I think you start realizing that you are getting old when the people whose posters that you had plastered on your childhood room's walls start to die. I probably spent at least a quarter of my parents' monthly salary on Bop, Teen Beat, Tiger Beat, etc. during our weekly grocery store trips...and of those, many have passed or are pretty compromised. Let's survey: Michael J. Fox - Parkinson's disease. Corey Haim - dead. River Phoenix - dead. Kurt Cobain - dead. Yeah, you get the gist. Not to mention, Jon Bon Jovi - although super hot - is old. The Smurfs are nonexistent. AND....I'm not referring to the pitiful excuse to try to introduce them to this generation. That was just a travesty. What about Clarissa Explaining it All or Hey Dude or SNICK?? Aaaah. Sadness. Gone.
I've thought a lot about childhood lately - and how it goes so stinking fast. Mainly because I have a kid that I'm trying to make life fun for and for her to have awesome memories. One of the things that got me thinking was the death of MCA. You know, the Beastie Boy. Call me whack, but I've been a little sad about it...not only because he was Buddhist and I'm sad that he's realized he was barking up the wrong tree for years and probably wasn't a Christian, but also because of the death of a childhood icon. I've had "License to Ill" in heavy rotation since Friday and it's sparked some awesome memories. As I've listened to it, I remembered having the tape in my boom box. Actually, then it was called a "ghetto blaster". Ha. I remember playing it LOUDLY outside and my dad heard it. Keep in mind, I was in 3rd grade....it was cutting edge then. Dad took it away because it talked about beer and said the word "damn". I also remember psycho calling I-95 or Kix 106 and requesting "Brass Monkey" because my cousin and I loved it so much. We would stay up all night when we spent the night together just waiting on "Brass Monkey" to come on the radio so we could hit play & record at the same time & record it to play over & over until we finally broke the tape. Somehow, despite the fact that my dad took away "Licensed to Ill" and was probably playing it on repeat himself in his truck, I managed to learn every word of every song...and when I got old enough to buy my own stuff - I bought the CD and rocked it in my car like it was my job :) I ran to Beasties as an adult....and you must admit, when the first few notes of a Beastie Boys song comes on, everyone just lights up. So, with the passing of MCA, I feel like some of my youth has slipped away.
It's odd how things and time move so quickly. How do we go from drinking out of burnt orange tupperware cups with our mommies during the summertime to having children of our own? How do we go from having birthday parties at the skating rink to planning birthday parties for our own excited 4 year olds? How does technology go from a big honkin' Commodore 64C to a Macbook? How does Atari become nonexistent? How does ET go from being a silver screen alien to a Katy Perry song? Why does time pass so quickly? How does Michael Jackson go from being the untouchable icon singing Thriller to a man who couldn't go to sleep so he hired someone to illegally give him Propofol at the house & catheterize him nightly til finally he died? Wow. Big fall.
Life is fast. These memories are wonderful to have. I love to be nostalgic. I also am sad that things come to an end. It does serve as a great reminder to make memories while you can. I'll never see the Beastie Boys in concert, but I'll always have the memories of the fun music. I'll never meet Corey Haim, but I'll remember watching "The Lost Boys" 55 times one summer and kissing my Bop poster of him until there was a hole where his lips had been ;) Make memories. Love big - because time passes fast.
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