1987

I was a 4th and 5th Grader in Lansing, Michigan when I experienced my "Magical Summer of 87". On Fridays our class would go to the school library where I would normally checkout either a 321 Contact magazine or a "Choose your own adventure" book. Dad would get paid and we would usually go to Mejers (Think Super Walmart, but only bigger) where I would window shop at the toy section or play with the new Casio keyboards while mom and dad shopped. Afterward we often stopped at a fastfood joint as well as a videostore to pick up a movie to bring home. That night I would fall asleep on the floor (I was allowed to stay up past my bedtime) while "Night Flight" was playing Eddie Money's "Take me home tonight" or Whitesnakes "Here I go again".

My Summer began during my last day of 4th grade when our class spent the entire school day at the rollar rink and then later the bowling alley. Oddly I remembered the weird site of kids roller skating to "Starship's - Nothing's going to stop us now". During the summer itself I spent time cruising the neighborhood on my bike and riding to the zoo, hanging out at Zach's house, and waiting for my next issue of GI Joe magazine. During the weekends our family liked to checkout the different county fairs and Thresher shows or do other stuff. Sometime we would spend an entire afternoon at the Lansing Library where I was introduced to the comedy of "The Farside" Galleries. Or we would go to the area musuems like the MSU history, Olds automotive, or "Impression 5". Impression 5 would be the first of my near misses with fame and fortune. When the science museum first opened up , our school was the first one there, and our class was filmed on Channel 6. But sure enough I was the first kid off screen to the right. A highlight of the summer would be when the "Goodyear Blimp" flew around our city at low altitude, taking me by surprise when it first flew over my house. Finally during the fall my family, since my dad was a assistant pastor at the time, would be invited to different retreats including one north of Howell, the Novi Hilton, and the Ann Arbor Hampton Inn. Often meals at Elias's big boy would be involved.

This was the last year that I would get up Saturday mourning to watch cartoons, not yet ready to give up a part of my childhood. Some of the programs that were on then included Garfield and Friends, Bugs Bunny, Alf the cartoon, and a unique show called "PeeWee's Playhouse", when he still symbolized my innocent childhood although in his first movie a segment about a ghost named "Large Marge" did tramatize me.
I remember my first experience of retro fashion when both Michael Jackson and He Man made a come back. However they were so 1984. We had gone on to more important things like watches with caculators that also played music, although we still liked to collect GI Joes and Transformers. On the gaming front I remember seeing a commercial with a guy in a green suit shouting "Zelda" and another one that was supposedly a "normal" one being interupted by a videotape game called "Captain Video", I think was the name. Meanwhile the "cool" kids had an awesome toy called Lazer Tag while the younger kids would be taught by a talking "Teddy Rupskin". But I would never be able to afford what I really wanted with a 3 dollar weekly allowence, the GI Joe Space Shuttle..Station!

During the evenings there were a number of unique shows that entertained us including Alf, the Charmings, and Outlaws. And then one evening while actually sitting in a barbershop chair, came on the most unique and mesmorizing line of commercials I've ever seen, Mc Donald's "Mac's Tonight". "When the clock strikes, half past six babe, yeah.....dinner at McDonald's, it's Mac's Tonight! Baby make it Mac's tonight!"

Wayne H