Random Michael Jackson Memories

So Michael Jackson died.

I could spend and have spent days talking about where Michael went wrong, and do it from a place of having absolutely no knowledge of how things really went down. Instead I was struck by this thought as I was on the bus. I put a bunch of Jackson 5 / Michael Jackson songs on my Ipod. So on my way to work, I looked at the rest of the bus and saw probably a larger percentage of people also listening to their Ipods. In my mind, I just sort of assumed they were all listen to Michael Jackson too. It just seemed crazy, the day after, not to.

This got me thinking about some of my Michael Jackson moments. Nothing specific. No Earth shattering revelations. Just times in my life where I or people around me were doing things, because Michael Jackson was involved.

Here they are:

• Someone in my fourth grade class, bringing "Thriller" to show and tell.
  
• A family reunion in 1983. Someone bought "Thriller", on record. I can remember the whole family dancing to it in my living room.
  
• Getting the version of E.T. narrated by Michael Jackson for my sister for Christmas
  
• Seeing the Michael Jackson dolls for the first time at TG&Y in Pensacola Florida.
  
• Recording "Friday Night Videos" every week, in the vain hope that this was the week they would show "Thriller".
  
• Recording "We Are the World" on my boombox off the radio.
  
• My sister's friend thinking that Bob Dylan in "We Are the World" was Buckwheat.
  
• Getting excited when I thought heard on the radio that Michael Jackson was touring Pensacola and then upset when I heard his tour was sponsored by PEPSI-Cola.
  
• The infamous phone call I got when I was 11, from my sister's best friend about Michael Jackson's hair catching fire. My Mom thought from my reaction a family member had died.
• My grandfather calling him "Michelle" just to irritate me and my cousins.
• Watching the whole "Bad" video, and thinking the part before the video was boring, and not really caring who Martin Scorsese was.
• Finally seeing the video for "Thriller" in high school. I recorded it and showed it to my 3 year old sister. She was scared of Michael Jackson for years.
• Driving home for Christmas for the first time and watching that weird video of Michael Jackson defending himself against the allegations of him molesting children. It was that one with red background and he said they took pictures of his penis.
• Being drunk at a party in college and making a deal with someone to split "History", I would keep the old songs and they could have the new songs. I never got my half.
• Sitting with my grandmother in the hospital when she had cancer. She saw Michael Jackson on TV and said: "That's it. I am not dying until I find out, 'What is the deal with Michael Jackson?"
• Watching "Living with Michael Jackson" with my friends in the living room of my apartment in Chicago, and watching my and my friends' jaws drop every time some new crazy thing came on, like he wrote Dirty Diana in a tree or that children are called 'colored', because "...they come in different colors".
• My friend Jenny having the "Off the Wall" CD in her car, and there being absolutely no sense of irony about it.
• Calling my Mother for something random yesterday and having her tell me Michael Jackson died.
• Spending the evening on Facebook, and watching my friends comment about his death. The best one was my friend Tim who wrote: "Apparently this is Gov. Mark Sanford's lucky day."
  
• Reading this morning on Twitter from my friend Neil "What's crazier? His death, or that the news is only about 6 hours old and people are sick of hearing about it. Sign of the times."

Jason