87

The very nature of this “Countdown to 40” lends itself to nostalgia.

Looking back in reverence or embarrassment or even just for a laugh … it’s all supposed to be to prepare myself for that next milestone age.
I think when I started this that I expected I’d just go year-by-year back in time: ‘Here’s what I did in 1994,’ ‘here’s what I did in 1993,’ and so on.
That really hasn’t happened so far, probably because I’ve made a conscious decision to avoid that ‘easy way out.’
But there’s a lot to talk about when it comes to 1987.
I entered high school. I went to my first rock concert. I’m pretty sure that’s the year smoking became a habit.
Not so proud of that last one, and the rock concert (Motley Crue and Whitesnake at Market Square Arena, the same night the Crue filmed the following video) was a bit odd simply because the friend I went with couldn’t go unless his mom went along, and she wouldn’t go without a friend … so, yeah, an interesting experience.
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=8992166275625909538&hl=en&fs=true
There are all kinds of turning points in our lives, little decisions that affect the next decision and the next and the next until you end up, well, somewhere.
I could point to any number of decisions I made in 1987 that had an impact on the man I would become. One of the least of them, I’m sure, was my decision to quit the school band that summer because it was way too damn hot to be marching around with a tenor saxophone.
I mean, it’s not like I was going to make a career playing the sax, right? Not much room for that instrument in a heavy metal band.
Then again, who’s to say where staying in the marching band might have taken me?

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