September 17th, 2008
Confessions of an MJ fan
I admit it.
In 1984 I had a Michael Jackson zipper jacket.
And a glove.
And I wore them to school every day.
So let’s be fair to me … I was 9 years old at the time. And even if Reebok shoes, grey track pants, a red zipper jacket and a white sparkly glove seems dorky (even in the 1984 context), bear in mind that millions of kids across the nation were happily sawing off their own limbs in trade for this exact same jacket.
My parents’ bought it for me at the local Zellers. It cost $57 Canadian at the time (given the exchange rate and inflation, that works out to, I don’t know … about $7,000,000 in today’s the-sky-is-falling US economy), and I even remember being slightly disappointed that ony two of the zippers actually had a legitimate pocket into which I could hide my contraband.
But this isn’t the best part. When I was at home alone, I’d sneak “The Making Of Thriller” into our old VCR (the kind of VCR that loaded from the top, and sounded like an approaching 747 when you pressed play), and I would try to imitate Michael’s dance moves on our shiny parquet living room floor. In fact, I wore a spot in the varnish where I would practice the moonwalk to Michael’s “Billie Jean” dance solo.
Sadly, it was the last time in my life that I went completely apeshit over a musician. Sure, I like Stompin’ Tom, and I even drove 13 hours to see Leahy perform in their hometown of Lakefield, Ontario a few years ago … but there was nothing like that electric feeling when Michael Jackson did this thing.
Time to head over to eBay to see what zipper jackets are selling for …