It happened much sooner than I had thought it would - I became "one of those people" that prefaces everything he says with a specific time reference, one of those older people.
Kenny kindly pointed it out to me during rehearsals for a Knott's Berry Farm show a few years ago. "You know, every story you tell starts with 'In the 80's.'"
Kenny was in his early twenties. I was stunned. It was as if he had pants-ed me on stage in front of a family audience. In church.
I knew immediately what he meant. I used to laugh when people were made fun of for doing that (referencing a past era, not pantsing someone). But it had been over a decade since I had heard Freddie T., in yet another show rehearsal, do his Gwen Verdon impressions:
"In the 60's, when I was sharing an apartment with Shirley MacLaine, and she always out on the balcony trying to channel someone from outer space . . . "
"In the 60's, when choreography was still fresh and new - not ripping off older styles like you kids do today . . . "
"In the 60's . . . in the 60's . . . in the 60's"
I have postponed and postponed my real adulthood, so referencing the 80's had become a natural and regular occurrence for me when working with and going to school with younger adults.
"In the 80's, I was still skinny enough to wear my younger brother's clothes and I would wear his parachute pants to school."
"In the 80's, my cousin had all of the Strawberry Shortcake dolls, including the Purple Pie Man."
"In the 80's, I paid $125.00 a month for my own bedroom, in a house full of roommates when we all worked at Disneyland."
"In the 80's, I used Pazazz hair color to make my hair and eyebrows a blackish purple. I looked like Eddie Munster."
"In the 80's, it really did take only twenty minutes to get anywhere in Los Angeles."
I think the decade you most often refer to depends on when the core years of your youth occurred. The 90's were great, but I don't know if I'll be saying with as much frequency, "In the 90's . . . " as I get older.
What were you doing in the 80's?
6 comments:
What was I doing in the 80's? Oh I just arrived on Planet Earth. Via my mom's birth canal.
And....yeah. Basically that's it.
=p
Ugh.. what a wake up call!!!
In the '80s, I was more worried about running out of Aqua Net than I was about the ozone layer.
In the '80s, I was doing what I could to graduate with honors so I could get a degree and wind up unemployed in the 21st century.
In the '80s, I thought Journey was the only band that mattered. I still sort of think that.
TCDO, ha ha! So, what planet were you on before?
E, we have to laugh at ourselves - the people we swore we would never become, LOL!
GW, in the 80's I woulda' nicknamed you 'Aquanetta.' Most 80's music is eternal, as in forevah and evah, Ahh, Men!
In the '80s, my entire income was devoted to My Little Ponies. Paying for rent and groceries has turned out to suck in comparison.
C, I did read that in Bread and Bread, about the $5-at-a-time investments, and loved it.
I've spent close to $5,000 on roughly 200 Furbies - as an adult . . . we need to talk.
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