Friday Free For All Topic of the week: What is the lamest thing you ever did as a teenager that you thought was SOOOOO cool?
Like Jenni, I think my problem is that I still think the things I did as a teenager were cool, but I think the bigger problem wass that I just thought the things I did were funny. Whether or not anyone else seemed to think so.
Exhibit A: Jenni and I convinced a kid in our 9th grade math class that her middle name was "Liberty Bell." We thought we were hilarious. (Yeah, I still think we were.)
Exhibit B: A bunch of friends and I used to make our own movies. We did a complete episode of The Newly-Wed Game and several episodes of our own Saturday Night Live. Again, we thought we were so funny. Those who had different kinds of plans on their Friday nights may have disagreed.
But I called my very oldest friend, Alyse, last night to brainstorm for some ideas. We both agreed that almost everything we did when we were younger was completely dorky, even though we thought we were awesome. We just couldn't remember very many of them. Oh sure, there were the photo shoots staged in my bedroom, or the times we made up and recorded our own songs on my tape recorder, or even the way Alyse used to yell out whenever she saw someone wearing camoflage pants -- "He's not wearing any pants! I can't see his pants!"
But one instance stood out in both our minds that I've decided to include even though it would have to fall into the "tween" category, rather than teen years. Some of you may or may not remember the cartoon phenomenon of the 80s called Jem and Holograms. Jem was a totally cool rock star (believe me, she was cool) and in her band, the Holograms, were her friends Kimber, Aja, and Shana.
Well, one year when I got a Jem doll for my birthday, you can imagine how ecstatic I was to find that it came with a tape with 3 of the Jem and the Holograms songs on it! And here's the really exciting part -- the other side of the tape had just the instrumental of those 3 songs. I think you can see where this is headed.
That's right -- our own rock band. I was Jem (hey, it was my tape, okay?), Alyse was Aja, and Denise was Kimber. We couldn't convince any of our other friends to be Shana, surprisingly.
So we practiced our three songs for hours in the back of an abandoned old horse trailer (which conveniently had no top to it) in this weedy old yard behind my back yard. We were so cool. We envisioned cleaning up all the weeds and holding a huge and awesome concert there.
Now, okay, we weren't dumb. We realized that 3 songs weren't exactly enough for a whole concert. So we allowed a neighbor boy to be our drummer if he would also tell jokes in between our songs. It was gold.
Even better, Alyse's dad worked for the city, and she was sure that he would be able to get us a gig playing at the city park or maybe even at the high school. Our dreams were big. You may be surprised to learn that the concert never came to fruition. I think it was all those blasted weeds. Weeding just wasn't a top priority when clearly band practice came first. (Oh, did I mention that all our instruments were of the "air" variety?)
Yeah, that's what stopped us from achieving fame and fortune. The weeds.
12 comments:
The real question is...who in the heck was it we tricked? Funny that we can't remember that part of the story.
And bravo to you for getting your post in on time. No, I'll not award you any extra points...but Peggy might. She was late, too. Hello! I've been waiting around all day!
What about the time we stole all of those baricades and random lawn ornaments and put them in front of Dave's house?
What about all the things we used to write on each others' folders in 8th grade, like "Save Water, shower with a friend"?
Have you no memory of our times together? Where is the love?
Amanda, I knew I should have called you about this topic! I totally forgot about those episodes of my life. But seriously, you have to admit that the barricades and lawn gnomes were awesome. Even now, I still think that was funny. I can't believe I forgot about it.
Now the "environmental" things we used to write on our notebooks that we thought were so cool . . . yeah, those were lame.
Remember, "Don't eat meat; cows are our friends"?
There is more than just ONE photo shoot? How come I haven't been privy to that information until this FFA?
Oh, I so wish I was around to be friends with you in Jr. High School. I would have been Shana just to be in the band!
Oh man, I literally just re-discovered Jem on you-tube and emailed it to my sister last week! Good times!
I have to add, too, that I think of Alyse on a semi-regular basis, which is funny considering I couldn't name 15 people in our graduating class without really thinking hard these days. Her sister was in hair school or something, and Alyse taught me that good shampoo shouldn't lather. Funny I remember that, right? I also warn my kids about the dangers of running with toothbrushes in their mouths... ;-) Anyway, tell my fellow soprano hello - apparently I was a bit of a follower. :-)
Carillisa, you so would have been in the band. Maybe we actually would have been cool then.
And Laura, are you serious you just saw Jem on YouTube?? That's hilarious! I haven't even thought about Jem and the Holgrams for about 15 years until Alyse and I were scanning our brains the other night for the dorky things we used to do.
But I, too, warn my kids about the danger of ramming a toothbrush through the roof of your mouth, thanks to Alyse's little experience. That's so funny that you remember that. Of course, it's a hard one to forget. I'm trying to convince Alyse to start a blog, too. Wouldn't she be hilarious?
Tell Alyse that she needs to. I dont' think I've talked to her since High School. Where is she? I don't any of us could forget the toothbrush incident. Love it!
When are we getting together?
How about this week?
I know have the Jem themesong stuck in my head. Thanks a whole friggin' lot! :)
"...glamour and glitter... fashion and fame!"
Yeah, it's sad I know, but I discovered the cast list for the new live-action GI Joe movie the other day and had a little blast from the past on different childhood cartoons. Justin tells me Voltron is on cartoon network these days, too, if you remember that one...
Alyse should definitely start a blog - I'd love to know where she is and what she's up to!
Neighborhood boy???!!!?? What the crap, that was me. I can't believe how far down I have slipped in your estimation. It wasn't a horse trailer, it was the back end of pick up truck that had been converted to a trailer. I still remember rockin out to that tape.
That was so not you, Chico. It was Brady Knotts, remember? Although, I had forgotten that you were part of the "band." How could I have forgotten that? I guess it's not obvious at first thought that a 10-year-old boy would want to be part of his sister's fake cartoon girl-band. What did you play, anyway?
But seriously, it was Brady who was going to tell jokes between songs. That was our best idea yet.
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