Crimson Lake, Alberta
“Life Imitates Art” suggests that art in its many forms influences our behaviour. Bear and I decided to explore the theory while we are at the cabin for New Years.
Crimson Lake and nearby Rocky Mountain House are not known for art galleries or theatre venues, so we went looking for art inspiration in old magazines. We have a habit of picking up tattered copies of Life, Saturday Evening Post, Maclean’s, and other publications from the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, so we have a stack of them to draw from.
This New Year’s Eve, I hope you will join Bear and I as we browse through images from the past that influenced our lives.
It was a great pleasure to share our story with you this year. You are the art that inspires us.
Happy New Year!
Rabbit Ears
October 1971 – Life Magazine
Our neighbours, Norman and Edna Clark, were the first people in Arcola, Saskatchewan to own a colour television. One Sunday afternoon in about 1969, they invited the Paton family over to watch The Bugs Bunny Show on their new electronic marvel.
Until that day, I was unaware that the Roadrunner was blue, and Wylie Coyote was ruddy purple.
Owning a colour TV was a very big deal back then, and expensive.
This ad in the October 1971 edition of Life Magazine advertises a “20-inch Admiral color console TV with walnut grained finish” for $399.95. That’s about US$3,500.00 in 2023.
Compare that to a 32” Samsung, on Amazon today for C$248.00.
What cost two weeks wages in 1971, can now be purchased for the price of a family dinner at Red Lobster.
And what you get for your money is vastly superior. The flat screen on the 2023 TV is twice as wide and you can hang the unit on a wall. The colour on the modern Samsung TV is vibrant and the sound is incredible. There are no tubes to malfunction and you don’t have to walk over to it to adjust the volume or fine-tuning.
But what you don’t get with the modern TV is that nice faux-walnut finish, or …
… Rabbit Ears.
Bunny Ears
This image appeared in the October 1971 “Prizewinning Pictures” edition of Life Magazine.
Photographer Kent Barton won First Prize in the “Amateur Faces” category, for the image of his wife and son.
Prior to 1970, images containing nudity were strictly the realm of other magazines, the kind with …
… Bunny Ears.
Catalogue Art
It is a bit of a stretch to call photos from Christmas catalogues “art”, but images from those publications influenced my life more than Van Gogh or Michelangelo.
Take for example page 261 of the 1960 Eaton’s Christmas Catalogue, … this illustration should hang in the Louvre.
Christmas catalogues would arrive in the mail in mid-September; Sears Wish Book, or Eaton’s Christmas Catalogue, depending on your allegiance, (the Paton’s were a “Sears” family). By December, the catalogue would be tattered and torn from over-use, particularly the “cowboy” section in my case.
Brad and I in 1961, imitating …
… Catalogue Art.
Thunder Wagon
If you took a 1962 Ford Thunderbird and turned it into a station wagon, this is what you would get…
… the Paton Family Thunderwagon.
The fuel gauge didn’t work, and the gas tank leaked, a very bad combination.
When I turned 16, I bought the Thunderwagon from Dad. One night in January of 1973, the $100.00 I paid for it seemed like $99.95 too much.
Late that night, I drove two of my buddies and our girlfriends to Kisbey, SK in a raging blizzard, to take the girls home. The Thunderwagon ran out of gas and left us stranded on a back road; all six of us nearly froze to death before we were rescued.
Haute Couture
This article from Life Magazine 1986 – The Year in Pictures, demonstrates just how colourful fashion was in the 80s.
The Paton family in 1988, on the leading edge of …
… haute couture.
Stupid Pet Tricks
Remember David Letterman’s Stupid Pet Tricks in 1986?
I wonder if he does.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Whitney Houston was on the ascent in 1986.
In 2023, Rolling Stone named Houston the second-greatest singer of all time (behind Aretha Franklin)
Big Hair was a big deal in the 80s.
My sister is going to kill me for posting this photo.
Marlboro Man
Magazines were still advertising cigarettes in the mid 80s.
And this Marlboro Man was smoking them.
Rude Jokes
In the 1970s and 80s you could get away with saying stuff like this, taken from old Life magazines:
“If you are here for a year, you will come out with slitty eyes” – Prince Phillip in Peking before a group of English exchange students.
“There are many blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans in America. In consequence the average test score over there is very low. – Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
“It’s a good thing I was born a woman, or I’d have been a Drag Queen”. – singer Dolly Parton
That’s Not a Knife…
The 1986 movie Crocodile Dundee was such a big hit in America it spawned a wave of tourism to the land down under.
…This is a knife.
Progress, of Sorts
In 1967, insurance agents looked like this; 100% old white guys.
The Mutual Life Insurance Company of Canada advertisement, from Maclean’s Magazine, June 1967.
Liberty Mutual Insurance Television Ad, 2023.
Today, you can buy insurance from a man, a woman, old, young, gay, straight, black, white, brown, a goose, a gecko, or an emu …
… Progress, of Sorts.
A few more examples of Life Imitating Art….
“Do you have anything in this shop as beautiful as she Is?”
– Edward in Pretty Woman
Adam and Bianca
“The best thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Zorro, always be Zorro.”
– The Mask of Zorro
Marshall and Deanna
“I believe every day should have at least one exquisite moment”
– Audrey Hepburn
Riley and Taylor
“A time to laugh… and a time to weep. A time to mourn… and there is a time to dance. And there was a time for this law, but not anymore”.
“See, this is our time to dance.”
– Footloose
Aaron and Emma
“You said you and I were gonna get outta town and, for once, just really let our hair down. Well, darlin’, look out, ’cause my hair is comin’ down!”
– Thelma and Louise
Walk of Life
I can’t think of a better example of Life Imitating Art than the video clip below. Bear and I met in 1986, we danced to this tune that first night and we have been bumbling, tumbling, and fumbling through life ever since.
Thank you for sharing our… Walk of Life.
Click on the Walk of Life link above for a prime example of …
… Life Imitating Art
Happy New Year!
Rhonda
Very entertaining, Russ!! Thanks for sharing.
Russ Paton
Thanks Rhonda. Happy New Year!
Keith MacDonald
Loved it, Russ. Brought back so many memories over the years.
Russ Paton
Thanks! Good times for sure…
Janis Condon
An entertaining historical walk through the years of our youth…thanks for that.
Russ Paton
It was a great time to be alive!
Brad
We enjoyed the 2023 blog, Ryan of course is jealous of the “Thunder Wagon”. Most tales from that car should remain history 🙊
Russ Paton
Oh ya! It was definitely a character-building car, or whatever the opposite of that is. 🤩
Millie
I enjoyed your walk of life as I had a few giggles remembering the 60s, 70s, and 80s in our story!! Thanks so much, a giggle now and again makes the walk joyous.
Millie
Russ Paton
Thanks Millie! We will all be giggling about the 2020s someday!