In September of 1963, we had our second child, five and 1/2 years after Randy was born. Randy had very blond hair and looked a lot like his dad. I was hoping that our second child would be a girl with dark hair, and pretty like Don's mother. Well, what do you know, Cheryl, came exactly as we ordered.
Cheryl was such a sweet, sunny baby with lots of silky, dark hair. She was always happy and had a smile on her face. She will be fifty years old this next September, 2013 (where did that time go?) and she still looks young with that same happy smile on her face. Her hair is still dark and silky, although she claims that she helps that darkness along a bit with some chemicals. I don't know?
Looking back through our pictures I realize that you can pretty much keep track of decades of fashion by following Cheryl's hair styles. She has always been pretty much a jeans and tailored shirt or T-shirt kind of girl. She has always kept her wardrobe pretty simple. But she always liked the newest kind of shoes, and the newest style hair cuts.
As you can see from the pictures at the top of the page, her parents really decided her hair styles for the first few years. Her very first haircut happened while she was visiting her Grandma and Grandpa, Don's parents.
Grandma's beautician, Mavis lived across the street. She came to Grandma's house and cut Cheryl's hair while Grandpa held Cheryl in his lap. After that we usually took her to the beauty school for trims.
Jon loves to tease Cheryl about her first grade picture. See her in her little plaid dress. Jon says, "Look, her bangs are all crooked, she's missing her front teeth, and there is a piece of lint on her dress!" Poor child, her mother must have been in a hurry that morning. The next picture is maybe third grade. As you can see this is the era of "The Brady Bunch", and Cheryl is wearing the Marcia Brady look. And THEN we get into the decade of the Hippies! Women were buying a kind of half wig called a "fall." It was longer hair attached to a head band, and it made your hair look long and straight. I bought one in a moment of madness, and I even wore it once or twice. I must have lost my mind. However, Cheryl loved it and wanted one of her own. Of course her dad bought her one. She wore it to school ONCE. One of the boys in her class chased her all over the playground trying to pull it off. No one chased me, but I think they laughed behind my back.
But Cheryl did persevere and let her hair grow until maybe the fourth grade. So in the next pictures you see her with the authentic hippy hair.
Thankfully, 1976 arrived, and Dorothy Hamill won the figure skating gold medal at the Olympics. You must remember adorable Dorothy with her all-American wholesomeness, and her wedge hair cut. So Cheryl had to try the Wedge or Dorothy Hamill hair cut, and it was just perfect for her face and hair.
So she kept the wedge for quite awhile, and it just naturally grew into the teen-aged "feathered" look. That is her hair kept getting longer and longer, and she feathered her bangs back from her face. This lasted through high school until her senior year. You know we are now into the 80's, the time of BIG HAIR! So Cheryl went with the trend and started getting those long curly perms. In fact, her brother, Rod, had some curly perms too. But that is another story for another time.
The curly perms saw her through the rest of high school, into college, dating Jon, getting married, and even last until after Taylor was born.
But, as you can see, it wasn't long after having that busy little guy, Cheryl decided that it was time for a new short hairstyle. What a good idea. And she has pretty much kept some variation of that same short style every since.
But there are some wonderful things that have never changed. Cheryl is still the same sweet girl with the happy face and the beautiful smile. She is full of love and has a beautiful heart.
Here is her latest school picture. Yes, I may be 76 years old, but I still get a school picture from this child every year since she is a teacher. And, since her birthday is in September, I still get to take her every September and buy her some school clothes! She does make this mother happy!
