I seek ideas for my 60th birthday party. Theme: The '60s!

[Not Heidi]

I'll take any ideas you have.

I am especially looking for food ideas. So far for foods that originated in the '60s, we're doing shrimp cocktail, onion dip , and Jello mold.

Hit me!

[snowybirdie]

1. Got to have

Sloppy Joe's

[LakeArenal]

21. Yes sloppy joes!!!

[yonder]

2. It's a milestone for sure. How about music from the B-52's?

Get it?

Happy 60th!

[Not Heidi]

19. too bad the B-52s don't fit

They are my number one band from my high school days (and carrying illicitly onto the campus of Los Angeles Baptist College . . . .).

[spooky3]

3. Electric brownies? JK. Nt

[dweller]

4. Fondue ?

✌🏻

[Laffy Kat]

6. That's a great idea!

Most everyone (or their parents) have a fondue set packed away somewhere.

[dweller]

13. That's when I was introduced to fondue

My mom would have ideas from some woman’s magazine, and we’d be the subjects to her culinary creations. I remember cheese fondue, and a dessert one with Angel food cake, cherries and chocolate…
I bet I have a fondue set stashed around here somewhere 😆


✌🏻

[Laffy Kat]

27. Oh, us too!

I remember my mom going through a fondue stage and we had the same: meat, cheese, chocolate with fruit and angel food cake. I don't think it was used more than a half of dozen times, though. I bet they're relatively easy to find at garage sales or..hey..ebay!

[a kennedy]

49. I love fondue, still.....

[jls4561]

5. Thinking back to what was a hit at elementary school slumber parties...

Jiffy Pop! And Pringles!

[underpants]

7. Carrot cake

Al Franken wrote, about liberals, in one of his books “They’ll never forgive us for carrot cake”.

Or some sort of mud pie - Woodstock reference

[Laffy Kat]

8. Don't forget to wear fishnet stockings

[Not Heidi]

10. :D

I ordered a pair of bell bottoms from eBay. I hope to Bob they fit.

[ret5hd]

20. And hula-hoops!

[MLAA]

36. Eye liner and blue eye shadow and big plastic round earrings!

[Laffy Kat]

54. The blue eye shadow, of course.

I remember going through what I call my Maybelline Years, spending half an hour getting my eye shadow just right, blue/white/blue.

[electric_blue68]

26. With white go-go boots! I nagged my folks till they got me a pair in 6th grade - '66! 😄🧡

[MLAA]

37. I got 'em in 7th grade, went well with hot pants! Bur oh how I envied a girl in my class who had red

white and blue ones!

[electric_blue68]

41. Aha! R,W & B? Cool! Hot pants hadn't been invented yet back then except for ?daisy dukes.

[MLAA]

42. Must have been 1972 or 1973

[electric_blue68]

47. 👍

[Different Drummer]

48. Well, if you're going there...

of course, you have to have meat loaf.



(Rocky Horror Picture Show reference)

[No Vested Interest]

9. Green beans topped with fried onion bits.

Beets in orange-sauce would also be appropriate.

[debm55]

12. meatloaf or Salisbury steak

[MLAA]

14. Spray cheese on ritz crackers?

Pigs in crescent roll blankets. Peanut butter in celery sticks.

[LakeArenal]

22. Spray cheese !!!

[MLAA]

38. And it was a weird shade of Orange as I recall

[MLAA]

15. Thought of another one...tuna noodle casserole!

[blm]

17. With potato chips crumbled on top.

[MLAA]

39. Of course! Haha!

[Laffy Kat]

28. Confession: I still love tuna noddle casserole.

I never make it, however, because I would be the only one eating the darn thing.

[dweller]

30. I haven't in a looong time but

I have small casserole dishes, as I live alone, kids grown etc … so recently craved tuna casserole… only drawback, the can of mushroom soup is too big! So I googled a recipe w/out soup and it’s simple … just make a roux
I sautéed diced shrooms, made a roux with them,1 foil pack of tuna, noodles and 1/2 small can Leseaur peas. At the last minute added 1/4 cup of grated mixed Italian cheese
Damn was it good ! Making again next week. I get 2 meals out of it



✌🏻

[Laffy Kat]

31. LOL. I laugh because I have the same problem.

A few months ago, I had to use cream of mush. soup for something in the crockpot, so I put a little aside to make myself a tiny tuna noodle casserole, although I never got around to it and the soup sat in the fridge too long and I had to throw it out.

[dweller]

32. The roux was better than the soup

Bc I could add onions, shrooms and seasonings in it … try it

✌🏻

[Laffy Kat]

33. I believe you.

It's just that I crave Mom's version: Noodles, cream of mush., tuna, potato chips (or corn flakes) on top, that's it. She seemed to make it when my dad was out of town, so I bet he wasn't a fan.

[MLAA]

40. My mom never made it but it was standard fare a a friend's house and oh, I loved it.

[MLAA]

34. Yum!

[Meadowoak]

16. Tang.

[gibraltar72]

18. Swansons TV dinners.

[Nittersing]

23. Eaten on TV trays!

[MLAA]

35. Metal ones with outdoor scenes on them!

[Laffy Kat]

29. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas.

When my parents had their date nights we got to eat TV dinners. I remember my big sister, who was babysitting me, insisted that we HAD to sit in front of the TV while eating our TV dinners. Happy memories.

[Scrivener7]

43. And the "brownie" or "apple cobbler" in that little compartment between the

potato and pea compartments.

I was one of six, so I had to fight for the fried chicken. Next favorite was salisbury steak. I usually ended up with the turkey.

[Laffy Kat]

44. Yes, I forgot the dessert.

[LakeArenal]

24. A jello mold with fruit cocktail

Ambrosia salad
Fried Spam.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

25. Tomato aspic...

Ugh

Root beer floats?

[Not Heidi]

45. Ew.

Root beer floats . . . great idea!

[sarge43]

46. Sorry to nitpick, but Jello molds have been around since the '30's

Very popular during the Depression because they were cheap and easy to make. Cherry Jello with a can of fruit cocktail dumped in was called Gelatine ala Titanic because all the fruit wound up at the bottom of the mold.

How about tie dye T shirts, lots of denim, embroidered or patches. For the establishment rep, bouffant hairdo, pill box hat and A line sleeveless dress.

[jmowreader]

50. Okay, so here's what you do

First, buy a bunch of TV dinners. Unfortunately, you can't get proper TV dinners on foil trays anymore, so the ones you can find will have to do. The "classic" TV dinner is fried chicken.

Agree on the shrimp cocktail, onion dip - with potato chips only, please - and Jello molds. If you want to do an authentic Jello mold, see if your mom will allow you to borrow the copper molds she's using to decorate her kitchen.

You certainly want to decorate your home Sixties-style, and an easy way to do this is by putting doilies all over the place. If you really want to go wild and you've got a bunch of money in your budget, call a sign shop and ask how much it would be to wrap your refrigerator in Harvest Gold-colored vinyl. This will be most effective if you've got a top-freezer refrigerator like you'd find in a 1963 kitchen.

Drinking? Of course! What would a Sixties-themed party be without a lot of alcohol? Manhattans, Old Fashioneds, Sidecars, Gimlets, Grasshoppers and of course Martinis will fit in well. Beer should be such basic brands as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Miller High Life, Budweiser and Schlitz.

How to dress? You were born in 1963, so we were still in the Fifties era. We hadn't gotten to the hippie years yet. Men should wear suits, ties and fedoras or trilbys with polished oxford shoes. Women should wear short dresses and heels. Fifties makeup was very subtle eye shadow with heavy liner, very subtle blush, but a LOT of foundation and powder and bright-red lips with matching nails. Earrings were big but didn't dangle. If Holly Golightly would have worn them in Breakfast at Tiffany's, they will be perfect. And of course you need a pearl necklace - not THAT kind of pearl necklace, but one with actual pearls that came from actual oysters on a string.

And now for the one you probably don't want to do: In 1963, cigarette smoking parties were extremely popular. The host would set out bowls of cigarettes and books of matches, and the guests would happily puff away until the cigs were all gone. Even people who didn't smoke would smoke at these parties. It wasn't until about 1967 before these turned into pot parties and the bowls were filled with joints. Only do this if it's warm enough outside to send the crowd into the backyard, and I wouldn't recommend that you do it at all.

[LudwigPastorius]

51. Buy some of these:

and serve on TV trays in front of a DVD of whatever your favorite show was. (Mine would have been 'Lost In Space' back then.)

Then later, presumably when the kids went to bed, you can break out the mambo and bossa nova records on the hi fi and serve some of those mamby pamby drinks with umbrellas in them.

[Not Heidi]

52. Ten points for namby pamby!

🍹🍹🍹🍹

[Not Heidi]

53. You gave me a great idea.

If i can find a place that sells empty aluminum TV dinner trays, I'll buy a few and set them among the food for folks to drop their toothpicks and shrimp tails onto.