January 29, 1965
I didn't go to the P.J. party. P notified me at the last minute of a Senior Planning Board meeting. I'd really rather have gone to the party, and I fussed and fumed for an hour, but I couldn't go. I did stay until 11 o'clock and then came home. It was crowded, but fun. We told dirty jokes, ate candy and listened to records. I met D. She's nice. V lives two houses away.
January 29, 2006
Gee, I wonder why I was so eager to go to Kathy's pajama party! Actually, pajama parties were a great source of all-girl fun in the 1960s. This was long before "sleepovers parties" became elementary school fare. We'd sit around in our best sleepwear, eat junk food and entertain ourselves with the most amazing array of titillating teenaged fun: prank phone calls to cute boys, dirty jokes and, of course, gossip about girls who weren't there. Amateur makeovers (hair and makeup) were also popular amusements.
Having to miss all that (two houses away from V, who might have stopped in to borrow a cup of flour) for a Saturday morning regional Girl Scout meeting of unknown purpose was clearly a giant bummer.
January 29, 2023
My sixteenth birthday (coming later in 1965) was also planned as a pajama party. You will have to wait and see if it happened. So will I, since I don’t remember it. The only memory is that I referred to it as “four on the floor” because my parents would only let me invite three friends. The location would have been our very uncozy 60s-style rec room, with the fake paneling and vinyl floor.
Immediately after I posted this, I went to a party with other folks in my building. Ended up in a group of women my age and older (i.e. 70s and 80s) talking about the joys of pajama parties as a young female space. No brothers, no boyfriends, no dads allowed. Moms permitted to serve snacks and leave immediately. We all made the same prank calls. (Is your refrigerator running?) Midnight skinny dipping in nearby creeks. Good memories!