TTBA | Issue 1 'Seven 0' ... Enjoy.
My mother and I often wander into ponderland over a cup of hot tea. Mostly we laugh. Sometimes we weep and fight, and at other times, silence numbs us as words are not required. We have a very creepy and innate understanding of each other.
Our topics of conversation are frequently varied, inspired particularly by ideas and concepts relating to art and music. Sometimes our red wines lead us to rather philosophical discussions about who we truly are.
Like my mother, I too struggle with what is both my burden and my blessing ...
I so often feel that societal expectations as I interpret them, constrict my impulsivity and creativity.
Why do I not feel drawn to the picket fence and the shackles of a mortgage and a steady small town job. There’s got to be more but how easy is it to forget that pearl of wisdom.
On one of the treasured occasions I frolicked around singing a song created in the moment, wearing my mother’s authentic 1970’s fur coat. She had kept this since her youth for a daughter she knew she would always have (i.e. me).
With a common smirk on my face I quoted “Mum, I think I was born in the wrong era.” She chuckled and spilt her tea on her knees. “I think I belong in the 70’s”.
She gazed into the distance with nostalgia lingering in her frighteningly green eyes. I sensed her recollecting both fond and difficult memories from her youthful days as her warm smile morphed into a thick sigh.
We then proceeded to have a beautiful conversation and it went a little bit like this ...
‘I reflect back on the 70’s with a certain level of ambivalence. This decade definitely had a unique feeling or ‘vibe’ which was amply reflected in the diverse ideas and styles which emerged during this era.
It was a time of simultaneous confidence and self-consciousness for my friends and I as we proceeded to explore other ways of seeing the world.
We were bordering the birth of post modernism and as students we were no strangers to critiques of institutional power and mainstream attitudes and value systems.
The fusion of art, fashion, music and all forms of self expression was a burgeoning force in youth culture and punk was rearing its head in Melbourne town.
It was a time of great artistic freedom ...
If you needed an outfit for clubbing you could go to an opshop and find an old fifties bustier and petticoat. A few strategic safety pins and artistically coordinated rips and you were ready to go.
Whilst you may feel that you identify strongly with the ‘70’s in a romantic sense, today’s context provides a young person like yourself with even more opportunities for personal growth, self-determination and personal expression than ever before.
The ‘70’s was never ready for your unruly spirit young lady!
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