It's not just nostalgia, those childhood sleepovers, they were also a time of social compliance, rituals, and sometimes dark practices. Let's take a trek back in time. Perhaps you will be inspired to have a sleepover with your friends, even in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s....
Movies that involved sleepovers; "Grease," "Stand By Me," "Now and Then," "The Craft."
Top foods for sleepovers: Pizza, chocolate chip cookies, popcorn, s'mores, soda.
Top movies to watch: "Gidget," "Little Darlings," "Grease," "American Graffiti," "Corvette Summer," "Meatballs."
Hand shadow puppets
Inevitably, there must be a time to toss around the crush of the week and discuss the celeb wish list.
(I guess the only thing I find fascinating about these crushes were that every one of them looks feminine. I was the dork with a crush on Kirk Douglas.)
Tickle fights and pillow fights? They could happen, but usually of a spontaneous nature.
With no caller ID, prank calls were high on the list of entertainment.
Inevitably, there must be a time to toss around the crush of the week and discuss the celeb wish list.
(I guess the only thing I find fascinating about these crushes were that every one of them looks feminine. I was the dork with a crush on Kirk Douglas.)
Tickle fights and pillow fights? They could happen, but usually of a spontaneous nature.
With no caller ID, prank calls were high on the list of entertainment.
Truth or Dare was one of the favorite activities when things went quiet. Were you a truth person or a dare person? I always preferred the truth, but then I'm pretty frank and up front.
If we took it out and about, we tended to do one of two things. The first option was to find a reason to walk past the house of a boy we had a crush on or we went and tee pee'd a house. Preferably someone we either wanted the attention of or someone we despised. If we despised them, we usually chose to wet down the toilet paper and make it stick!
If things got dark and scary at night and we were done with creature feature horror movies, we might try some of the "forbidden games" like Bloody Mary, Ouija or "Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board."
If everyone was sufficiently spooked, it might be time to tell some urban legends and swear they really happened to a friend's cousin's friend.
Blood pacts. In the 1970s, it was the thing to do with your best friends. Prick your finger, press them together, then leave a bloody fingerprint on a piece of lined school rule paper where you write up a pact to always be there for each other.
Invariably, at some point in the evening, a brother was going to cut in on the fun and probably call and have a friend "happen" to drop by so they can both harass.
If we put a stack of 45s on and listened to music, we'd have the deeper talks you can't do when anyone can overhear. This was about the time, we'd think about doing love spells for boys we liked.
We would take the boy's name, write it on paper or, if we had his picture, prop it up. Light a candle, make up some kind of incantation. It was all makeshift, but it felt so powerful and exciting.
Boards games were a fall back depending on how strict the parents were. If we weren't allowed to make noise, go out or play music, out came the board games. Clue, always the best choice!
Ultimately, for the girls, there was some serious makeover attempts from playing with makeup to curling hair and painting nails.
We would take the boy's name, write it on paper or, if we had his picture, prop it up. Light a candle, make up some kind of incantation. It was all makeshift, but it felt so powerful and exciting.
Boards games were a fall back depending on how strict the parents were. If we weren't allowed to make noise, go out or play music, out came the board games. Clue, always the best choice!
Ultimately, for the girls, there was some serious makeover attempts from playing with makeup to curling hair and painting nails.
If someone could sneak a beer, we'd all share and make horrid faces as we swore it was horse piss. One time, my best friend and I bought NearBeer or MetBrew - one of the nonalcoholic beers. We poured them into some empty beer cans and shared with friends who began to act drunk. Then we told them what it was.
Socializing in the 1970s was a different thing than today. Today, much of social life is virtual, from online gaming to Facebook and cell phones, but back then, we had no VCRs, computers, cells or other distractions. It was face-to-face interplay and we were held hostage by whatever was on TV at the time and what 45s we had on hand or AM radio stations playing pop music and Casey Kasem's top 40. Board games, urban legends, pranks and the like were the goals of a good sleepover.
When I turned 50, I had my gal pals over for an old-fashioned sleepover and, like old times, they were quite playful and fun about reviving our youth -
When I turned 50, I had my gal pals over for an old-fashioned sleepover and, like old times, they were quite playful and fun about reviving our youth -
There you have it! The truth about sleepovers in the 70s!
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