How wonderful it smelled. I felt so happy when I had one of these. Another fun aroma was Lily of the Valley. All of these delights could be purchased at the local dime store for not much money - which was good since there never was much money to be had. Do you know what, though? The good old days were really pretty darned good - in fact, it's very good looking back on them and remembering. (Click to enlarge)