Paisley Pants
Looking back, Jon was very brave considering where we were going to high school in 1968; Davenport, Iowa. There were three groups; the rockers, the geeks (or brains) and the jocks. Me, I was just trying to survive by hiding in the background and not get beaten up! The last thing I wanted to do was draw attention to myself.
Not so with Jon who became a bit rebellious in his senior year. He wasn’t a bad kid. But in those days a guy could get in trouble if his hair was considered too long. If you look at my senior picture, that hair was considered too long. We were in a very uptight area of the country, to be sure!
I am not sure what he did to get the teachers riled up at him, but one day while switching classrooms, I walked past Jon who was standing in the hall wearing his paisley bell bottoms… probably the offense for which he was being punished. He had been told to stand on one of the square tiles and NOT move. Of course, he was doing his best to entertain himself by goofing of and pretending to step off the square, balancing on one foot, etc. To this day it brings a smile to my face thinking about his antics!
To be honest, I don’t remember if this was the period where we were playing in a band together or whether I had taken off to fool around with Ken Wiles and his friends on the other side of town. I tend to think it was the latter.
The photo I have attached is NOT of the paisley pants Jon had, but I wanted a graphic to go with this post. Actually, the pattern on the bottoms of these slacks is closer to the design of Jon’s crazy pants!
Mick Orton
Categories: History
Man, if you could carry off those trousers, you could carry off anything. Fab-tastic.