In an effort to help a friend write in her diary regularly, I came up with a whole bunch of questions. The questions are prompts in case she runs out of ideas on what to write about. Here is a question from that list.
Name one of your favorite songs. Give a memory about it. Every detail! Where were you? Who was there? How old were you? What was going on?
A couple of weeks ago, I was at a baby luau. Sidebar on baby luau's in Hawai'i. It's a party celebrating a child's first year of life. It is a big event. Historically, children died within their first year of life. If the child made it past that first year. a big celebration was appropriate. The tradition still lives today.
The live band providing the entertainment is called Inoa'Ole, Hawaiian for "No Name." Along with their original music, they played covers of R&B music from the 70's and 80's. I was floored when they started playing Earth, Wind and Fire and then New Edition's, Mr. Telephone Man. I was really, really impressed. The lead singer with all the vocals has a set of pipes that will drop you to your knees. It is so smooth, so beautiful, so masculine. I believe his name is George Taulani although I can't be sure. His recorded music cannot compare to hearing him live.
I loved the whole vibe of the party. The band and their selection of music was all the way correct. In the middle of stuffing my face, the opening keyboard sequence of Bobby Brown's, Every Little Step I Take, blares from the sound system. I am immediately transported to 1989.
There was a talent show that we had in our community every summer. It was called The Thursday Night Special and it usually happened in the month of July. I was 13 years old. My older brother was 16. He had a little dance group. They would do routines in the assemblies at school and, for the first time, they were going to participate in the Thursday Night Special.
1989 fashion was the era of africa medallions, cross colour jeans, Kid & Play dance moves. I'm sitting with my friends in the audience enjoying the show. One of my friends was crushing on my brother and I was crushing on another guy that was dancing in their group. They come out to that signature keyboard sequence of Every Little Step I Take and the crowd goes wild. They're dressed in black turtlenecks and black jeans. I still have no idea why they would choose that as their dance attire in the middle of summer in Hawai'i. We screamed with delight at the top of our lungs. Those feelings of excitement is what I associate with that song. And that summer was the end of innocence for some of the girls in my crew and we were never the same.
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