Feelin' Groovy

Yes, she's feelin' groovy.

My birthday was yesterday, and now I'm 51.  Since I was the oldest of two girls, I didn't get the full "Baby Boom" experience, although I qualify as a boomer.  I don't recall when JFK was shot, I didn't know what Woodstock was or who The Beatles were until the early 1970s.  However, I remember that groovy, groovy style, especially as it appeared in book illustrations and on stationary.

 The poems are worse than mediocre, but the illustrations are trippy.

Today's finds include a few bits from my personal collection.  Several of the images come from Hallmark gift books, which were very, very popular in the 1970s.  Hallmark capitalized on the trend toward psychedelic grooviness by utilizing "hip" illustrators.  I found most of these little gems at my local Friends of the Library, in the 10-cent book bins.  Fred Klemushim illustrated the "Tell You That I Love You" Hallmark book, which was published in 1973.  The poems were copyrighted in 1942.  Go figure.

John Overmeyer lent his illustration talents to this upbeat, "give peace a chance" themed tome, published by Hallmark in 1971.

And what could be more groovy than a minstrel playing a flute on the cover of this happening 1970s school textbook, "Making Music Your Own."  I absolutely love this cover.  You can see the back cover on my Flickr page.

Greeting card illustrated by Jane Gilbert.

What time machine to the '70s would omit big-eyed kitties?  Although these aren't the famous Keane sad-eyed strays, the hypnotic, staring eyes of these pop-art Siamese kittens perched in a punch bowl makes men who stare at goats look like amateurs.

Click to see the bigger size to truly appreciate the shagginess.

Don't forget the fashionable carpet of the 1970s!  It's simply shag-alicious--and by Armstrong in 20 "flavors."  This ad was scanned from the July1976 "Reader's Digest".

 Jonathan knew he was different than the other seagulls.

Of course it wasn't all about shag carpets, Watergate and Leisure Suits in the '70s.  We had our best sellers, too.  This is a direct scan of my very own paperback copy of "Jonathan Livingston Seagull."  I read it several times, not a challenge since it's a short book--"a story," as the cover text assures us.

Playing card from the 1970s.  It just seems to say it all, doesn't it?

So have a nice day.  Smile.