Tales From My House: NKOTB and my Friend Jennifer

When I was 10 my family moved from Massachusetts to Florida. It was a very difficult time for me. I loved Massachusetts and was not excited about living in a new place, even if it was only 45 minutes from Disney World. We moved just before Christmas. My parents did not want us to spend Winter Break worrying about starting a new school, so they enrolled my brother and I on the last day before the break started. We checked into Garden Grove elementary and I was escorted to the cafeteria where I met my new teacher, Mrs. O'Neal. Mrs. O'Neal introduced me to a girl named Jennifer. Jennifer was basically tasked with being my friend. And, so she was. She showed me the ropes and eased my transition. We shared a love of reading and became close friends. As the years passed, we had our ups and downs, I can certainly remember some angry fights. But, somehow we always managed to remain close.

We shared many experiences. One of our favorites took place when we were 12. The year was 1989 and New Kids on the Block had become a global phenomenon with their Album "Hanging Tough." Jennifer and I were big fans. When their tour was announced, we knew we just had to see them. Of course, a million other girls felt the same. We knew that if we wanted tickets we were going to have to work for them. Somehow we convinced my family to take us to Specs, the local record store where we camped out overnight for tickets (well before the days of click and refresh). We bough the best seats available, which were somewhere in the nosebleed section of a stadium in Tampa. And, on the appointed day, we decked ourselves out in our New Kids gear and headed to the concert (my poor older sister Kim had the pleasure of taking us).

While we had fun, our New Kids infatuation was slowly fading. And, probably by the next year, we had taken down our posters of Donny, Jon, Jordan, Danny and Joey and replaced them with the newest fad. In 1994, the band split, but as high school juniors, we had bigger things to worry about. Yet we always retained the fond memories of camping outside of Specs and singing "Hangin Tough" with tens of thousands of screaming girls.

And, despite the demise of our mutual infatuation for the band, our friendship remained intact. We watched each other mature, eventually get married, have children, join the Navy (both of us, but at different times), and make multiple moves. We shared many happy moments and some incredibly low ones. When Thomas deployed, I invited Jennifer to come and live with me in Maryland to help me with the kids. She happily agreed and while here met her future husband. We shared another milestone when we had our youngest children just months apart. Our latest commonality is turning 40 this year. For Jennifer, that big event happens today (well, it did on June 30th, when I wrote this), which means that for me, it is exactly 3 weeks away.

To celebrate our birthdays, Jennifer's husband Chris thought it would be fun for us to go to a NKOTB concert. He bought us tickets to their show in DC, which, fortunately, did not require him to sleep on the ground. We made a day of the event, going up early to browse the National Portrait Gallery and explore a bit of China Town.

Then, just like we did 28 years ago, we went to a concert. This time, we were plenty old enough to drive ourselves. Although, it would have been fun if Kim could've gone. The concert was so much fun! We saw Boyz II Men and Paula Abdul as the opening acts. Both were great and brought back some good memories. Despite being 55, Paula is an amazing dancer and entertainer. We enjoyed their performances, but were anxious for the main event. The crowd counted down 10.. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and than they appeared! Our childhood crushes in the same building! There were just as many screaming fans as is 1989, but the audience was definitely a more mature one.

They played some of their new music, which we were not familiar with. I was happy to see that the group appeared to be enjoying performing, they went out into the crowd, shaking hands and exchanging hugs. About halfway through the show, they announced it was time for a change. They did a costume change and came back out wearing some old school denim outfits. Then, they announced it was time to turn back the clock. This was what we had been waiting for! They ran through their older music and finally got to grand finale, songs from Hanging Tough, with the title song being the grand finale. It was an amazing moment to be raising our hands in the air singing along, just as we had done more than 25 years ago.

It was fun to celebrate turning 40 in a way that allowed me to take such a fun stroll down memory lane!