Pre-Occupied with 1985, Part 8 - The Fan Clubs - Gimme an R!

Hello, Younglings!

More from The Writing Tub! Another integral part of that time.

In 1985, Christine and I pooled our money and joined Helix's fan club. It was really pretty cool and we got newsletters once a month. I wrote to them exclusively about how she and I just loved the band and how I wanted to run off to Canada to become a rock star.

Yeah, that is as dumb as it sounds. (I didn't actually go to Canada until Poppa Don and I were returning from Spain via AirCanada and had to stop in Toronto (at YYZ!!) and change planes. That was in 2019. I visited again in September of that year when I was at a workshop in Detroit and took the bus over to Windsor for about 20 minutes. I was just going to hop into a pub and have a drink but...I was on foot, it started raining, I forgot I wouldn't have phone service over there, so I hightailed it back across the lake as soon as I found the bus station. The border office people were not super-friendly. So I guess that thing about Canadians being friendly is a myth.)

Eh? 

I'll go back sometime when I'm more prepared.

Anyway, Helilx's fan club "person" wrote me back personally, a letter dated July 16, 1986, and it had a wealth of insight for a 17-year-old wanna-be bass-playing superstar.

Feel free to zoom in and read it. "Jackie B" of Promotions said, "Being a musician is a very tough life." She also recommended to have an education to fall back on. Should I study music? 

Well, I kinda already had that one figured out, but I found this piece of advice very interesting.

I finally got to see Helix at Rocklahoma in 2009. I took this letter with me and got in to the Meet & Greet right after their set. Of the original members, Brian Vollmer (lead vocals) was there, (I spoke to him briefly), and Brent Doerner, their former guitar player was with them for that show, though he hadn't played in a while. I'm pretty sure Fritz Hinz (RIP) was drumming. The bassist and the other guitar player were guys I didn't know, but they made a comment about the date on the letter, as in like, "Wow, that's old." 

Everyone autographed it, and it was fun talking to Brent because he was complaining how hot it was. "It was so hot I had to lie down on the floor of the green room, man!" And I'm like, "Dude, it's Pryor, Oklahoma in the middle of July." He was hilarious.

By the way, he reacted to my Ozzy tribute video. He's been a Facebook friend of mine for years and always wishes me a Happy Birthday. Has for several years now. Christine would get such a kick out of that because he was her favorite.

And here is the autographed photo we got direct from the fan club right after we joined, during the Long Way to Heaven days. It's too bad they weren't more popular in the U.S. because they were really a good band. The only big song they had in the States was "Rock You."

That membership only lasted a year, and we didn't renew it after we went to HSU. Interestingly enough, when they released the Back For Another Taste album, they sent me a flyer for it. They obviously still had my address (or Mom & Dad's P.O. Box LOL). That was in 1990. I didn't buy that album until years later when I found a used CD on Amazon. It's not available on streaming so that's a bummer. It was some of their best stuff.

In 1992, guitarist Paul Hackman, my "Number #1 Metal Man" in those early years, died from internal injuries after their touring van ran off the road after a July 4th gig in Vancouver. He was only 38.  

I still follow the band on social media and they stay pretty busy. They're currently working on some re-issues of their earliest albums plus working on new stuff, and still rolling on the road.

So... Gimme an R!!

Pre-Occupied with 1985, Part 7 - The Attitude

Okay, so….this one is little heavy. Spoiler alert!

I had the “ganas”, the music, the wardrobe, the look, an instrument to get started (though not the right one just yet)…hours and hours of MTV, but something else was happening.

I was painfully shy as a kid. I still am, but I’ve learned to push through it, especially since it’s more or less a job requirement not to be. There are days when it’s still way too “people-y” out there for me and I’d rather stay in bed petting a cat.

However, one of the best changes to come out of my heavy metal transformation was the ability to talk to strangers and not sound like a stuttering moron. I didn’t literally have a stutter, but previous to that summer of 1985, the thought of speaking to someone I didn’t know terrified me. Sometimes speaking to people I actually knew terrified me. Some people probably think I still feel this way (and yeah, it pops up on occasion) and others probably think I never felt this way.

(Should we really care what people think? Do they even think about us anyway?)

I’ve always been able to go out on a stage and do “that” stuff. Being in a play, playing in the band and being the drum major, pretending to be a white Tina Turner, lip-syncing Duran Duran songs, blah, blah, blah, but that’s different for me. It may be in front of a large group of people, but there’s a huge invisible safety barrier between performer and audience. It keeps the masses at a distance. It was always the one-on-one I couldn’t stomach. Still can’t to an extent. For me, that’s too much exposure. You can hide vulnerabilities behind lights and costumes. You’re somebody else at that point.

Getting full-throttle into music, though, especially the kind that wasn’t very mainstream at the time, that helped me open up a bit. The more I learned and listened, the more I was able to relate to other people who were also fans. I can remember one particular day I was perusing the Walmart record section and there was this guy, never saw him before or again in my life, but he said something about some obscure metal band (can’t remember what), and I piped up with some comment because I knew who that band was, and some short conversation followed.

I would NEVER have done that prior to that day. 

From that point forward, I had more confidence, felt less like a socially awkward nerd (even though that’s never gone away), but I felt more like I was part of something more…cool? Listen, it was NOT cool to be a nerd in the early 80s. And it was definitely not cool to be a nerd in Southwest Arkansas. It was even less cool to be a girl nerd. (Now, my new interest in being a rock chick bass player came with its own set of contingencies later on, but that’s for a future blog.) So, this was a welcome change for me. Maybe not so much for the parental units, but I felt a little bit more liberated.

Being sixteen is a challenge anyway, and those “demonic” musical choices didn’t help in some ways, because I was also starting to develop that “attitude.” I’d never been rebellious. I followed rules and went to church and made good grades and behaved at school and had never touched an illegal substance. I didn’t date, because, well…I think people thought I was some kind of freak. I didn’t even “drag main” or drive around the old Walmart parking lot or hang out at the Cone-N-Cue because I thought that was kinda lame. When I did, with my new ability to drive the car by myself, I was home long before curfew, listening to my new cassettes, watching videos, or writing or, after Christmas that year, practicing. 

I was just different, I guess. And they say that to be “different” is to fight the hardest battle of your life every day of your life. I don’t remember how I heard that, or where that quote even came from, but it’s somewhat true. And with my new-found identity at that time, I had a lot to learn. 

But that’s what more blog posts are for!

Pre-Occupied with 1985 - Part 6 The Writing Tub

 Taking a first look into "The Writing Tub!"

Pre-Occupied with 1985, Part 5 - The Diet

Meaning...there wasn't one.

I never worried about food. I was blessed with a metabolism that would allow me to eat a five-course meal: appetizer, soup, salad, entree, and dessert then have a snack two hours later. Wash it all down with Coca-Cola and not gain an ounce.

Then I reached age 35 and it all went to sh*t.

But when I was sixteen? Perish the thought.

That summer I would go with Mom to the grocery store, (again when MaddOx was in the old Piggly Wiggly that became Fred's that became James' Foods) and buy Dr. Pepper, Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Shasta Black Cherry Soda, Brown Sugar Cinnamon and Strawberry Pop Tarts, Butterfinger candy bars...and that was my snack menu. I'd also partake of Oreos, Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip cookies, both a big glass of milk. I also liked this tapioca you could buy in a can. I also used to get these microwaveable French Toast things (mainly when I was in middle school) and Lean Cuisine's Linguine and Clam Sauce (discontinued). Other staples were chocolate covered peanuts (or clusters) and Whoppers Malted Milk Balls. Other discontinued favorites were those Carnation Breakfast Bars (chocolate chip) and Figurines. Those were "healthy" snacks.

Breakfast cereal? Cocoa Puffs, Fruity Pebbles, Rice Chex, Corn Chex, and Cinnamon Life. And sometimes Nature Valley Granola. 

Photo taken 2016. Black Cherry soda is REALLY hard to find.

Also when I was in middle school, I did learn how to cook and bake. As a latchkey kid, who was home by herself all day in the summers, I would bake cakes and cookies (snickerdoodles were my favorite), plus I knew how to fry and scramble eggs, heat up canned soup, make redeye and white gravy, boil pasta (mac and cheese!!), and pop popcorn (in a pot!). I could fry hamburgers and brown ground beef. I could also make quick oats (not instant) and grits. I could chop vegetables. Memaw taught me the baking part, Poppa Bill showed me how to do the other.

Regarding other grocery shopping, there was no Walmart SuperCenter. In 1985, that area was a cow pasture, and remained as such until about 2000.

When Memaw started working at the bank, she would work until 6 p.m. on Fridays, and so we always went out to eat on Fridays. This more or less continued even when we had the shop because it closed at 5:30. We'd normally to the Fish Net out at Potter, or the Holland House. The Limetree was reserved for after church on Sunday. There was no McDonald's in Mena until after I went to Henderson. No pizza delivery, either, even though we've had a Pizza Hut for decades, back when Pizza Hut was an experience. (Poppa Bill wasn't a fan, but he'd eat it.) We had Sonic (which is now Cruizzer's), but that was rare for a supper meal. (I remember Memaw driving off with a tray once.) 

No such thing as Chinese either, but we had Suree's, which was more Thai food when it first opened. Her chicken curry was fantastic. 

Oh, we did have KFC. Remember when they had sandwiches? HAM sandwiches? And those cool little parfait things?

When we'd go to Fonrt Smith or Dallas, well, that was different. At Fort Smith, we once ate at Tomfoolery, and Mrs. Laura's, if we weren't having a Nana McChristian-prepared meal at their house in Greenwood on drill weekends. Homemade mac and cheese!!! And Nana always had huge kosher dill pickles in the fridge, Oreos, again, in her cookie jar, and Munchos potato chips, which I still buy every summer. We'd eat at the mall on those Saturday shopping excursions. Furr's Cafeteria at Phoenix Village. Or Luby's at Central Mall. 

Ah...the early days of Chick-Fil-A. The big pretzels with cheese. And this was before Central Mall had a food court. Those were in the Dallas Malls, where I tried gyros for the first time. Sbarro. I thought pizza by the slice was the smartest idea ever. Great American Cookie Company. Buy 4 get 1 free!

Also in the "big" towns: McDonald's!!! Arby's. A Beef and Cheddar is still a delicacy. I remember sitting at the Arby's on Rogers Avenue after an orthodontist visit and we had just bought The Truly Tasteless Joke Book. Memaw was laughing hysterically and everyone was staring at us.

Unfortunately, I'm currently on a juice cleanse so I probably need to stop talking about being a junk food junkie in my teens.

Not an 80s video, but it still makes sense.