The Dog Days of Summer, 1969 style

Man that was a sunny and hot August first yesterday. A repeat coming today and the same is forecast for tomorrow. Great days to take in the big world while doing nothing . . . so while I dozed . . . in my cedar adirondack . . . by the lake . . . under the big blue umbrella . . . I scrolled through a hundred intertwined memories of young teens idling away the dog days of summer circa 1969. Idling was a rare treat for me since I had a job with Dad every summer since I was old enough to push a broom and do cleanup on his construction sites. Idle days, as infrequent as they were, were a welcome reprieve from work, and work kept me out of trouble. 

I started tagging along with Dad to work long before I was old enough to be considered a useful hand, and it took me years to understand that all the while, Dad was teaching and I was learning . . . he did it for me. To this day I draw upon tidbits of knowledge that may have laid latent for fifty or more years . . . things that he taught me about work and life and people and humour. 

Anyway . . . back on track with this yarn de jour . . . so in this collaged memory clip, here we are . . . a bunch of young teens . . . flattening the grass at Sunny Beach on a hot August afternoon. Not a lot of activity . . . contemplating life and how our lives would roll out following this “summer of love”, of which most of us knew nothing. It was often fun to contemplate where we’d be when the calendar flipped to year 2000, so many years ahead. The girls are wearing jeans or maybe shorts and blouses knotted in front above the belly button that would be duly unknotted before going home for supper. The guys are wearing worn jeans, coloured T-shirts, and Grebbs . . . the jeans, T’s, and Grebbs being integral to the image, as are the girls with the knotted blouses. Complimenting this image with a pouch of makin’s, a pack of papers, and very little cash makes for a scene that is very Tom Sawyeresque. 

First . . . the guys’ T’s. This was back in the day that the T itself was the statement, not what was silk-screened on it. It didn’t advertise anything, it didn’t promote anything, it didn’t identify with anything. At best, it might be the poor product of a basement washtub tie-dying adventure, but for the most part, they were single-coloured, well worn T’s. Next were the Grebbs. Work boots were “it” for my generation. Nike and Rebok had not spawned yet so sneakers as we know them today were out, and the few name brands that were available, like Converse for example, were expensive and remained primarily on hardwood. Grebbs, laced at the bottom and open at the top, were way cool. I do recall dabbling in Shogomocs a time or two. They were beautiful leather moccasins made in Freddy by Palmer McLellan. They had a leather sole, absolutely no arch support, and were as slippery as snot on wet grass . . . downright ghastly things, but they were cool! Trends are trends, and the Shogomocs ran their course . . . . and then back to the Grebbs.

And then the jeans . . . jeans anywhere, anytime . . . jeans at school . . . jeans at Sunny Beach . . . jeans at the drive-in . . . jeans at the park. Jeans were likely faded navy blue, but could be burgundy, wine, or orange . . . maybe even a yellow pair. Lots of colour back then. All became well-worn garments through natural wear and tear, and none were conditioned with age prior to sale, and most were sold by Chippin’s on York. To date this image, it was likely pre bell bottoms, so a long, long time ago. OK, the only male attire at my Sunny Beach reminisce other than regular jeans would be jean cut-offs, and sparingly at that, and only if a dip was eminent. Dress shorts didn’t exist, only for old men, and in the style of atrocious Bermuda shorts . . . way uncool. Gym shorts were for . . . well . . . gym. Cut-offs were the standby for the beach or a dip in the stream, but were not allowed in the pool. The pool required trunks. Trunks didn’t work at Sunny Beach . . . or with Grebbs . . . it gets complicated. The only thing acceptable other than jeans were cut-off jeans, as it’s really difficult to wear anything other than jeans with Grebbs and make it work. 

In the grand scheme of life as it has rolled out for fifty-some years onward, and with all of the distractions kids have today, our days at Sunny Beach were Utopian, Grebbs and cut-off shorts notwithstanding.