Situating Myself in History:
My Wonder Years

Thriller was released. *M*A*S*H* ended its eleven year run on CBS. Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States. Cabbage patch dolls were introduced. Compact discs and camcorders hit the market. Dr. Martin Luther King Day became a national holiday. Ocean Spray introduced the very first “juice box” to America. All of these events seem so commonplace now. We take them for granted. However, the fact remains that without all of these events that occurred in 1983, the year that I was born may not matter so much now. To look back and see the changes that have transpired over the course of these twenty-four years, I am constantly in a state of interest as to how and why pop and historical culture are so embedded in our daily lives and attitudes.

Thriller. The ultimate Michael Jackson album. What this song did for pop culture and dance moves alike still resonates with us to this day. Many parties (at least the Bar and Bat mitzvahs that I have been to in my lifetime) play this song as a tribute to an era that created unity among a people that probably couldn’t dance, but tried their best to move like a zombie, as the music video showed. Michael Jackson was at the top of his game back then. He was a music icon. Not that he isn’t anymore, though. An icon, that is. I am still apt to think of him as a singer, but I, like many others, am also haunted by his Neverland ranch and the accusations of child molestation that he is charged with. Never in a million years would anyone have thought about this back in 1983. The world is ever-changing, and Michael Jackson is just one person whose lifestyle and values have changed along with the rest of the pop culture. Yet his song and dance are unchanging, as witnessed by the YouTube phenomenon online, in which a groom posted a video from his wedding in which he, his bride, and their wedding parties choreographed the Thriller dance and performed it at their wedding. YouTube provides young people of today with the technology to “see” the past and experience it as it happened, as people have posted historical and pop culture phenomena from various events over the years on this site.

One of the items I’m sure is posted has to do with *M*A*S*H* and the final episode to end all final episodes of a television show. Even though I am an avid TV watcher myself, I must admit that I have only seen snippets of this show over the years it has been in reruns. This show spoke to the nation at a time of crisis. It was set during the time of the Korean War, but actually was created during the final years of the Vietnam War. People who had family or friends overseas could relate to the show, and were given a sense of solace in the fact that the show depicted the war occurring, but lives still going on and relationships still being built. The show seems as though it would be out of place now, because even though our nation is embroiled in yet another war with yet another country, much of the world has become jaded, and the tide of television is ever-changing from shows that chronicle a war (such as *M*A*S*H*) to shows that focus on faded celebrities and their search for a bit of the old stardom they once knew (such as The Surreal Life).

Television isn’t as serious and purposeful anymore, at least in my “expert” opinion. Not that there aren’t some good shows on that I regularly watch, which provide witty banter (Gilmore Girls), mystery and character development (Lost), medical drama (Grey’s Anatomy), intrigue and suspense (24). There are still shows that captivate viewers, but they are much less common than the likes of *M*A*S*H*, Cheers, Taxi, and Family Ties, which may have recycled jokes and family values, but all in the spirit of good, clean fun and viewership that lasted. It sure lasted for me, as I still watch these shows in reruns any chance I get.

Fifteen years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President Ronald Reagan signed into law a bill that made the third Monday of January a national holiday honoring Dr. King’s birth and life. Even though the first national celebration of the holiday did not take place until January 20, 1986, the intent was the same. A man who did so much for the civil rights movement and the forward movement of his country into a state of camaraderie and compassion was being honored, and people the world round would realize the impact that such a man can have on a diverse population. I remember in elementary school when we had to write speeches about who our heroes were and why. Then we had to relate our heroes back to the heroism of Dr. King, since the holiday honoring him was approaching. I remember choosing my Rabbi and saying how much he influenced me in terms of wanting to go to synagogue and learn the prayers associated with my religion. I figured that choosing my mom, dad, or grandparents would be too cliché, so choosing a clergy member was my only other recourse at that time in my life if I didn’t want to choose family or friends. Looking back, I guess my choice was appropriate, as Dr. King also held membership in the clergy. The clergy is truly a place where its members strive to motivate and inspire, as Dr. King proved and Rabbi Berman did for me when I was younger.

Cabbage patch and My Buddy dolls. Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake. I remember watching commercials, seeing movies, and buying miscellaneous items that had to do with each of these toys that represented an era of innocence and childlike fantasy. The Babysitter’s Club and Ramona Quimby were also a part of my youth that I will never forget. Even as a young child, I loved reading. I would sit on the couch in my family room, snuggled up against a pillow, with a blanket over my legs, and wiggle around till I was completely comfortable. Then I would spend the remainder of the morning (usually from 9 till 12) reading. And I’d finish the book. I prided myself on this achievement. I mean, it was an achievement to an eight or nine year old kid who gave up morning cartoons for the pleasure and leisure associated with reading a good book. Or watching the TV shows that had to do with those books, such as the adaptation of Beverly Cleary’s Ramona, or the movie that stemmed from young girls who babysit and share stories of boys and friends.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are still the fallback lunch item in many cafeterias. Yet students of today dislike the “uncool” nature of this food option. They would rather bring Cheetos, Sprite, cookies, and other “junk” food to eat for lunch than a rather delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I must admit that every day of elementary school, barring one or two days when we may have been out of one of the few ingredients required, I took a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to school for lunch, and I ate an open-faced one for breakfast. I loved peanut butter and jelly and still do. My parents and grandparents used to tell me that I would turn into that type of sandwich if I kept eating it as much as I did. I didn’t care though. Nothing was going to keep me from those sandwiches. And I still eat them to this day. If that makes me uncool, and dates me back about fifteen years or so, I’m content with that. I’m a creature of habit, and remembering all of these facts about the 80s gives me hope that other generations have memories just as strong as my own.

Juice boxes were another item I took to school with me when I was younger. I still drink from them. Why not? Juice in a convenient little package with a pointy little straw that fits into a little hole at the top of the box. That’s good marketing. You didn’t have to take a thermos to school in your lunchbox anymore. It was nice for parents who made their kids’ lunches to just stick a box in the lunch bag and send their kids on their way without having to pour juice or some other drink into another container, tighten it up, and place it into the lunch box, hoping that it wouldn’t spill. Ocean Spray had struck it big.

Compact discs and camcorders seem like they are still ever-present in today’s society, but the fact is that with iPhones, iPods, BlackBerrys, and all the other technological advances going on in today’s world, they are becoming obsolete. It’s true that it is twenty-four years later and people still use CDs all the time and videotape with camcorders. My experience, however, is that people are downloading all of their songs to iTunes or their iPods, and are forgetting about the simplicity of placing a CD into a player. After all, we survived before iPods and CD players as well. We used a Walkman. You attached it to a belt loop or your pants in some way or another, and walked around with your headphones on, bobbing your head up and down to whatever music just so happened to be playing at that moment. And cassettes were the in-thing. People didn’t really know about CDs all too much back in the 80s. They were more a product of the 90s generation.

I can’t help but think about the Wonder Years as I am writing this memory of how I situate myself into history. Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) remembered all those little details about his life, as Daniel Stern provided the voice of Kevin as an adult and recalled the memories, both good and bad, that a budding teenager felt in the late 60s and early 70s. Many of those feelings and interpretations of the past are able to be linked to any given generation. All people feel a connection to the time in which they grew up, when they were pre-teens, adolescents, and young adults.

Thinking back on the history that has occurred during my time, it’s hard to pick only a few main ideas. However, the Oklahoma City Bombing still resonates with me to this day, because I remember my grandpa being at the fitness club and coming home to tell me what had happened. He was a news addict. He needed to be watching exactly what was happening so he could be knowledgeable enough about it to share the information with me and the rest of my family. The OJ Simpson trial is another event that will forever be engraved in my memory. The year was 1994 and every day that I came home from school, my grandpa would have the trial on TV and I’d watch it with him. We couldn’t understand how any one man could have so many different alibis for where he was at that moment in time when his ex-wife was killed. September 11, 2001. I was a freshman in college, and it was my first week of school. I had gone to my English composition class, and when I got there, the professor told us it was cancelled. I didn’t know exactly what had happened. All I knew was that something intriguing was in the newspapers, and people were reading about it with amazed looks on their faces. I went back to my dorm and walked down to the end of the hall where my room was, the voices of news anchors blasting down the corridor. Everyone was calling their families and friends. It was a sad and unforgettable day.

People say that history repeats itself. If this is true, I can only hope that the memories of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, juice boxes, CDs and the walkman, Michael Jackson as a great singer, and TV shows will be what comes back to make me feel just as good and happy as I did at the time when these things first came about. I can’t say that there are other times in history I wouldn’t like to visit. Many different decades, such as the fifties, interest me immensely. But I wouldn’t trade my history for anything. After all, I wouldn’t be me if it wasn’t for my history.

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