My Life is a John Hughes Movie

In honor of my favorite movie writer/director's passing today, I present this repost of previous entry. Rest in peace, John. Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.
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Growing up as a child of the '80's

I was born in the late '60's. My grade school years were the '70's, but I define my "growing up" years as the '80's. In the '80's I had my first girlfriend, found out Darth Vader was Luke's father, learned to drive, discovered that I had a favorite music, had my first job, got my first car, had a crush on Molly Ringwald, saw Haley's Comet (sort of), bleached a streak in my hair, watched the space shuttle explode during science class, received the right to vote, registered for Selective Service, bought really stupid looking clothes, went to college, learned to "twist and shout" with Ferris Beuller, met my wife, got married, had my first child.

My generation is kind of the "undefined" generation. We're too young to be Baby Boomers and too old to be Generation X. We started the whole piercing thing, but only our ears (guys usually just one - left meant you were cool right meant you were "gay", girls had multiple piercings, but still just the ears.) We had our own music and started the "alternative" genre (usually defined as something totally bizzare that would have remained unknown if they didn't have a video on MTV.)

With the advent of cable, we were the first generation to be "media connected". While our parents had TV and radio, their main connection to the world was through the local stations. With cable we had access to movies, music, and who knows what else. Fashion trends and fads that used to take weeks and months to filter across the country were now piped into our living rooms. The influence of media allowed trends and tastes to change very rapidly, often resulting in weird and wild combinations that we still can't explain.

Movies and TV shows defined the life of the '80's teenager as metropolitan. Big city, big school, big parties. Growing up in a small town, the fashions and trends
were really out of place, but we didn't care, it was cool. We saw "The Breakfast Club" and "Pretty in Pink" and dressed and talked like they did anyway. We longed to go to the mall because that was the cool place to hang out.

But small town life was different than what we saw in the John Hughes movies. We wanted to "party like it's 1999", but we were poor, isolated, and would get caught because everybody knew who we were. So we settled for our small town parties.

There is much about my "wonder years" that is unpleasant, but for the most part I have fond memories of my school, my friends, my life. I could spend pages and pages describing small town life, and probably will over the life of this blog, but I will spare you the romanticization in this posting. Being 40, I'm sure there is much that I am not remembering correctly and even more that I have assigned more significance to than it actually deserves. That being said, it's probably a good thing I remember things the way I do, dwelling on the bad would just be depressing.

I'm not sure how to wrap this up. While there is much more to my life, my experiences have made me who I am and the '80's are 25% of my life. I thank you for allowing me this road trip into nostalgia.

School Trips

My son is going to LA next week. My daughter is going to New York in June.

*Sigh* To be in high school again. In light of these trips I've been feeling a bit nostalgic about the band trip I took when I was in high school.

(Cheesy flashback effects inserted here.)

In the Midwest, there was this magical place called "Worlds of Fun". Located in Kansas City, MO, it was the closest a small town kid would get to a theme park. But that's wasn't a bad thing, because it was actually a great place. Not too big, great rides, and if you go on a non-holiday the lines are not too bad.

For whatever reason, though, when our band decided to go, it WAS a holiday. Average wait in line: 4 hours. Seriously, 4 hours.

I went on three rides - well, 2, but one of them twice.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First was the bus ride. We had actually raised enough funds to charter a bus. Which is a huge thing for a small town high school band. I don't remember what all we did for fundraisers, but for 35 kids or so, we managed to raise enough for admission to the park and for a charter bus. It was a huge thing compared to a school bus, but it had reclining high-back seats. Perfect for a long drive.

And a long drive it was. KC was about 4 hours from our little town. The park opened at 10, so we had to leave before 6. Which meant reporting at 5 to catch the bus. Being an upperclassman in high school, my two favorite hobbies were eating and sleeping. Especially on a day that school is closed. So, I drug myself out of bed, walked the 4 blocks to the school, got on the bus, and went back to sleep. I remember nothing about the drive there, except being awakened once we pulled up to the gate.

I don't remember if it was Memorial day or Labor day. Either way, it was a holiday. The place was freaking packed! There must have been a thousand people all bunched up waiting for the gate to open. Our chaperons found someone to help us, we got our bracelets and joined the crowd waiting to get it. It was 10am and it was already stinking hot.

The first ride we wanted to go on was their newest ride, just opend that day, The River Rapids (or something stupid like that - according to their website it looks like it's now called "Fury of the Nile". Basically, this was supposed to be a white-water rapids trip in a bumper boat. OOOooo. Scary.

So we got in line with I don't know how many other people. And waited. Waited. 4. Hours. And then proceeded to go on the lamest boat ride ever. We tried to spin the boat, to rock it, anything to make it more fun, but it basically just sucked.

However, the trip redeemed itself with the next ride. The guys I was with wanted to go on roller coasters. I had never been on a real roller coaster, so I was reluctant, but finally they talked me into it. But of course they picked the biggest scariest coaster - The Orient Express. (It doesn't look like it's there anymore, but this was one of the first roller coasters that did a loop. I know that's old news these days, but back in the '80s, that was a big thing!)

So, I had never been on a roller coaster before, and my friends talk me into going on one of the biggest and scariest in the world. So we got in line. And waited. 4. More. Hours. I almost took the chicken exit twice. But after waiting 4 hours, there was no turning back. I got in, the harness clamped down, and it started to rise.

And rise. And rise. Did I mention at the time that this was the tallest coaster in the midwest? I forget how high it was. I'm sure there's taller now, but it was high enough that at the top there was one of those lights to warn aircraft.



All I really remember about the ride was the first drop. As soon as we topped the rise and I could see down, I had to close my eyes. It looked like 10000 feet. In reality it was maybe a couple hundred, but still, it freaked me out. We reached top speed at the bottom, went through two loops and a corkscrew and it was done.

I laughed hysterically for the next 20 minutes. I had never felt anything like it! I immediately got back in line. (4 hour wait!) and rode it again.

I really can't describe the feeling to you. Maybe some of you can relate, but only if your very first roller coaster ride was a big scary loop-de-loop one.

I vowed to live fearlessly after that. But all that got me was trouble.

So, the moral of the story, if there is one, is: Ride the monster, but afterwards just remember the ride, don't let it change your life.