The Old School, Back in the day for 80's babies

At the "tender" age of 24, I am legally allowed to now say "back in the day"... This can be blamed mainly on the music industry. Remember when you were in your teen years and you might've been caught by your parents or anyone in their late 30's or older saying, you don't know what back in the day is! You could have been talking about Jermaine Dupri's duo Kriss Kross (with my pants to the back that's my everyday uniform, cuz inside out is wiggity wiggity wiggity wack!) Or even "say she's just a friend" Biz Markie, depending on how into music you were. Let's not make this a rap conversation though, I'll leave it strictly up to "soul" singers.

Growing up I remember hearing a lot of Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Stephanie Mills, Atlantic Starr, Barry Whie, Teddy "Turn it Off!" Pendergrass, the list goes on... I canl of their popular songs word for word just like I can remember Donnie Simpson's haircut late nights on BET. Now tell me you don't remember Donnie Simpson because you were up just a bit too late and didn't want to go to bed but seriously nothing better was on TV. These hit songs came out mostly in the 70's meaning that those people who told you that you don't have old school music were teenagers at the most if this was their era of music.

Now I can't remember much R&B or soul music when I was a teen or younger but I'm going to run through a list of names that I'm going to throw into the old school wicker basket. Al B. Sure, he goes first because he's light skinned, despite the unibrow. Keith "always crying" Sweat, Robert "I believe I can fly" Kelly, not trapped in the Closet kelly. SWV, Total, and Mary J. Blige. Aaliyah, Soul for Real, "so hard to say goodbye" Boyz ii Men, TLC "red light special", Toni Braxton, Brandy, Babyface, Monica, Mariah Carey (despite the fact she is married to someone my age yikes!), Janet Jackson who in my opinion could dance way better than she could sing, Bell Biv Devoe, Tevin Campbell, Luther Vandross... The list goes on. The only artists that qualify for this list are artists who could "sing" by the year 1997...

If someone can make me a 1990's sould music list, I'd be happy to pout the cd together!

www.slacker.com has an incredible soul station by the way. I've been listening to it for the past hour and its inspired this post. Of course this music is way better than our 90's stuff, but hey, we just have a bigger artillery of music than our elders! Haha in your face old people.

Oh oh, tell me have you seen her is on...

iiiii've been used, for having someone to lean on, and I'm looooooost! Baby I'm loooooost!

I Remember...

Sometimes I like to reminisce...

I remember Pre-K with Ms. Fenton and Mrs. G. No matter what colors you mixed on the easel it always came out brown and Tyrone had ringworm's back then...

I remember back in Kindergarten, when my chair dropped on Ms. Jarvis' foot. She still uses a walking cane 'til this day. Overreacting or Overweight? I don't know... Tyrone still had ringworm's and him and I had a photo put in Child magazine for the future of kids and video games... (I never caught ringworm's)

I remember 1st grade, Ms. Pilato and meeting my future crew Trev and Vince, and our forever follower Rehman...

I remember 2nd grade, Ms. Spector. She used to give you pretzels from a can for answering math questions correctly... I also remember the mean kids running circles around Onan Smith to make him throw up out in the schoolyard. I apologize if I ever did that to you Onan.

I remember 3rd grade when Mrs. Schupack was pregnant forever like Joe's wife on Family Guy, but then she had to leave and we got Ms. Jarvis as a teacher for the rest of the year. Had she been on a teaching "hiatus" that whole time? I also remember her yoking up Jason Santana in the stairwell that same year.

I remember 4th grade with Mr. Stokes throwing Alberto through a row of desks and yoking him up against the wall. We had a substitute teacher the day before and Alberto definitely took advantage destroying the whole classroom. I used to beat him up on the school bus because he looked at me over the stall one day. I almost felt bad when I found out he was a "resource room" kid when I graduated 6th grade.

I remember back in 5th grade when I went to the district spelling bee, i misspelled reminisce to take 3rd place. I did smash PS127 though, so HOLD that!

I remember 6th grade sitting right in front of the teachers desk and always having to smell her nasty breath. Big Red gum doesn't work... I also remember "sonning" Manny and 7th grader on the court though. Remember putting your hand on someone's head and laying it up like you were dunking it?

I remember 7th grade having Options in Robert Wagner aka IAT. A fake shop class and you get out of school 45 minutes early so that you can go back to PS127 and visit your friends...

I remember 8th grade having Options... The option that was taken was to cut that class and get out 2 hours early... I did not take this option due to fear of my dad catching me because he worked around the corner. Lucky Vince, Trev and Ian...

The summertime reminds me of so many things that I used to do in my preteen years. I recently revisited Queens for mother's day to see my mom, and it's changed in the past year. Apartment buildings everywhere, Citifield is huge, Pathmark has a different exit off the Whitestone.

I'm in Clifton Park now making new memories and looking forward to my future.

For the many blessings you have bestowed upon me, and my new family,
Thank you Lord...