Illustration Friday: Homage & Way Back When-sday: 1977

Homage to Holly Hobbie

Hi friends - This will be a multi-purpose post today. This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Homage", so, I recycled an illustration I did for IF in 2006 for the topic "Simple". I did the illustration as an homage to the Holly Hobbie style of illustration, and used a quote from Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie) to complete the 70's prairie vibe. You can read what I wrote about it back then here - suffice to say I was very influenced by Holly Hobbie's illustration style - loved EVERYTHING Holly Hobbie...and you can read more about that in my next segment...

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1977

1977 was the year I turned Sweet Sixteen. And how's this for a segue - I had a Holly Hobbie cake that year!...most of my church youth group attended my party at my home; cable TV was a brand new thing, and we all sat around and watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"...it was an interesting birthday...

1977 was also the year I got my first job...$1.75 per hour as a concession stand worker at the city swimming pool!!

And oh my, I was in the full blush of High School classes and fun, youth group trips and activities, driving around Pasadena chasing boys (4 girls would each pitch in a quarter for the evening - a dollar's worth of gas would get us around town all evening and then some)...ahhh, carefree times....

How in the world did we learn to fold those origami-esque notes that we passed in school...? (see above) I was probably more interested in who liked who and what movie we were going to see on Saturday than I was in Physics, as evidenced by the only 'C' I ever got in High School...ugh, did I hate Physics....

Speaking of movies, of course the number one box office smash in 1977 was...

Star Wars!!!

I kid you not, I saw it 27 times at the movies that year!!! There had never been another movie like it - it was spectacular and breathtaking and fun...oh yeah, and it had Harrison Ford in it!!!

Here are the other top grossing films of 1977:

2. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
3. Smokey and the Bandit
4. Saturday Night Fever
5. In Search of Noah's Ark
6. The Spy Who Loved Me
7. Annie Hall
8. Across the Great Divide
9. For the Love of Benji
10. Kingdom of the Spiders

Disco got a huge boost in 1977 with the release of Saturday Night Fever- I had a love/hate relationship with that music...it was great for dancing, but I was really more of a rocker at heart in those days....but I also liked sappy ballads...I had (have) eclectic tastes in music.

Here are the top pop songs of 1977:

1. Tonight's The Night, Rod Stewart
2. I Just Want To Be Your Everything, Andy Gibb
3. Best Of My Love, Emotions
4. Love Theme From "A Star Is Born", Barbra Streisand
5. Angel In Your Arms, Hot
6. I Like Dreamin', Kenny Nolan
7. Don't Leave Me This Way, Thelma Houston
8. (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher, Rita Coolidge
9. Undercover Angel, Alan O'Day
10. Torn Between Two Lovers, Mary MacGregor

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So, from Holly Hobbie to Hans Solo...'77 was an eclectic-kinda year - and one of my most fun...

So - what was 1977 like for you - good year, not so good? How many times did you see Star Wars? Did you have a Holly Hobbie doll? We're dying to know - please leave a comment and let us in on your take on the year 1977 (if you were even alive...I keep forgetting how old I am :o)