Very sad news today. Michael Jackson (50) died. News reports are saying he died of a heart attack. For years he has been very thin and in not the best of health. Stress and the media assaults on him probably had a lot to do with it. Although he had been charged in a couple of court cases, he was always found not guilty. We in America believe in innocence until proven guilty, so for any haters out there who say harsh things about Michael but say they believe in "the rule of law" should remember this.I always loved Michael Jackson and his music. He and his family were so talented. The first song I remember hearing was "ABC" in 1970. My little brother brought it home. I remember when my little brother brought the album home, I kidded him by saying "Oh good. Now you can learn the ABCs at home." My baby bro and I always kidded each other like that, even to this day.
I grew to love the Jackson 5 and all of their music. There was such a rhythm to his music. I grew up loving Motown especially the Temptations, the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Four Tops. In the mid-seventies, Michael's music began to evolve. There were so many beautiful songs in his album "Off the Wall." I cried to "She's out of my life", danced to "Don't stop til you get enough" and "Rock with You." The seventies were the times of miniskirts, hot pants, disco boots and Discos. In the discos, we danced and danced to them all.
Then my lovely husband and I married. I had my oldest son a year later. I always say my son saved my life because he brought so much more love and happiness (and maturity) to our family. He was so beautiful. He was a brilliant baby. He learned to walk at 10 months. He was potty trained at 18 months. He was reading Grover's "Monster at the end of this book" at the age of two. And he was rockin' to Michael Jackson's music since he was born. When he was four or five years old, I bought the Thriller cassette tape. He loooooooooooved Michael Jackson. I bought him his own walkman with headphones for the Thriller tape. He was so cute rocking and moving to the music. There were so many great songs on that tape. Besides "Thriller", there was "Beat It" and "Billie Jean".
My husband played softball every summer and my son and I watched his games from the stands. While on the stands, my son wore his earphones and rocked to the tapes. Everyone just loved him. Some of the jocks would say, "What you got there little buddy?" My son proudly beamed, "Michael Jackson's Thriller tape."
When the TV Special "Motown 25" came out, we all sat in front of the TV watching it. When Michael Jackson did the moonwalk for "Billie Jean", we all started screaming in awe. My baby son immediately got up and started imitating the moonwalk. It was beautiful!
Thriller remained my sons favorite album for years.
By the nineties, when my son became a young teenager, he moved on to other music, other interests. I think this happened to a lot of people. My son and my music interests parted at that time. He became interested in Hard Rock and I stuck with the Oldies, Pop and Country. But through those teenage years, every Halloween, I brought out the old Thriller tapes and we danced again to Michael's music.
Those times will always, always hold a special place in my heart.
