Telluride Museum: The Social – ’70s Shindig, 3/14!

03 Mar Telluride Museum: The Social – ’70s Shindig, 3/14!

For its ’70s Shindig, Saturday, March 14, 6:30 – 9 p.m. at Telluride’s Ah Haa School for the Arts, the Telluride Historical Museum is still looking for a few local “bartenders” to dole out drinks and share stories at the event. Were you here during the YX years and feel like participating? Please contact Pepper Raper at pepper@telluridemuseum.org

Do you have a special story, photo, shirt, or other ephemera from your time in Telluride during the 1970s? Would you like to share its story? If so, please contact our collections Manager Kathy Rohrer at kathy@telluridemuseum.org.

All proceeds benefit the Telluride Historical Museum, one of town’s earliest nonprofits founded in 1965. For tickets, $30 in advance; $40 at the door, go here. (Admission includes two free drinks and light bites.)

Drilling down to the basic facts of life back when, the ’70s were Watergate, an energy crisis, hot pants, leisure suits, bell sleeves, polyester, garish prints, drugs, sideburns, “Deep Throat,” “Star Wars,” the Village People, Carlos Castaneda, streaking, Bobby Riggs versus Billy Jean King, geodesic domes, Jim Jones, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” the rise of Gerald Ford, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, “The Godfather” movies, and the Eagles, whose “Greatest Hits, is the best-selling record in history.

By the ’70s, it seemed Americans had grown tired of holding back in the name of an endless war, so post-Vietnam (and other scuffles), restraint went out of fashion. Small wonder author Tom Wolfe dubbed the ’70s the “Me Decade.”

If you can’t get enough of that crazy stuff, then attend the Telluride Historical Museum fundraiser brings it all home. Literally.“The Social: ’70s Shindig” takes place Saturday, March 14, 6:30 p.m. at the Ah Haa School. 

Sheridan Opera House, 1960s or 1970s

Telluride locals in the 1970s.

Telluride, 1970s.

Again, this casual party commemorates the YX years in Telluride, the ’70s, the era our mining town was morphing into a ski town and cultural life began to pulse with the founding of the Telluride Film Fest, Bluegrass, and Chamber Music. The event features a variety of beverages to sample, plus light fare, music, and friends. Telluride locals from the ‘70s are serving up drinks and sharing tales, experiences, all to relive some of the town’s wildest and craziest times. For the party, the Museum encourages attendees to dress in their best ’70s thread.

“Last year The Shindig seemed to really resonate with folks who were here in the 1970s. Several people told me a great opportunity to get together and see folks they didn’t necessarily run into, and yet had a lot in common with. We decided to give the Shindig a shot at being an annual event,” said Pepper Rapper, marketing director.

Also for the Shindig, the Museum is curating a special popup exhibit displaying photographs and artifacts from the era. These items will be pulled from the archives for a one-night-only showcase.