Flashback Friday! 12/5/88

Will to Power

On December 5, 1988:

* Shuttle Atlantis launched the world's 1st nuclear-war-fighting satellite
*Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley by Will to Power was on top of the U.S. music charts (seriously, I checked)
*The Naked Gun: From the Files of the Police Squad was playing at theaters everywhere
*Ross Johnson, then CEO of RJR Nabisco, was on the cover of TIME Magazine for spearheading the biggest corporate take over in American history.


I also wrote in my diary that day! Once again, here's a window into my 13-year-old life (for better, or worse).


Dear Diary,


Hello! Yesterday was our first game* and we lost, 52-29. Not that bad, but not that good.
Today I went to a skating party,* It was alright, but the best thing that happened was this 6th grader Donnie* told me he liked me and gave me this real cool bracelet.* He is cute, and nice, but he is two years younger than me and it would be so difficult. I told him I wanted to be his good friend. I hope he isn't upset with me. I guess I do like him. OKAY! I LIKE HIM ALREADY!*
I don't know what to do! Tell ya what happens with him tomorrow. 


~CAG
PS: Help me! I want to go out with Donnie but it will ruin EVERYTHING!*




*When I was in 8th grade, I was a cheerleader for our middle school basketball team, who for some reason were called the Knicks--like we had some kind of affiliation with the NBA. I love that even though we lost by nearly 30 points, I considered that a mediocre outing for our team, rather than a miserable failure. 


*Oh my God, remember skating parties? The pop rock music blaring, the disco ball twirling above, the moonlight skates for couples! Ah, it was all so magical, wasn't it? Most skating parties in my town were held at this roller rink called Skate Estate. Believe it or not, it's still open, and you can skate as long as you want for 5 freaking dollars!

Michael J. Fox, lookin' fine

*Thinking back, Donnie was a pretty adorable kid. He was short and skinny and had lots of freckles. In fact, he was the spitting image of Michael J. Fox in the first season of Family Ties (which happens to be one of my all-time favorite sit-coms). For someone his size, Donnie had a whole lot of swagger, and I think that's what made me like him. He thought nothing of standing on the outskirts of the rink and grabbing me when I rolled on by so that he could say, "I really like you" and then give me a gift. That boy had mad courage!

Friendships were built on these once.

*So this "real cool bracelet" was actually one of those friendship bracelets that were made out of thin pieces of woven yarn. Every girl in my class was obsessed with making them, and we'd try to sneak in some craft time during our classes to braid as many as we could. If a boy gave you one these bracelets, he meant business, and if you took the bracelet and wore it, that meant you were middle school married. Alas, I took the bracelet from Donnie, but I didn't wear it to school, apparently because a relationship between us would be "so difficult" because we were two years apart. (Please note that my boyfriend Ben is 6 years younger than me--my 13-year-old self would be appalled!)


*"Okay! I like him already!" I really enjoy how I act as though my diary is a person, forcing information out of me. What an imagination!


*But nothing compares to the post-script in this entry. Being with Donnie would ruin EVERYTHING? Let me set the record straight. "Everything" back then was not a whole hell of a lot. Despite being on the cheerleading squad, I wasn't the most popular girl at school, and I had no kind of reputation to protect. In fact, if I was to quantify "everything," as in the most important things to me at the time, it would have amounted to Capri-Sun, Joradache jeans, and NBCs Must-See TV. Sadly, I would give none of those things up for Donnie's love. 


Hope you tune in next Friday for another flashback! :)