'Mum, you seriously cannot be watching this!' These words were cried in derision to me by my 12yo son this evening. 'Yes, I am watching this, ' I told him, 'And I enjoyed it when I was a younger woman. In fact, I was HOOKED!'
The object of my son's scorn was the old Nineties serial 'Beverley Hills, 90210' (commonly referred to among hipsters as just '90210'). And yeah, I must admit, I was totally bloody hooked on it years ago. I could never identify with it because I didn't attend a California high school for the rich and elite. Nay, I attended a rural high school in New South Wales for anybody who lived in town. It was a public school. I did attend a private Catholic school in my tender years, but that's another box of neuroses for other posts. There were no boys at my school (at least none I can remember) that in any way resembled Dylan Mackay. Probably because the boys at my school were not obviously about twenty-eight years old. But yeah, I used to watch it religiously. Had no crushes on anybody, or anything like that. My husband has admitted to having had a crush on the studious and humourless Andrea Zuckerman, but he has always had a thing for the librarian type, particularly ones with red hair.
Watching it has made me feel a tad nostalgic for the Nineties. I was in my twenties for much of the decade. I watch it and feel a wistful longing for the days when I could actually were Levis 501s that were smaller in size than the ones I currently wear. The jeans I wear are okay. I do not wear the ones my mother-in-law gave me from her wardrobe (she lost a lot of weight after a diabetes diagnosis) and as much as I hold her in high regard, she does wear 'mum jeans'. I don't place all that much stock on clothes normally, but I will not wear 'mum jeans'. I had some sweet blouses back then, nipped in at the waist and floral patterned. I cooked much spaghetti Neapolitana for my friends, and we went out and watched bands. Often tribute bands; it was very much de rigeur those days. We saw The Australian Doors Show, Sons of Beaches (Australian Crawl tribute act), the Australian John Cougar show, a Kiss tribute act, and even Bjorn Again before they got really big. We went to many parties with themes. I still recall the back to school one, and I had to borrow my cousin's old sports uniform. We posed for a photo, and a few years later when visiting my cousin, she pointed out the photo of us in school uniforms. My husband's eyes popped a little, and he looked like he was on the verge of a bodacious boner. That was an okay party. I remember everyone dancing in a circle, doing various swimming strokes. 'Do backstroke!' someone cried; we did backstroke. 'Freestyle!' someone cried; and this is what we did. My cousin, one of the funniest people I know, cried, 'Do the safety jump!' and executed this manoeuvre from life saving classes, doing a jump with her arm spread, into the centre of the circle. It has been almost twenty-four years since this party (and at the moment I fear almost as many kilos), but we still occasionally laugh about it.
At the moment, I am sweltering through a true Aussie Christmas, and I understand there is a cool change a-comin'. BRING IT ON!
Today I have been listening to Garry Puckett and the Union Gap, particularly 'Lady Willpower'. Love that song. Hell, I love that dude's voice. How amazing was it? He still sounds pretty good, too, as I understand.
What will the kids leave out for Santa this year? Probably some cake and a beer. When I was little, I bit the corners of a Sao biscuit to give it a skull like shape, and squashed apricots on it for eye sockets. No, I shit you not. But if you know me, and follow my posts, you will know I have always had a 'thing' for skulls. I left this biscuit out for Santa. He did not eat it. I was disappointed and thought him an incredibly ungrateful fuck (but liked the present he left), and a Philistine for not appreciating the art and design that went into that Skeleton Biscuit. We fed it to the dog.
Merry Christmas - I will probably post again on Boxing Day.
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