David Cassidy. I Know I Still Kind Of Love You.

"Mom, I'm going to Patka's." That five word sentence would be transmitted to my mother on a monthly basis. Those were the days when a kid could walk around an entire neighborhood (a couple of miles all four ways around) without fear attached to the solo walk. There was only one reason why I would be walking to Patka's. Patka's was located approximately two and a half blocks from my house and they sold magazines. The only magazines this little girl had any interest in were the teen idol magazines.


It was the fall of 1970 and I was coming off a spectacular summer as the season concluded with a two week family vacation in sunny Southern California. We went to visit my mother's eldest sister who lived in Burbank and we did it all during that vacation. Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm (my dad and I rode the log ride four times in a row), Marineland (which isn't there anymore), the CBS tour (I saw Carol Burnett's parking space), a Dodgers game (I'm an American League fan, but this was so cool because we saw Hank Aaron play in his Braves uniform), Universal Studios (where we met Woody Woodpecker and Frankenstein's monster). I refer to this time in my life as this summer and then some and the then some now has me being grateful for having come of age in the early 1970's.


Everything about pop culture at the time was absolutely fantastic! The movies were great (perhaps, only the 1940's surpassed the era for the creation of great movies). These were the Oscar winners for Best Picture from that decade. (Patton, The French Connection, The Godfather, The Sting, The Godfather II, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rocky, Annie Hall, The Deerhunter, Kramer vs. Kramer). All were critically acclaimed to varying degrees and all were commercial successes (even the Woody Allen movie would turn a profit). The television shows were great (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Police Woman, The Rockford Files). The music was spectacular. The big name acts were among the best groupings in the history of pop music; and the one hit wonders of the era are still deliciously happy tunes. How many of you can still sing along to "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)," "Dancing in the Moonlight," "Ooh Child" and "Sugar, Sugar (technically, this one was released in 1969, but it so sounds like a '70's song)?"

As I approached the new school year I was about to crash directly into my first head-on crush. Well, actually I fell in love with Robert Redford the year before, but he was old enough to be my father, so my youthful brain got real this time around. David Cassidy was a doll! He had gorgeous near chocolate brown locks with a lovely part down the middle (I never had a straight part). Yes, even his part was adorable! He had long eyelashes and the proverbial teen idol killer smile!

My cousin Marifran and I went to see David Cassidy at the Arie Crown Theater and we sat in the very last row!!!!! Obviously, I wasn't alone in my lovefest, but it didn't matter. I knew David could see me sitting back there and I assumed I would marry him in about 10 years!!! I don't think I screamed, since even back then I'm positive I wouldn't have given even David the satisfaction of screaming at him. I also knew I wasn't alone with my feelings since both my mother and my sister had their own teen idol experiences.

My mother has told me a million times (and I do mean a million times) how she and her sister, Rosemary were among the first bobby soxers for Frank Sinatra. She can wax poetic about their day at the Chicago Theater back in the summer of 1942. They screamed and screamed and eeeee gads my mother took off a piece of her clothing (bobby socks). My mom and her sister took a streetcar into the heart of the city to see a skinny Frank Sinatra. This grand and still powerful moment in my dear mother's life goes way back to a time slightly after the bombs started dropping on Pearl Harbor. That time is more than a half century ago, but my mom's deeply rooted connection to "the Voice" is still there. She and I recently watched all four installments of Turner Classic Movies' tribute to 'Ol Blue Eyes. If you haven't seen these television specials that aired over the four Sunday nights in May you missed out on a piece of life that no longer exists. The specials were simple. Frank Sinatra singing. You need no more.

My sister had her moment of hair pulling back in the winter of 1964 when the Beatles made their two Ed Sullivan appearances on the CBS Television Network. The lads from Liverpool left their mark on my big sister's life. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! She still loves you George!

Teen idols are potent and influential forces upon the lives of the young girls/women who fall prey to their charms, looks and talent. Frank and the Beatles, along with Elvis Presley obviously became much more than passing teen idol fads. All of them became pop culture phenoms and for all intents and purposes the three most consequential musical acts of the last 75 years. They'd be our Bach, Beethoven and Mozart - if you will.

The chief component for a little girl is quite frankly the cute factor. Yes, they have to have some talent, but what is essential in a teen idol is the face. I can best describe the experience as the "I knew I was a woman" moment. On September 25, 1970 "The Partridge Family" premiered on ABC. Little did I know that on that particular Friday night my life would not necessarily be changed, but it would be altered. I fell in love - at first sight.

I loved the David Cassidy of season one (1970-1971 season). I loved his hair in season one. Yes, I've got to mention the hair again. I loved the parted down the middle version better than the follow up shag cut. Now don't get me wrong I still loved him with the longer shag version, but it was not the same as the part in the middle version. It was with this hair style that he sang and emoted the biggest hit of his career and one of the great pop songs of the era. On December 1, 1970, Keith Partridge sang "I Think I Love You" in the episode entitled, "My Son, the Feminist." That song sounds as good today as it did 38 years ago! I can remember what I was feeling as though it were yesterday. Friday nights I owned David.

I knew everything about him. He was born on April 12, 1950, his favorite song was "The Thrill is Gone" by B.B. King and Jack Cassidy was his dad. I still remember lots of things about David from years of reading "16," "16 Spec," "Tiger Beat" and "Tiger Beat Spectacular." For all you middle aged women (sorry, we are now technically middle aged women) you certainly remember those magazines. David, Bobby Sherman and Donny Osmond would be gracing the covers, the inside front covers, the back covers, the inside back covers and every page in between with a centerfold smack dab in the middle. I had 64 pictures of David Cassidy on the walls of my bedroom. It was wallpaper. Today, I'm sure his "people" would be selling wallpaper. I owned all of their albums, although for some odd reason I only kept one of them. I still have the original "The Partridge Family Album." It's all raggedy with a rip down the side, but the following still exists. I wrote this on the back cover - "Judy (I went by Judy in those days, although I had alternate spellings of the name Judy with Judee taking over in high school) --A True David Cassidy Fan Forever." I don't know the psychology of why I kept that album, but I'm glad I did.

The deep emotional attachment to the memory of my own youth includes my young girl devotion to David Cassidy. I can still feel my heart beating a bit faster and there is a big butterfly floating around in my tummy whenever I hear that number one song from the fall of 1970.

"I'm sleeping and right in the middle of a good dream."

Copyright The Flaming Nose 2008