September 2, 2013

"It would be obscene to pine for the urban agony that fomented [Norman] Mailer’s run [for Mayor of NYC]."

"But imagine if the present-day city, so bright and neatly quantified on the surface, so excluding and unequal just underneath, were to produce even one candidate with his brio and originality."

Writes Lee Siegel, in a NYT op-ed titled "When City Elections Were Fun."

I'm blogging this in part so I can show you (once again) one of my favorite old pictures:

Althouse in 1970, age 19

That's the 4th time I've put that picture on the blog. (Previously: "The 51st State," "Norman Mailer died," and "Althouse in 1970.")

IN THE COMMENTS: EDH says: "Althouse looks like a member of the Manson Family in that 1970 photo." And I say "That’s exactly what I thought when I was putting the picture up!" Also, discussion of where I am, what color was may hair, and what was I holding in my hands 43 years ago. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Stephen Cohen.

40 comments:

Wince said...

Althouse looks like a member of the Manson Family in that 1970 photo.

LarryK said...

Groovy, man.

Did anyone at the time ever tell you you looked like Grace Slick? (that's a compliment BTW). There is a resemblance - check out this "Welcome to the 60s" pic from Ms. Slick

http://www.icollector.com/Grace-Slick_i12596011

Big Mike said...

I thought you said you were a strawberry blonde in those days?

Ron said...

"Future Conservative Darling" -- there's your post title when you put it up again!

Anonymous said...

Black and white pictures always make one's hair appear darker, wasn't your hair red? Your hair was probably the kind of hair that was naturally sleek and straight. I had to work on my wavy/ curly hair to achieve that sleek look. Those beer can rollers were popular and ironing was another option, but not as easy.

Oso Negro said...

What is in your hands in that photo? What were you doing that day?

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, NYC's Bad Old Days haven't completely disappeared.

Peter

hoyden said...

Time flies when we are having fun!

We had to go there to get here.

David said...

Be careful what you wish for, Lee Seigal.

Viking In Winter said...

You were one grovy lookin' chick.

Rob said...

You may recall that Mailer's campaign slogan was "No more bullshit." (Should have been Romney's too.)

Mark Trade said...

Wow, it really is you! I notice a similar expression on your face, when you did the Q&A video a while back.

Ann Althouse said...

“Althouse looks like a member of the Manson Family in that 1970 photo.”

That’s exactly what I thought when I was putting the picture up!

“Groovy, man.

Did anyone at the time ever tell you looked like Grace Slick?”

No, but I liked her a lot.

“I thought you said you were a strawberry blonde in those days?”

No. I had a very unusual color of red hair that there isn’t a standard name for. It was medium (not quite as dark as it looks in that photo) and not really what you’d call auburn, but it also wasn’t at all “carrot-y.” Here’s a color picture of me when I was about 17, with somewhat accurate color.

I wish I still had that color, but the white hairs came in early, and by the time I was 30, it was so diluted that it became mousey, and over the years, I gave up on trying to color it to red, which is very hard to get right, especially with white roots. So I just darken it minimally now. I don’t really want to be blonde. It’s just the easiest to do for me.

“Black and white pictures always make one's hair appear darker, wasn't your hair red?”

Yes and yes.

“Your hair was probably the kind of hair that was naturally sleek and straight. I had to work on my wavy/ curly hair to achieve that sleek look. Those beer can rollers were popular and ironing was another option, but not as easy.”

It was pretty straight, but the super-straight look was something I tried to do and did some of the time in high school. The method I used treated the entire head as the roller. You comb it wet around your whole head and use long clips to hold it until it dries.

“What is in your hands in that photo?”

Yes, what was I holding in my hands 43 years ago?
Good question! Probably something boring, but what would make a good story here?

“What were you doing that day?”

I was hanging out with my future husband (now ex-husband) at his parents’ apartment in Pelham Parkway in the Bronx. This is the bedroom his 2 brothers shared. We were probably listening to music, most likely The Grateful Dead. I believe on that visit we saw a midnight show of The Grateful Dead at The Fillmore East. That was back when Pigpen was in the group and Jerry Garcia had just picked up playing the steel guitar.

“You were one groovy lookin' chick.”

Thanks. I see it that way too… now.

Anonymous said...

I'd love to see a picture of your ex husband and Meade at that age, that would be fun.

jacksonjay said...

I am confused again! Is the post about the picture or Don Quixote?

jacksonjay said...

I am confused again! Is the post about the picture or Don Quixote?

Ann Althouse said...

"I'd love to see a picture of your ex husband and Meade at that age, that would be fun."

I have a great picture of Meade at that age, but he won't let me put it up. Really cute.

Of course I have many pictures of RLC too, but I wouldn't put up pictures of him without permission.

Anonymous said...

Ok Meade, why dontcha let Ann post your picture!? And if RLC is reading this, hey how about it?

Heartless Aztec said...

In your hands was a $5 "matchbox" of honkin' Panamanian Red. You guys were twisting up a couple of joints for the Dead show. Or you had a four way blotter hit of Peace acid (peace sign stamped on the paper) that you guys were going to let dissolve your brain. That's what we were all doing in 1970 at Dead concerts. Why would you guys be any different? Addendum: Were you at the Allman Bros show in '71?

Hagar said...

Did your dad ever get kind of an expression on his face when he looked at you?

tim maguire said...

New York City politics got real boring once peope started caring about competence. No color, just a bunch of drab nobodys.

Dang Guilani. Sure, the streets are safe, but where's the graffitti?

David said...

What's more interesting, Althouse as a teenager or the future of New York City?

It's Althouse by a mlle, folks.





Big Mike said...

@Althouse, regarding that picture you linked to in your 2:37 post: Whoa!

I'd have totally asked you out. Of course, my being a math nerd, you'd have said "no way."

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Oh, you're not even in Madison? I thought, "Hey, I was in Madison in 1970, though barely in toddler-dom." But, nooooo, you had to be in the Bronx. Rats. :-)

A. Shmendrik said...

Norman Mailer died? I didn't even know he was sick!

Ann Althouse said...

You can see the original hair color fairly accurately in this picture from the summer of 1980.

Heartless Aztec said...

Old Norm was one hell of a writer.

Ann Althouse said...

(Already a fair amount of white then. I was 29.)

Phil 314 said...

Auburn

Anonymous said...

Madame, one hopes you have learned to sit like a lady since that picture was taken. Tut, Tut. That sort of ill-breeding leads straight to a disreputable future...perhaps as a law professor in a public university.

Robert Cook said...

"You may recall that Mailer's campaign slogan was 'No more bullshit.' (Should have been Romney's too.)"

But that would have been a lie.

Robert Cook said...

I'd call that brick red.

William said...

Interesting to note that Gloria Steinem was active in Mailer's campaign. When it comes to hypocrisy, her support of Clinton was no flash in the pan. Hypocrisy has turned out to be her most enduring trait.....The odd blow job or stabbing are no big deal. The way to properly evaluate a man's support of women's rights is how well he gets along with Gloria Steinem.

Roger Sweeny said...

At the time, I couldn't understand why the ticket wasn't reversed, with Breslin for mayor and Mailer for city council president. Breslin, after all, knew a lot about the city and Mailer was a bleepin' novelist.

Ctmom4 said...

I like the 17 yr old picture. Makes me think of frosty lipstick and go-go boots. Good times!

Ctmom4 said...

Jimmy Breslin's The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight was one of my favorite books.

Ann Althouse said...

"I like the 17 yr old picture. Makes me think of frosty lipstick and go-go boots. Good times!"

Those mod things would have been at least 3 years earlier, before the summer of love. By 1970, it was no makeup and maybe no shoes. Maybe moccasins.

Ann Althouse said...

Amazingly, I thought that no makeup and natural hair would be the way women would look for the rest of time, that we'd reached the end of oppressing women (and men) and it wouldn't take long for everyone to recognize and embrace the liberation. Any women still teasing and spraying their hair and putting on makeup were just late getting the message or sadly deluded. If you had shown me then the pictures of what women in TV and movies would be doing to their faces, it would have really shaken my world.

FleetUSA said...

1970 NYU perfect. I was just out of Navy and enjoying (!!!) the wonderful NYU Law Tax program then. The good life.

eddie willers said...

Amazingly, I thought that no makeup and natural hair would be the way women would look for the rest of time, that we'd reached the end of oppressing women (and men) and it wouldn't take long for everyone to recognize and embrace the liberation.

I thought there would be no more war and that the Republicans would never take the House of Representatives in my lifetime.*


* The irony is that at that time my girlfriend's faculty advisor was Newt Gingrich.