I found the 70's in my fireplace! I'll start from the beginning. Our fireplace is one of those 'groovy' one wall of sandstone things that every house in the 70's had. Its huge and inefficient. There is a ducting system that is inside the fireplace and has a blower attached to it. See that black box to the right in the photo below? That's the blower. The ancient blower was broken when we bought the place.
Now.... In true Frankie and Jimmy style....what started out as a simple fireplace cleaning , turned into a major project. Once I got all the ash out of the fireplace (it wasn't completely clean when we moved in) I saw the metal duct on the bottom , under the rack. I called Jimmy to inspect the oddity and we determined that the design was cool and should be preserved . So, We pulled the whole thing apart to clean and repair it. The duct came out first and under that I found the pristine, unblackened beer pull tab. When we pulled off the black box we found a metal comb. Jimmy said 'oh look some kind of metal comb!' I got really excited when I realised what it was. It was the precursor to the 1970's afro pick. I remember this because of my father. I was hopscotching and cloud counting behind Dad one day, when we saw a guy with a huge afro. He had one of these combs stuck in his hair. I thought the guy looked 'groovy'. Huge red afro, skin tight bell bottom pants and a skin tight, tye dyed t-shirt. My father made a snorting noise and commented something to the effect of ' "When you need a dog comb for your hair....its time for a hair cut!" That's when I really looked at the guy AND his comb and started to giggle. Probably because my Dad very seldom drew my attention to anything that wasn't immediately relevant to my kid world (bless the man for letting me hop on one foot endlessly and poke sticks in the dirt and for not forcing me into an adult world before I was ready) It went into long term memory.
Jimmy and I now have an image of 'groovy dude' sitting on the mantle in 1975. Bennie and the Jets is wafting from the stereo. Some foxy lady ( in crushed velvet hot pants) walks over and hands him a can of beer. He pops the beer tab and casually tosses it into the fireplace and leans back against the sandstone wall (cuz he's so cool). He pats his leg in invitation and she sits on his lap. They start 'making out' ('making out' in the 70's meant kissing, I have no idea what it means now)...... He doesn't notice that his comb has fallen out of his hair and slipped down the wall behind the blower box. The blower box that wouldn't be removed from its position until it needed to be repaired 38 years later! We imagine that at some point in the evening he searched for his comb and maybe the foxy lady helped him look for it before they gave up and he gave her a ride home in his Chevy Nova.
Groovy Dude is still out there someplace. He doesn't have any hair left so he doesn't need his comb. His bell bottoms are long gone. They went missing after he let one of his kids wear them to 70's day at school. He sighs wistfully when he thinks of crushed- velvet- hot- pants- foxy- lady and then goes out to the garage to 'tinker' with his classic nova that he only drives on sunny days in the summer. Sometimes, when he's tinkering, he thinks about that night and wonders "what the hell happened to that comb?"
Now.... In true Frankie and Jimmy style....what started out as a simple fireplace cleaning , turned into a major project. Once I got all the ash out of the fireplace (it wasn't completely clean when we moved in) I saw the metal duct on the bottom , under the rack. I called Jimmy to inspect the oddity and we determined that the design was cool and should be preserved . So, We pulled the whole thing apart to clean and repair it. The duct came out first and under that I found the pristine, unblackened beer pull tab. When we pulled off the black box we found a metal comb. Jimmy said 'oh look some kind of metal comb!' I got really excited when I realised what it was. It was the precursor to the 1970's afro pick. I remember this because of my father. I was hopscotching and cloud counting behind Dad one day, when we saw a guy with a huge afro. He had one of these combs stuck in his hair. I thought the guy looked 'groovy'. Huge red afro, skin tight bell bottom pants and a skin tight, tye dyed t-shirt. My father made a snorting noise and commented something to the effect of ' "When you need a dog comb for your hair....its time for a hair cut!" That's when I really looked at the guy AND his comb and started to giggle. Probably because my Dad very seldom drew my attention to anything that wasn't immediately relevant to my kid world (bless the man for letting me hop on one foot endlessly and poke sticks in the dirt and for not forcing me into an adult world before I was ready) It went into long term memory.
Jimmy and I now have an image of 'groovy dude' sitting on the mantle in 1975. Bennie and the Jets is wafting from the stereo. Some foxy lady ( in crushed velvet hot pants) walks over and hands him a can of beer. He pops the beer tab and casually tosses it into the fireplace and leans back against the sandstone wall (cuz he's so cool). He pats his leg in invitation and she sits on his lap. They start 'making out' ('making out' in the 70's meant kissing, I have no idea what it means now)...... He doesn't notice that his comb has fallen out of his hair and slipped down the wall behind the blower box. The blower box that wouldn't be removed from its position until it needed to be repaired 38 years later! We imagine that at some point in the evening he searched for his comb and maybe the foxy lady helped him look for it before they gave up and he gave her a ride home in his Chevy Nova.
Groovy Dude is still out there someplace. He doesn't have any hair left so he doesn't need his comb. His bell bottoms are long gone. They went missing after he let one of his kids wear them to 70's day at school. He sighs wistfully when he thinks of crushed- velvet- hot- pants- foxy- lady and then goes out to the garage to 'tinker' with his classic nova that he only drives on sunny days in the summer. Sometimes, when he's tinkering, he thinks about that night and wonders "what the hell happened to that comb?"
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| 1970's beer pull tab 1970's afro comb |
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| 1970's sandstone fireplace |
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