Still Moonwalking

Okay I am not going to go on and on about how I think Michael Jackson was a freak. Nor am I going to place judgement on him. When I heard the news today of his passing I taken back to the 80's and being a huge fan at 9 years old. Now I am 36 and a lot has happen since then with Mike. Some great and some very questionable. And it would be easy to highlight and weird and unusual but I would rather share with you one of my favorite memories of Michael Jackson.

At 9 years old, at a time before the Internet and Facebook, Michael came onto the scene and was everywhere, and doing things no one else was doing, including the Moonwalk. The Moonwalk was the coolest thing to me and my friends. I can remember always having the loafers on so I could Moonwalk up and down the hallways of my house. Sounds silly now, but it was the 80's and that is what you did.

Here is a Pepsi commercial Michael Jackson did back in the day:

The Perfect List

So what do you want for Christmas? At my age most people would say, "I don't know." Remember though, when you were a kid. You didn't know where to start. It would take you hours and sometimes days to compose the perfect list. The list that couldn't fail. I can remember getting a catalog out and circling everything I wanted. After I was done the pages would a be nasty web of blue ink. Most of the time you couldn't really understand what I wanted on any particular page. So my response would be, "I just want everything on the page." I didn't realize at the time this had to drive my parents crazy. I had no concept of what they would be able to buy or not. The mere thought of how much things cost verses what my parents could spend never entered into my head. I look back and in a way feel guilty. Because now I would trade all those toys in for one more magical Christmas morning at eight years old. A Christmas with the family all together so I could soak in the the smiles and reactions. So I could just relish the joy in my parents faces when I said, "This is exactly what I wanted." The problem is those memories seem so distant and when I think about them it makes me somewhat sad. Oh well I can only hope in the upcoming years I can start sharing those moments again. If you have kids make sure you capture the spirit of Christmas. Because it will be what you will wish you could hold on to and never forget.