Take On Me

My first concert was a-ha in 1985 when I was in 7th grade.

I just heard "Take On Me" on the radio and it brought me back.

It was myself, and my friends Laurel and Emily. Laurel's and I's dads were going to drive us up the big ole' Cities from our smalltown wonderland, and attend the concert with us. We had five tickets.

It was not ideal...going to your first concert with your dad and your dad's friend...but we REALLY wanted to see a-ha. We probably made them promise not to walk too close to us or even attempt to talk to us.

a-ha (they didn't feel the need to capitalize) consisted of Morten, Mags and Pal (with the two dots over the a, but I don't know what that's called or how to do that in Blogger). I was in love with Morten - oh, he was dreamy. He was the lead singer, and the dude in the leather jacket trying to get out of a comic book in that ever-so-popular video. I pretended I was the girl in that video - I think I even had hair similar to her. And I'd dance and pretend Morten was in love with me, and I was 13 and it was glorious.

Laurel was in love with Mags - he was the keyboardist. He wasn't quite as pretty - a bit more shaggy. And in today's world, I can definitely see the appeal of him. I guess you could say he was more manly. But at that time, I'd just go, "Uh huh....but I LURVE Morten." And Emily - she was in love with Pal. He was ...kinda geeky in my honest opinion. Skinny, played the guitar and kind of did this "step-hop" bounce while playing the guitar. But she loved him. And it was good - as the three of us had no competition with each other. There was one for each of us.

So at the last minute, Papa's L and H surprised us and told us that although they were still taking us to the concert, they were going to drop us off rather than attend with us. What this meant is that we got to invite two more people. I know one was Heather but I'm not sure who the other was. We were PUMPED!!!! We were 7th graders and we were going to a concert!!! SQUEEE!!!!!!

And concert-go we did. I'm sure I had a long mullet going with full batwings (you know - sides sprayed out so stiff with hairspray you could break them) for 7th grade. Not the 10th grade batwings I became expert on - but beginning batwings. I probably still had braces - I don't remember. I got them off sometime in 7th grade. And I'm sure I had a zit or three or ten on my chin somewhere. In other words....the 7th grader I was is not in any likeness to the 7th graders today - that seem to have huge boobs, gorgeous hair and teeth and look 18.

But I didn't care - because Morten loved me. And I loved him. And I was at a concert without my dad...in the CITIES...and gosh, I was cool.

See what happens when you hear the opening keyboard riff to Take On Me????

I get a whole blog out of it.