They were taken in August of 1983, at 19 Ramona Avenue in Oakland, California. I'm the kid wearing the Mount St. Helens t-shirt. This was definitely during my volcano phase—that is to say, post-sharks and dinosaurs, pre-V: The Miniseries.
Behind me are my absolutely incredible kid friends at the time. Good Lord, the stripes! The thing I loved about my childhood birthdays was, the kids brought their adults. So the grown-ups would get drunk on white wine and cocktails while the kids and I got progressively rowdier.
Yep. Things were lawless by this point.
The woman with the lavender headscarf was Lisa Kastle. She was this awesome hippie chick/local celeb who designed and sold t-shirts festooned with dinosaurs. Needless to say, I was obsessed with her. Her company was called Tough Shirts. At the time, I didn't get it. But now, it makes me chuckle.
These pics were taken one year after these, and they're positively minimalist in comparison. In 1982, the place was decked out in potted plants and olive-green carpet. This year, we were refinishing the hardwood floors. Looking back, it looks kinda cool, like a warehouse party.
This was my babysitter, Jessica Butz. She's the belle of the ball, must've been that kick-ass puff-sleeve, wide-collar, sailor-ish dress(?). I'm sorry, I know nothing about apparel. I lost touch with Jessica in the mid-1980's, but I hope she still has this outfit.
These girls were Natalie and Tanya Pavloff, daughters of my mom's high-school friend,
Catherine "Cathy" Pavloff (January 25th, 1943—September 3rd, 2013). You can read Cathy's obituary here. They were a lot of fun. I love that Tanya is holding a cocktail of some sort.
The more I think about it, this particular "warehouse party" birthday celebration must've been responsible for my predilection for raving in the mid-90's. I don't remember who took these pictures, but there's a certain artistry involved, verdad? Depth of field, crap like that. There was a really good lens involved.
To you and yours, Happy Absolutely Incredible Kids Day!
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