Blast from the past curtesy ng kapitbahay kong ayaw pasaway

My volume upping, karaoke singing, cigarette-smoke spewing neighbor, was at it again today. First, it started with an over the top karaoke duet. I’m still trying to dislodge this one from my memory. This puzzles me, I don’t understand why some people think it’s okay to do a full blasted, ear splitting, (albeit very heartfelt) rendition of Ocean deep…I’m so afraid to show my feelings. I mean really, if you’re afraid to show your feelings, why don’t you just shut up about it? Do they really think that they’re doing the neighborhood a service by this outward display of bold courage? I mean, if you can tame a wild lion who’s been sitting hungrily in a cage for days, trying to think up of ways to turn silly human into food, I will be very impressed. Now, I’m not trying to be mean, honest I’m not, but you didn’t hear what my ears heard. So please don’t judge. Next, it was followed by a slew of 80’s number one hits; brought to you by a special multiplex compilation tape. Starting with: ice castle, take on me, starlight express, & that one whose title I can’t remember. But it’s that theme song from Mac and me, that E.T. rip off movie that I used love when I was a kid. To combat this sonic assault I played some radiohead. Luckily this calmed my nerves. But still, I found I was unable to get back to what I was doing. ( I was reading A room of one’s own by Virginia Wolf). I dunno, there’s something about 80’s music that really makes me feel very depressed. It reminds me of that carefree time of the big-haired, mismatched clothing, debbie gibson’s I get lost in your eyes, transmitting on every radio frequency. & who can forget Corey Heart and fra lippo lippi? If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you’re lucky. For me, these were the things that characterized the 80’s. ‘twas pretty much an easygoing era: campy, harmless, outrageous, clueless, fun-ny, cheeky. blue eyeshadow, (nevermind).
There was no hyper violence stories on the news, not much evident poverty you stumble upon in the streets. NO Internet, NO
CDs. NO celfones. NO cable channels. NOt much to do pretty much. In constrast, there were a lot of cheesy movies that we watched on films; lots of waffles and Icee we ate at Ever; lots of miniature puppets singing christmas carols on the rooftops of the now defunct COD department store, that we laughed at. & always, lots and lots and lots of fun. Although, I was just a little kid when all of this wholesome madness transpired. Maybe, it is precisely because I was so young at the time, that to me everything around me seemed like fun and games. Because when you are a child, your entire world is blanketed in innocence. And everything that you lay your eyes on is just wrapped up in magic. And the things that you don’t like, the things that you find threatening; well, you just sorta leave them alone. Making a mental note to yourself that later on when you are big and strong, you will take the time to make these discoveries in the future. Well guess what, I wish I hadn’t!!! Well not really….I guess there’s no such thing as a childhood forever, that’s Peter Pan’s territory. Besides, if even given the choice, I highly doubt that I’d want stay a kid forever, (although, I reserve the option to change my mind). Sure, there’s a lot of joy that you experience in being a child. But there’s plenty of perks that comes with growing up too…. What those are, I shall not elaborate on that. That’s something that every little kid has to find out for themselves. And when you do, I can guarantee you that you’ll be glad that you passed up that chance to hold the Pied Piper’s hands.