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Groovy, baby:Times change, polyester ’threads’ shrink (!), but Staxadelic is a happening

By Michael Donahue
donahue@commercialappeal.com

Calvin Anderson was one of the guests in stacks at Stax Saturday night.

Calvin wore a pair of white three-inch stacked heels to the "Staxadelic" party Saturday night at Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

The invitation requested people wear "70’s threads" to the "celebration of the 70’s to benefit the Stax Music Academy." So, the platform shoes fit in perfectly with Calvin’s Afro wig and polyester pants. His wife, Belinda, also wore an Afro. She had on jeans and a T-shirt with the words, "70’s Child."

Calvin used to wear his hair in an Afro back in the day, but "care and maintenance was a big deal," he said. He always had to worry someone wouldn’t "knock it out of place by hugging you."

Greg Duckett also was in an Afro and polyester. The clothes weren’t from his closet. "I had it (similar clothes) in the closet, but I couldn’t wear it," he said. "I thought polyester didn’t shrink, but it does."

Harold ’Scotty’ Scott, who, along with Vivian Howard, provided the marinated shrimp, sausage balls and other cuisine from their business, Special Moments Catering, remembered walking down stairs in his pair of yellow platform shoes with three-inch heels at a Diana Ross concert at the Mid-South Coliseum. "I fell on my face," he said.

Quinn Howard recalled how difficult it was to walk in platform shoes on ice when he lived in Ohio. Even if you weren’t walking on ice, you still had to "tip-toe" when you wore them, he said.

Nappy Wilson wore a 1970s-looking tuxedo with a long black jacket with zebra-striped lapels. "My uncle gave it to me," he said. "It was one of his player outfits."

Brandon Marshall didn’t go for the polyester-Afro-platform shoes look; he wore 1970s break dance clothes, including tennis shoes with high socks and a hoodie. Brandon was one of the members of New Ballet Ensemble who demonstrated break dancing during the evening