Hello Everyone and those who read our blog:
first, I wanted to mention that this Saturday would have been Michael Jackson's 51st birthday, thus, the previous posting called "We Have Something In Common". I'd meant to mention this in that posting but forgot in my excitement <giggle>. Second, I would like to share some recent memories people shared with me or that I, myself, was a part of, over the last two months.
As I shared with people my memories of Michael Jackson--that I was thirteen when he did his infamous Moon Walk and how that was the talk all over the junior high school I was attending, how some friends of mine and I sang "We Are The world" for a talent show, etc.--people shared their memories with me. A few days after Michael Jackson's death, my oldest daughter (stepdaughter) and Micaiah ben Malachi's ex came down to visit us for a day. As we listened to Michael's music on Sirius Radio and watched his videos on MTV and VH1, our daughter, who is now twenty-six years old, told me that, whenever she hears the song "Remember The Time", she always remembers the video of it. The video came out in 1993. Whenever that video was on MTV or VH1, she, her younger sister and Micaiah always happened to be watching it together. It became one of their favorite videos. At that time, she was ten and her sister was seven years old. A few days later, Micaiah and I were talking to a neighbor acquaintance. She was telling us that her daughter was about three or four years old during the popularity of Michael's "Thriller" days. I cannot remember if our acquaintance said that one of Michael's videos was on TV or if one of his songs was on the radio. Anyway, when one or the other was playing, her daughter proclaimed that, when she grew up, she was going to Mary Michael Jackson. I had to roar with laughter over that one because even for a three-or four-year-old, Michael Jackson was a girl's dreamlover or husband. This brings me to something I personally remembered.
I was thirteen years old at the time of Michael's "Thriller" popularity days. My adopted parents had been divorced for three years by this time, but I always visited my adopted dad on weekends and during the summers. My adopted dad had been renting out the upstairs bedrooms to a single mother who had a daughter. When I was thirteen, the mother's daughter was three years old. I was playing my "Thriller" cassette day and night repeatedly, so the mother and daughter became just as familiar with the music as my adopted dad did. Ten years later, I happened to drop into visit with my adopted dad and his new family when I learned that there was going to be a Sabbath dinner and that some guests were coming over. Not only was I invited at the last minute, but I was told that the single mother who was renting the upstairs was coming over with her thirteen-year-old daughter. Since I hadn't seen the mother and the daughter for over eight years, I wasn't sure how much the daughter would remember about me. One of the first things she told me as we were all chatting while eating was, "I remember you used to like Michael Jackson. You used to play his songs all the time." Until that moment, I'd forgotten all about those days, as many things had happened in my life from late 1983 to 1993. I don't remember what I said to her, but I remember being amazed over how clearly she remembered those days. First impressions, those that she could clearly remember, make lasting impressions. Sixteen years have passed since then. Micaiah and I were listening to Michael's music in our living room the day after his death when the memory of that young girl came back to me. I just had to laugh as I related the stories to Micaiah because it took a girl who was ten years younger than me to remind me of something that would otherwise have been dead in my bundle of memories I'd long forgotten. That would've been sad, especially since I'd made quite a lasting impression in a little girl's mind who was looking up to me like I was her big sister, entertaining her with Michael Jackson's music.
A few weeks after recalling that memory and relating it to Micaiah, Micaiah's ex and our two older grandsons came down for an all-day visit and barbecue. The older child is five years old and the other is two and a half years old. There was a little bit of wind blowing that day, so smoke and some ashes from the grill blew in our direction. Since Micaiah was cooking, he was in the direct line of fire. Noticing the ashes on Micaiah's arm, his ex jokingly commented that his skin was turning white. I replied that I hoped that he wasn't trying to be like Michael Jackson. The five-year-old, who I thought was further out in the backyard, quickly turned around, saying that he could dance like Michael Jackson. Thinking that he was joking, I had him demonstrate. While he could only do the basic motions of the Moon Walk, he did excellent wit the spin as if he'd been doing it for many years. It nearly brought tears to my eyes as I watched. Upon asking him where he saw Michael Jackson dance, he explained that he watched it on MTV. I told our grandson that it was "many years ago when Michael Jackson first danced like that; way before he (our grandson) was conceived or even thought of." It shocked Micaiah and I that a five-year-old could be so quickly influenced by anything, but then I had to remember how I'd once left an impression on a three-year-old's mind for her to recall and relate that to me when she was thirteen and I was twenty-three. The following week after the barbecue with our grandsons and Micaiah's ex, they returned and went with us to our local county fair. Thrilled over his new skill of dancing like Michael Jackson, he decided to try dancing at the same time of walking down the sidewalk. It was quite a hilarious thought, but I had to keep my laughter inside so that our grandson wouldn't think that I was endorsing the idea. In fact, Micaiah's ex even asked our grandson, "What is with this sudden Michael Jackson frenzy?" Upon returning from the county fair and relaxing for a little while from walking around all day, I fulfilled my promise to our grandson that I would play a couple Michael Jackson songs for him to dance to. I started out with "Heal The World". I got the impression that he hadn't heard any slow songs by Michael, as he said, "That's not Michael Jackson." It wasn't until he heard Michael's voice that he finally believed me. We followed that song with "Remember The Time", which he enjoyed more because the tempo was upbeat. Micaiah sang as our five- and two-and-a-half-year-old danced. Being that two-and-a-half-year-olds repeat everything they hear, our younger grandson tried singing along as well.
Finally, About a month ago, Micaiah and I were talking to the librarian that helps us find Jewish books and music. I made a joke about how the initials of her first and middle name matched Michael Jackson's. Not only did that get her laughing, but it prompted her to relate a recent incident. One of her grandchildren came into the room with a leather Superman glove and red cape. Unlike most of such leather gloves, this one had a silver-color-tinted thread woven through it to hold it together, which made the glove looked like it was sequenced like Michael Jackson's. The red cape, too, resembled Michael's red jacket. The first thing our friend thought of when she saw her grandson enter the room with the glove and red cape was Michael Jackson's attire, so she quickly reacted, saying something like, "Lose the glove." Confused with what was going on, her grandson looked at her as if to ask, "What did I do wrong." The little boy wasn't setting out to try to dress like Michael Jackson, just super man, but the first thought that flashed across our friend's mind was Michael Jackson. Thus, she was reacting to that thought. I had to laugh over that story, though, as I could just picture it being that her grandson was close to the same age as our five-year-old grandson, who likes to do his "Michael Jackson dance" as our grandson calls it.
Makedah bat Leah.
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