My mother raised five children without the luxuries we have today-like a washer and dryer! Cooking was a chore she especially resented, and that showed in her meals. Since the food wasn’t as great as it could be, I used to refuse to eat. The only thing I was actually willing to eat? Cookies. I would bake my own using imitation chocolate, margarine-nothing real, because we couldn’t afford to have that in the house.
We think of Sonny and Cher as the couple that went to stardom as a singing duo, but that’s not how it all started. They went from America’s sweethearts to bitter rivals, to celebrities who were uniquely successful from one another, without the ability to extract themselves from their past as a duo. Initially, heir relationship began as platonic. They met in 1963 when Cher was 16 and Sonny was 27 and formed an immediate friendship before moving in with one another in a small apartment.
Both Sonny and Cher say that their early relationship was devoid of sexual tension, and it was only later that they got together. In 1975, Cher explained:
It wasn’t 
a fiery, sexy thing with us, but rather paternal, like we were bound together, two people who needed each other, almost for protection.
At the time, Cher was singing backup on songs like “Be My Baby,” while working on their double act “Caesar and Cleo.” In 1965 they scored a hit with “I Got You Babe,” but it wasn’t until 1969 that the two tied the knot and made their relationship official.
” Hardy — 1973
Take a closer look at this photo, you’re not just looking at some hot rod groupie, this is , queen of the funny car circuit. But she wasn’t born “ela Hardy, a studious young woman with sights on going to college until a spur of the moment decision to join “Jungle” Jim Lieberman on his drag racing run.
Pam says that one day she was walking down the street when Jim pulled up next to her in his Corvette. He asked her to hang out, she hopped in the car and they were together from there on out. At her first funny car race she fell in love with the sounds and smells of the cars, the track, and the world buzzing around her.
A few years after Pam joined Jim on the track, he was killed in a car accident when he collided with a bus. The death of Jim proved to be the end of Pam’s racing career. Even so, it was a wild ride.
Frank Zappa and his parents in 1970
We often think of Frank Zappa as the king weirdo of the psychedelic rock scene, but as much as his music is characterized with a playful nature that verges on being ascorbic, he was much more a family man than people know. This photo shows him spending some family time with his parents, who were nothing like their son.
Zappa’s father worked for the Department of Defense, so they moved around the country for years until they settled in California when Zappa was 15 years old. He had trouble forming friendships and never performed all that well in school but he was gifted with music and had a penchant for making chemicals explode. The same part of him that enjoyed creating science experiments had fun raising his own kids. His son, Ahmet, told the Guardian :
I think what my father appreciated was the science experiment of life. He had these kids, and they had their own experiences. He wanted us to discover the world for ourselves. My parents told us how they felt but never imposed their beliefs on us, although I appreciate I got a healthy sense of democracy from them. When it came to discipline my dad never spanked us. If he said to you, ‘You’re acting like a jerk,’ that was the worst thing ever.
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