Eva Pasco's Blog - Posts Tagged "sixties"

Part 2

A newly published author in 2008, I prioritized increasing my visibility, while adding to my credibility, by binge-writing my way out of obscurity. One way I sought to do this—operative word “one”—was to hone in on growing up during the Sixties. I penned my first memoir, “A Mini Tribute to Twiggy,” and submitted it for publication at 'The Sixties Official Site' over ten years ago.

http://www.the60sofficialsite.com/

At that time, the webmaster, Carl Hoffman, graciously invited me to write more, offering to set up my own page there. I eagerly accepted and turned out a memoir every week for approximately two years, contributing 100 in total.

At the urging of a friend, I compiled most of the original memoirs, give or take a few, into a nonfiction collection, published in 2017—'100 Wild Mushrooms: Memoirs of the ‘60s.'

Here’s the aforementioned first memoir, pretty much intact as the original I submitted to the Sixties website:

#1 - A Mini Tribute to Twiggy

“The Face of ‘66”—that’s what London’s Daily Express called Leslie Hornby (Twiggy) at the age of 16. Skinny, waiflike, hair chopped into a boyish cut, the modish ingénue became the world’s first supermodel, and at the same time, my heroic icon.

Twiggy allowed me to become a trendsetter my freshman year of high school. While most of my teen peers were ironing their long hair straight after the Beatles made landfall in America, it became Greaser passé for me to backcomb or rat tease my hair to dizzying heights. While most girls my age developed curves and began to veer into the fast lane, I was rake thin and bookish. Kids in my homeroom affectionately called me “Skinny Bones” or “The Brain.”

Twiggy’s debut on the model runway put everything in perspective for me. Suddenly, I transformed into one of the cutest kids in ninth grade sporting my new chic Vidal Sassoon haircut with a peek-a-boo wave, and showing off my fawn legs in fishnet stockings as I sashayed down the classroom aisles in miniskirts.

Today, Twiggy Lawson still offers us Sixties Chicks inspiration with her ethereal beauty, chic manner of dress, and super achievements through acting and singing. Twiggy herself is quoted as saying, “The Sixties were a time when ordinary people could do extraordinary things.”

The American novelist of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest fame (1962), essayist and countercultural icon, Ken Kesey considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and Hippies of the 1960s.

“You’re either on or off the bus,” he said.

Coinciding with the publication of Kesey’s second novel which required going to New York, he and a group of friends called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a psychedelic, refurbished school bus named Further.

Going a little further in celebrating the spirit of the Sixties, I purchased a “Little Further” bus offered on a website hosted by Zane Kesey, Ken’s son. Utilizing dipart painting, Zane duplicates a technique discovered by the Merry Pranksters high on LSD during their Further tour.

Furthermore, the bus comes with a signed certificate of authenticity, and actually has pull-back action to go go go!

My claim to fame is knowing a fellow writer who corresponded with Ken Kesey and was gifted a bus the merriest of pranksters hand-painted himself.

Far-out!

A source of inspiration to further my own writing, I’ve parked the bus on my desk.
Meantime, I’ve progressed a lot further along Chapter 19 (1913) of my Contemporary work in progress, nearing the finish line.

*When navigating creative endeavors gets tough, may each of us find inspiration to go a little further.

My sincere appreciation to you for reading this far.

Eva’s Authors Den Page: http://www.authorsden.com/evapasco