1. Seasons In the Sun by Terry Jacks
2. Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast by Wayne Newton
3. Billy, Don't Be A Hero by Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods
4. Jackie Blue by Ozard Mountain Daredevils
5. Run Joey Run by David Geddes
6. One Tin Soldier by The Original Caste
7. If by Bread
8. The Last Song by Edward Bear
9. I Think I Love You by The Partridge Family
10. Band of Gold by Freda Payne
11. Rock Me Gently by Andy Kim
12. Diary by Bread
13. Knock Three Times by Tony Orlando & Dawn
I think slumber parties are a great learning ground. It's the first lesson in a girl's life about the importance of girlfriends. It's also probably the first lesson in a girl's life about back stabbers! You learn about taking turns telling your "oh my gosh!" stories and you learn about the fine art of talking over someone else - as in, say, there are four girls sitting in a circle at 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock. The girls at 12 and 6 can carry on an animated conversation at the same time as the 3 and 9 girls do - and it's all OK. This gets more info out at a faster pace. It's letting go of this acquired talent as you get older that can be difficult! And guys just don't get it! Slumber parties also taught me that the darker it gets, the more loose your tongue tends to be. Sometimes you end up sharing things that in the daylight, well, you wished you hadn't. But there it is. It's out there. What will the listeners do with that info? Life lesson - think before you speak - no matter how dark it is - no matter how much others are sharing. JUST THINK FIRST!!!
I started going to slumber parties when we lived in Arizona, so I was about 9 or 10. That's kind of young but it was just such a great way to get to know my new friends. We were still too young to worry about hairdos, but we were just starting to be interested in boys. Most of the boy conversations, though, centered around which ones did the grossest things. Mostly we liked to play games and have seances. Seances? Indeed! I find this hilarious as I look back, because, who did we choose to contact in the spirit world? Geronimo! That's who! Well, I guess it was in Arizona, but, still. Doesn't that crack you up? I don't remember any real fruitful attempts. You really can find "evidence" of a spirit in just about anything - the flicker of the candle, a sudden car door slam outside. It's ridiculously...... funny!
Frankly, my favorite part of slumber parties were waking up the next day and having breakfast! I was so curious about what other people ate for breakfast and what mornings were like for other families. My parents always cooked breakfast - weekdays and weekends. Cold cereal was almost unheard of. They said it was "nothing but sugar!" with disdain as they asked if I wanted more syrup for my pancakes. I didn't catch the irony of that until much older. Actually, maybe one of my kids pointed that out to me! I remember one slumber party breakfast in particular. It was at a girl named Teresa's house. I didn't know her as well as others but that BREAKFAST! Her parents were very kind people and they made pancakes. Not from scratch. Out of a box! (gasp!!!) But they were light and thick and delicious! Furthermore, they had butter! Not margarine. Real butter! And these pancakes soaked up the butter and the syrup. Well, I was just a little runt, of course, even more so then than ever, but I ate every single person in that kitchen, including the dad, under the table! I couldn't figure out what it was about those pancakes, but I knew that each one I ate only made me want another one. Pretty soon, I narrowed it down to the butter. I started skipping the syrup and just had butter. At the time I didn't know the difference between margarine and butter. I went home and tried to tell my parents about the stuff they spread on their pancakes and how it was almost cheesy in taste. I don't think they heard much else after I told them about the pancakes out of a box, though. It took me quite awhile to figure out the differences between butter and margarine. It's all about exposure. And my exposure to butter was very limited growing up! Once in awhile my mom made it from cream. But we were pretty much a margarine family. It was cheaper and fed the masses more economically.
When we moved back to Pennsylvania I found out that my friends from there had also embarked on the world of slumber parties. Invites started coming in and it was fun to go spend the night at friends' houses that I had only played at during the day before. It seemed funny to see their parents in robes. They also did seances and I introduced the whole Geronimo idea to them. I'm pretty sure we tried to contact him but I can't remember who else. Then someone got a Ouija board and brought that. It was even more silliness as you knew someone was directing that wedge to go right where they wanted it to go.
As we got older, well, conversations were taken over by boys. There just wasn't enough time in a night to talk about all the boys we wanted to talk about! There was always something new to discover about who liked who and who had just broken up. And we had to talk about hair and makeup, too. Magazines were brought and shared. There were arguments over who was cuter, David Cassidy or Donny Osmond. Squeals of laughter when someone divulged that they actually thought Danny Bonaduce was cute!
And there was music - ALWAYS! Someone had a turntable and we brought records. The playlist above is a selection of songs that were popular at the slumber parties. Oh, how we would listen to these sappy, sorry songs and cry! Seasons in the Sun was a big hit and an even bigger tear jerker! When I hear songs like that today, ie Don't Take the Girl, I cringe. It's just so obvious and I feel played. But, back then, we ate it up! Diary by Bread had us laying on our sleeping bags, picturing the whole thing - a cute boy finding OUR diary and reading about how the one he loved really loved another. Did he get mad? No - he wished her the best. Because that's just how much he loved her! sigh I don't think I can count the number of times we played Knock Three Times, singing it at the top of our lungs! I had to include Rock Me Gently because I couldn't wait to share with the girls how a guy in my German class would sit there, lean forward, and sing it to me during class! Squeal!!! I acted annoyed, of course, but, here I am 35 years later, still remembering, still smiling.
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