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Friday, June 26, 2009

oh, the memories.

when i was little, i wanted to be farrah fawcett.

in the 70s, when she was in "charlie's angels" (for only one season!), my family was on the east coast, where the diversity that we enjoy here in sunny soCA wasn't exactly present. i totally didn't realize that there were all sorts of different ethnicities out there, and being fairly certain i wasn't black, i was completely convinced that i was white. it makes me cackle now.

i watched that show as often as i was allowed to, and i longed to be just like farrah, tossing all that gorgeous feathered hair around and flashing that winning smile. and, of course, kicking ass and getting the bad guys by the end of the show. and then i found out that she was married to the bionic man? holy shit! how cool was that? she was totally my hero.

of course, being all of five years old, my attention span was pretty damn short, and when she was replaced by cheryl ladd the following season, i went with the flow and forgot all about farrah. awww.
when i was seven and a half, we moved to sunny california. i remember saying goodbye to my friends, and one rude ass little boy whose name i don't even recall telling me "see ya. hope you don't die in an earthquake." i thought he was such an asshole.
anyway, that was the year that michael jackson's "off the wall" came out. it's also the year the hub was born, heh. and whenever i hear "don't stop 'til you get enough," it instantly takes me back to that first summer in california. i think of living in that tiny, 2-bedroom apartment in pasadena, stuffed to the gills with entirely too many family members all under one roof. of course, i was seven and it was totally fun to me to have so many people to play with.
and then, a few years later, "thriller" was released. and i LOVED that album. i played it over and over again and learned all the words to all the songs. that was back in the early days of mtv - you know, when they actually played *gasp* music videos? there were a few shows on local tv that featured music videos for a solid half hour every day, too, for those who didn't have "pay tv." i was glued to those shows, and marveled at MJ's moonwalk and awesome choreography.
every song on that album is awesome. each one brings me back to a time in my life when all i had to worry about was getting my homework done, what i was going to wear to school the next day, how to catch the eye of the boy i was crushing on, what to do during recess with my friends. it was an innocent time before credit cards and car payments and taxes, and while i love my life now, it's always fun to reminisce about the old days. and one of the last routines i got to learn and work on with my cheer squad in high school was to MJ's "bad." i still remember bits and pieces of the beginning of the routine, and it always makes me smile.
okay, in his later years, he was super bizarre and weird. and yeah, that whole child molestation thing was awful - although a part of me still doesn't want to believe that he knowingly did anything wrong. i mean, the guy was never allowed to be a kid! he was worked like a dog from the time he was like 10, and that's when you're supposed to be out having fun, playing with your friends, doing the kid thing. i'm pretty sure that if i were placed under constant public scrutiny on a daily basis from childhood on, i'd be pretty fucked up too.
but at the end of the day, this was MICHAEL JACKSON! there was a time when the entire world loved this man. he was someone's father. somebody's son, brother, uncle, friend. and it makes me sad to know that he's gone.
rest in peace, farrah and michael. thanks for being part of my childhood.

10 comments:

  1. I feel like my childhood died yesterday. It's so weird. There was nothing like him before and nothing since. Very sad :(

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  2. oh man oh man oh man oh man do i feel bad for his kids. like, REALLY bad for them. now they are going to have to try to assimilate into some semblance of normalcy and who even knows who will have custody of them. this is further complicated (i assume) by blanket having a different mother than the other two.

    i just wish that after someone dies, people would leave them alone. his health problems and drug problems were no secret, so why the inquest? why the drama? people need to let it go and stop the insane media coverage; two of his children are old enough to perform a simple Google search. :(

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  3. yesterday was a very surreal day - I can't believe we lost two major icons in one day. :/

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  4. I totally thought I was white too! I knew for sure I wasn't black and I figured that Mexicans (what I am) were only from Mexico. I knew I wasn't from Mexico...how funny.

    I don't recall watching Charlie's Angels as a kid but I do remember Thriller being one of my favorite records. I had a Michael Jackson purse, folder, button...my brother & sister would do the Thriller dance. My uncle would tape his videos on MTV and his performance on the Grammy's. My brother, who was around 5 or 6 at the time even asked my mom to "twist his hair like Michael Jackson." Yeah, we never let him live that one down.

    Even though that was many yers ago I always look back at that time fondly. So all those emotions came flooding back yesterday & I could not stop getting teary eyed listening to the radio. I hope he's at peace now.

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  5. yeah. i wrote about michael too. i'm way sad.

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  6. I was too young for Farrah, but I had all the MJ records...in fact, I still do!

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  7. Growing up in a not so diverse east coast town, I was convinced that my friend who was allegedly Puerto Rican was white, UNTIL HIGH SCHOOL. RIP Farrah and MJ.

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  8. I still can't believe it. Especially MJ. What a shock.

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  9. So sad. I think the Farah thing most people saw coming, but MJ? Total surprise and so so sad. The first cassette I ever bought was Bad. :(

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  10. My first cassette was Bad, too! Sigh. It is very sad. He seemed to be so unhappy, too. :(

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