But not as bright as your eyes tonight.
Blow out the candles, make your wish come true,
For I'll be wishing that you love me too."
Luther Dixon and Allyson Khent
This song has been running through my mind since I heard that Johnny Maestro died last week. He was a member of the Crests when they recorded this song and it went to #2 on the top hits chart in 1958. I was only 15, but dreaming of being 16 which is the age I was when this picture was taken.
Even then I was interested in photography (and apparently posing). I made my little sister take a bunch of pictures of me in various outfits and locations all the time telling her where to stand and how to hold the camera. (I still do this with Bud when he is taking pictures with me in them.) This one is on the back of Ron's '51 Plymouth convertible. My dress was green and white checked with a matching cummerbund belt. And note the farm-themed background - Dad's John Deere tractor and Grandpa Ridnour's Dodge pickup.
After the Crests broke up, Maestro went on to form the 'Brooklyn Bridge'. In 1984, 'Sixteen Candles' was used as the title of John Hughes' coming of age film with Molly Ringwald. The 'Stray Cats' performed the song for the movie's soundtrack.
Hughes, who directed many more films, including 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' was only eight years old when 'Sixteen Candles' was recorded. He died August 6, 2009 at a young 59 years of age.
Other than being old enough to drive by myself (if my folks would trust me with the '55 turquoise and cream Plymouth) and old enough to date (that didn't happen until four months after I turned 16 [see "Sweet Sixteen blog]), I don't remember much about my 16th birthday. And the diary from that year is lost.
What I do have is the diary from the year I turned 17. It solves one of the questions my friend Donna & I have been asking for a long time: "What was the name of that guy we kidnapped?" The folks trusted me with the car that night. Maybe they shouldn't have.
From the diary: "Donna (Hall) came home on the bus with me. Bonnie (Harvey) came up about 5 p.m. Ellen (Sullivan) couldn't come. We went to Lenox, then to Stringtown about 9:30. Bob Lockhart (Donna's old flame) and two others came out. Bob got in with us. At one point we turned around in a cornfield."
I can still remember that night. I think the poor guy wondered if he was ever going to see his friends again. I think he was afraid we were going to leave him out in the middle of nowhere to find his way - and he had no idea where we were. Such a silly thing to do - but so hilarious at the time. And something Donna & I still remember sixty years later. (Even if we can't remember the guy!)
Oh, to be sixteen.......
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