Memories and Music

Man, I hated this song… still do.

I was a senior in high school when this came out. It was all over the radio. It made me cringe. My friends and I had our own words:

I’d like to hit you!
B-A-T
With a bat!

I’d like to shoot you!
G-U-N
With a gun!

Pretty Young Thing, by Michael Jackson

What memories does this song make you think of?

Heavy Metal hit the theaters in my area at the beginning of my junior year. My friends and I wasted no time in high-tailing it up to Landover Mall to see it. Despite it’s “R” rating and our obviously younger than 17 age, we had no problems securing tickets. Afterward we hit the local ice cream place and bailed on the bill. We did leave a tip though!

Heavy Metal definitely spoke to us at the time, especially the Den story, about a geeky kid getting sucked into an alternate world where he looks like a body builder and sleeps with beautiful women.

Little did I know at the time how prophetic Devo’s Working in a Coal Mine would turn out to be…..

What memories does this song make you think of?

My social status in high school defied classification. I was a member of the chess, computer (a single TRS-80 with a tape drive), and Dungeons & Dragons clubs, yet I also ran Cross Country and was on the Track and Field team (discus and pole vault). I had a good group of friends, and while were definitely weren’t part of the “in” crowd, were weren’t ostracized either. If I had to classify myself and my friends, nerds would be my descriptor of choice. I was fortunate to appear fairly normal and have some athletic ability, but at my core I was pretty much all nerd.

Upon occasion, our true colors would shine through. The movie “Weird Science” was one such instance. The story-line was a nerd’s nirvana. Two high school nerds bring a hot chick to life, said hot chick Kelly LeBrock (pre-Steven Seagal/Celebrity Fit club) escalates them to the epitome of coolnes. Weird Science has one of the best lines from a movie ever:

“How about a nice, greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray?”

Weird Science, by Oingo Boingo

What memories does this song make you think of?

In 1979, Styx had just released their album Cornerstone. It got to the point where you couldn’t turn on the radio without the saccharine sweet tones of “Babe” oozing forth.

In the fall of my freshman year in high school, I had the my alarm clock radio turned to WPGC, a top 40 station out of Washington D.C. Their claim to fame was all the contests they ran where they gave away money, hence the clever play on their call letters “Where People Get Cash”. My alarm went off at 6:15, but I knew it was safe to stay in bed until I heard Babe, which the DJ faithfully played, every morning for months, at around 6:25.

Babe, by Styx

What memories does this song make you think of?

Richard was one of the group of good friends I had in high school, along with Steve, Larry, and Porter. He was six-four, had red hair, and was slightly on the ’stout’ side. When he was a senior, his parents divorced. They both moved away, but rather than pull him out during his senior year, they rented a house for him and his sister (who was a few years older) to live in while he finished the rest of the year. The house was out of our high school jurisdiction, so they bought him a car, a white Buick Skylark. We each would pay him $5 a week in gas to drive us to school. Worked out for him, since it covered his gas and we were on the way anyway.

After high school, he moved out to New Mexico to live with his father. I saw him twice after that: after graduating high school, I lived in California for five months with my father. I drove back to Maryland in December 1983, swinging down through New Mexico to pick up Rich, who came back to visit his mom and sister.

I saw him once more after graduating college. I made the pilgrimage from Maryland to California yet again in 1988, this time accompanied by Porter. New Mexico was on the way (we took highway 10), so we got in touch with him and arranged a visit. He was living with a roommate, working in a restaurant after having dropped out of college. He was pretty heavy into the weed scene, even had a big grow closet in his bedroom. He’d lost a ton of weight too, mainly because he traveled everywhere by bike. He told me of plans to move to Colorado where he had some friends, but I never saw or spoke to him after that, so I don’t know if he followed through.

In high school Rich stood out, not only because he was six-four and had red hair, but because he was into the punk scene. He listened to WHFS, which was the punk station of the day, and wore a pair of black and white checkered Vans. Mild by today’s standards, but it was plenty enough to set him apart. This was one of his favorite songs.

Tainted Love, by Soft Cell

What memories does this song make you think of?