Beautiful Memories

We three loved hanging out together - me, Karin and Sue. We spent our formative years being close friends in New Jersey. We went to camp together, to Sue's family cottage together. We had many sleepovers and talked about boys (or lack of boys), played guitars together, braided each other's hair. The above picture is post-braiding with a hand-written note that says after and in the picture below the note reads before. 

We loved James Taylor and Carole King. (I think part of the hair braiding thing came about because each of us had pin-straight hair and Carole didn't.)

When the Tapestry album came out in 1971 (we were high school sophomores) we listened together as a group and also alone in our rooms. It is amazing that the grooves on the album kept producing sounds due to its heavy use.

Each song brings me back to those days - break-ups, make-ups, fresh starts, encouraging words, and just plain old fun!

I Feel the Earth Move

So Far Away

It's Too Late

Beautiful

Way Over Yonder

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You've Got a Friend

Where you Lead

Will You Love Me Tomorrow?

Smack Water Jack

You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman

When I learned of the play Beautiful coming to Chicago, I put tickets to it on the top of the Christmas gift list - a list of one thing. It is the story of Carole King as a young, gifted singer/songwriter through her early years of marriage and family and ending up around the time she moves to California and produces the Tapesstry album.

The guy in the furry hat delivered!

It was Some Kind of Wonderful. Beautiful. And I think I (Could) Feel the Earth Move with each song sung in the show. I hated for it to be over so soon.

There's a great book out there, published in 2008 and written by Sheila Weller, about Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon. The title is GIRLS LIKE US and it gives an in-depth portrayal of these three

musicians. As for Carole King, I was thrilled to see her honored recently at the Kennedy Center.

As an homage, I will not be copying her hair ever again.

Once is more than enough!!

Update:  apparently I did it twice as pointed out my my friend, Sandi.  Braces in the top pictures and no braces in the bottom picture my senior year. Not only was I making bad choices, but I forgot about them! Onward and forward, and no braids in my immediate future.