My Bedroom - March 28, 1972
This was staged to create a "wacky" photo. Every now and then, when her mother was in the hospital, my dreamy gal pal Angela would be invited to stay with us. This photo was taken about 2 AM or so. How do I know it was taken March 28, 1972? Because the sticky cardstock backing Polaroid supplied to stiffen the photo had a space to enter such invaluable historical information, and, being a born archivist, I did so.
Angela is holding the ceremonial Knights of Columbus sword my parents bought at an auction. It has a sausage and a tea bag string impaled thereupon. Her stocking feet can be seen in the foreground. She is wearing my lime green polo shirt on her head. In the lower left-hand corner you can see part of a municipal construction light I helped myself to. The City of Burbank was doing some work on Lincoln Street, and one night I took one of the stanchions and removed the blinking yellow light. It became room decor. Stacked upon the books is one of my black canvas Converse high-tops, my sneaker of choice.
I recognize one of the books as being Mary Stewart's "The Crystal Cave," a groundbreaking quasi-historical novel of Merlin and the first in her eventual trilogy. Since Angela and I were deeply interested in Arthurian literature, it was an obvious reading selection. Another book in the book case is T.H. White's "The Once and Future King," another favorite, also about King Arthur.
The LP soundtrack to "West Side Story," which I nearly wore out from continual replaying, can be seen. This aired for the first time on television earlier that spring of 1972. I tuned in and was thoroughly hooked with its odd combination of great music, a tragic plot, ballet, the street gangs and racial violence. To this day it is still my favorite musical. As a fifteen year old I affected what street mannerisms and garb I could (mostly jeans and a tee-shirt with my belt buckle worn to the side), which kept me badly out of sync with the double-knit early Seventies.