“Do You Remember The Time…”: Childhood Michael Jackson Memories
Posted by: Leonora Epstein
Filed in:
celebs
10:50AM, Friday June 26th 2009
As an omnipresent cultural figure, Michael Jackson influenced the ways we grew up, whether you had your first kiss to one of his songs, or just spent hours trying to master the moonwalk. Here, some of your best memories and stories about the King of Pop. Share your own in the comments below!
I was in 5th Grade when the first Jackson 5 album came out, and my sister bought it for me. It was my first album I owned, and I remember thinking, “This kid is younger than me?!” It was so depressing. I knew I’d never be as accomplished. —Carl
I had my first kiss when I was 10-years-old at Jewish camp. His name was Dan, but everyone called him “The Purple Michael Jackson Guy” because he did a MJ/moonwalking dance for the talent show and was so nervous he turned purple. —Leonora
When I was four, I was living in my grandmother’s house with my mom and two of my cousins. One of them was really into making me cassette tapes that I would listen to in my room, but after he made me an MJ tape, that was it. I wouldn’t listen to anything else. I just got really pumped when it was on. Always. —Sara
When I couldn’t sleep, my parents would play down my cassette of “Thriller” or “Off The Wall” and let me dance ‘til I dropped. —Simcha
My family used to do these World Wildlife Federation camping trips. They lasted a few weeks. So my older sister got a brand new Walkman (they had just come out). I didn’t get jack. The only album she had was “Thriller.” So for the next few weeks I begged and begged and only got to use it once. Boo. —Sam
I had a dream in the 8th grade that my friend Britt was getting married to him and I was the photographer for their wedding, but he wouldn’t let me us the flash because it would melt off his nose. It is my most vivid dream I can remember. —Amanda
I can remember when the “Thriller” video premiered. We were poor, so we didn’t have cable (I’m assuming it premiered on MTV). So me and my mom had to watch it on broadcast TV, a while later. They were going to do it at midnight, and I was little, so it was really hard to stay awake. But it was awesome and well worth it! —Phil
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bogart4017
wrote on June 26 2009 @ 11:13 am: [report]
i went to see michael and his brothers in 1975 at the westbury music fair in long island. As the show concluded the brothers were run up a ramp covered by security. Somehow michael got separated from his brothers and ran up an unprotected ramp with the audience on either side. He almost got his afro torn off in the frenzy.
Squidtermz
wrote on June 26 2009 @ 11:31 am: [report]
I remember doing to moonwalk as a kid. I may have been quiet good at it because people kept asking me to do it over and over again. Or they were just humoring me. I saw Thriller for the first time all alone and I was horrified! Then I had Moonwalker on VHS and I watched it almost everyday. Currently I still have a stash of MJ on vinyl that I pull out for parties so that I can ‘rock wit chu, all night.’
GreenAura
wrote on June 26 2009 @ 11:38 am: [report]
My dad is the same age as MJ and he was a huge fan when I was growing up. I remember he would bump the Off The Wall and Thriller albums over and over whenever we had a get together. You could literally hear “Billie Jean” (my dads fave song) from the convenient store up the road. I also remember my dad buying the Budapest concert on PPV and inviting a crap ton of people over to watch it.
cattgirl813
wrote on June 26 2009 @ 11:46 am: [report]
Summer 1984. I’m headed to Japan as part of a student exchange program and need to select gifts for my host family. Our chaperone, who’d been to Japan several times, said the perfect gift would be the newly released “Victory” album Michael made with his brothers. “They LOVE Michael in Japan,” the chaperone said. A week later, I’m in Japan standing in front of my host family presenting them with the album. They looked at it and gleefully cried out, “Michael Jackson!” Then came an awkward silence.
“Who are these other guys?” When I told them his brothers, they gave a weak smile and nodded. “But Michael does the singing, right?” they asked. My host family loved Michael Jackson, but had no clue who the rest of the Jacksons were. And they were in no rush to find out.
That offbeat memory has kept me smiling as I think about his loss today. Rest in peace, Michael.
AshPea2
wrote on June 26 2009 @ 12:25 pm: [report]
As a child of the 80’s, Micheal Jackson was the soundtrack to my childhood. I wouldn’t go down for a nap unless his tape was playing and the T.V. was always on “Moonwalker.”
Upon hearing of his death, I got in my car after work and “Beat It” was on. Tears filled my eyes with all of these memories in my head and remembering for the first 7 years of my life how important he was. MJ will always be apart of my memories and I will be honored to share them with my children someday.
Robyn11
wrote on June 26 2009 @ 01:42 pm: [report]
As someone who grew up in the 70’s & 80’s,I have a lot of memories of MJ. From watching him peform with The Jackson 5,I was mesmorized by his showmanship,his big fluffy afro and his charisma. I remember getting a ceral box(froget which one (Aplha-Bits?) that had an actual 75 rpm record yhat you could cut out. I begged my mom to please empty the ceral into a big bowl so I could cut out the record(don’t recall if she did) Later on,I rember hearing “Billie Jean” while driving on the freeway. The D.J predicted it would be a big hit & played it several times. I didn’t mind though,it was that kind of song. Of course,the moonwalkiing on the Motown special(which my younger brother tried to emulate)
Robyn11
wrote on June 26 2009 @ 01:57 pm: [report]
P.S. Sorry about my lousy spelling,I forgt to use the spell-checker:-(