I was just thinking of posting this the other day, now it seems even more poignant.  I was a HUGE Michael Jackson fan, embarrassing as it may be to admit now.  But I remember the first time I heard him.  Val  had a big slumber party the end of fifth grade.  She had the Thriller album and we played it over and over.  I had no idea who he was before, heck I didn't even know Val knew who I was! 

We watched Friday the 13th (it was Friday the 13th!) and Saturday the 14th the next day.  

I went home and bought the tape at the Dime Store.  The cassette tape didn't come with the words like the album though so I had my mom handwrite them.  Still had them up until a few years ago.  Sold all my stuff at a garage sale for $1!

I too was a HUGE Michael Jackson fan.  I still have myThriller album and a big poster of him that I had hanging in my room above my bed.  I remember buying a t-shirt at the fair the summer before 7th grade year with a picture of him and his name on it.  I wore it to school one day and had several upper-classmen ask me if I went to his concert.  Yeah...right!!  Like I (or my parents for that matter) had the money to see him in concert.  We recently got all of my old albums out and played them in my mom and dad's garage.  My kids were facinated!!

I also remember in Advanced Art our senior year, the song "Dirty Diana" song came out and Jason and Gary would sing "Dirty Anita" when it came on the radio.  My heart is broken that he is really gone. 

Do you find it odd to correlate the white Michael Jackson with the Michael Jackson of our youth?  To me it is like 2 completely different people.  Since he's been plastered all over the TV lately I realized that in my mind I don't think of him as the freaky looking alien person he became, but when I see the 'Beat It', 'Billy Jean', or 'Thriller' videos it takes me right back to watching Friday Night Videos (usually at Renee's house while eating Kraft macaroni and cheese after Friday night skating!)  

Here's something fun - nearly all the Junior High kids I come into contact with have a phase of listening to Weird Al Yankovic, so of course Michael Jackson songs are rolled up in that.  The funny thing is, most of the kids now have had little exposure to the black Micheal Jackson and didn't even know he could dance like that!  We had a night of entertainment of looking up his old videos on Music Choice through our Tivo (you can find them on YouTube too) and then watching Weird Al's.  My kids knew all the words to the Weird Al songs by heart but didn't even know there was an original song that it had come from!  Pretty entertaining stuff (yeah, I should probably get out more!)

Even my 15 year old thought he had 'pretty good moves'.  Brings back a lot of memories that's for sure!