I walk into youth tonight floating high on the fact that NKOTB is rumored to be making a come back.
I’ve called people just to tell them of this news… the most excited person?
My mother.
We had to recount the first concert I attended… I was in the 7th grade, and my mother got me the tickets for Christmas… there’s a whole other story to that… perhaps for another time. Actually, the fact that she bought them… AND I got to go was a miracle, or my mother having a soft spot.
The second time I saw them in concert, I made a bet with my Dad over whether or not the word “hell” was used in the Book of Common Prayer (what we Episcopals used in church.) He said it wasn’t… I said it was.
The bet? If I was right he would buy tickets for me for the next concert.
If I was wrong?
I had to get rid of all my NKOTB stuff and never speak of them again.
I won and a few months later, I was standing outside the Spectrum for four hours with my brother to get tickets. (This was also the first concert that they did the random seating, meaning it didn’t matter where you were in line, you got what you got… not that it mattered… even getting there at 6am didn’t put me in competition with those that had been in line for, oh, I don’t know… four days.
But I did it. (Coincidentally, I won tickets from Q102 as well, but I sold those as mine were better seats so that I would have souvenir money at the concert.)
(Oh and to this day, when the Apostle’s Creed is said in church I smile… or Mom elbows Dad. She was NOT happy that we made a bet on church stuff.)
This is big news for me. It brings back so many memories like the ones I just mentioned.
Like the project I made in shop class.. it was a big arrow that had NKOTB “engraved” in it with the router. Every girl in shop that 6 weeks made something related to NKOTB. But I think I was the only one that wasn’t allowed to use any of the tools because I let go of the router and it made a big long mark across the table. That was the end of my woodworking.
It also reminds me of the first two novels I wrote. They were fictitious novels about the New Kids and I was one of the main characters. My character dated Donnie of course and my best friend at the time was dating Jordan. I finished two of them. My father told me that he would help me edit them and get them published.
Imagine how disappointed I was to finish my books (written on notebook paper and stored in my Trapper Keeper) and walk into Walden Books and see that someone else beat me to the punch. There were so many fictitious NKOTB books out there.
None of them were as good as mine though, I can tell you that.
Anywho, my point of this is that I am excited. I so hope that something will come out of this and that it isn’t just some rumor, although People reported on it, so I’m thinking it’s somewhat legit.
And tonight, I walked into my youth group excited. And I shared with them… I shared with them my excitement.
I looked at them and said, “NKOTB is making a comeback!”
Ok, so I didn’t say it, I exclaimed it as I jumped up and down like a giddy teenager.
They returned blank stares.
They didn’t know who I was talking about.
I was saddened.
I thought that if I said a few bars of “The Right Stuff” and did the little leg swing like NKOTB did that they might know.
But they didn’t.
I finally looked at them and said, “They are the N*Sync or the Jonas Brothers of when I was your age.”
A little flicker of light came on but that was it.
And I went from feeling like a teenager to old in a matter of minutes.
And let’s not even talk about using the phrase “I’m dating myself” and trying to explain it…
Until next time…
Heather
PS.
For your viewing pleasure, here I am in my room in 8th grade. As you can see NKOTB weren’t the only ones on my wall.. Tommy Puett… remember him? I’m not embarrassed about it, really, or I should say I wasn’t until I noticed Neil Patrick Harris… Doogie? (Did you know he’s gay? I didn’t until tonight…) And the closer I look, I see Kid N Play and Mary Kate and Ashley before they started starving themselves and when they were innocent… and Bart Simpson… and Salt N Peppa…
One more thing… my Trapper Keeper with all of my romantic ideas about me and NKOTB? Right down there in the corner…
You might wonder where Donnie is in all of this? Well, I had a place all reserved for him… and that’s not in the picture….obviously…
{ 4 comments }
When I read the title “Dating Myself …” I thought you were talking about the other kind of dating — as in trying to tie it in with your “Hypothetical” post
I am so *not* awake yet!
Ah, the dangers of youth ministry. Uncomfortable awareness of your age, no matter how young you may be. I had my first such moment when I was only 22! A kid drew a picture and for some reason there was a K with a circle around it–a Circle K. So Husband quotes Bill and Ted and we get the blankest looks possible. They had no idea what we were talking about. It was so sad. Thankfully, we hang out with couples that average 5-10 years older than us, so we get to be the ones making others feel old most of the time.
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Im dating myself lol I think only people who have been through that would know the true meaning.
Fear not Heather! In a fifth grade class I was observing, there were little hearts abuzz with talk of these so-called Jonas Bros. Huh. They couldn’t light a candle to NKOTB but anyway…I said to the girls, you know, there was this band when I was your age, New Kids on the Block, and they are in concert again! They looked at me as if to say “Freak, you’re old, leave us alone!” Like you, I had to explain that Jordan Knight to me was like what Joe Jonas was to them. And..in that moment, the hysteria of travelling back to my teens was crushed as these kids pulled me back to my thirties.
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