Thoughts on Michael

Flashback to 1982. I had just returned to full time work after being home with my children for 11 years. Like most working mothers I faced a baby sitting dilemma. Day care centers weren't convenient to home and work and there weren't that many anyway. I worked out a schedule where I would only need a sitter from 11:00 to five with DH taking over at that time. My daughters were 11 and 8 years old and pretty good kids. Since it was summer I had the local 14 year old to sit the girls until I found a better sitch in the fall. She had baby sat for us before on those rare evenings out.

Things seemed to be working out, not perfect, but good enough. About 2 months after I started work I got the phone bill. It was for 450.00! In those days I never had a phone bill over twelve dollars. What the buck? Also, in those days, Michael Jackson was one cute young man who could make anyone, including an eleven and and eight year old get up and dance. Heck, he could make me get up and dance. I called the phone company and asked them to trace out the calls and get back to me as surely this had to be some sort of mistake. When the return call came back from the phone company, I was floored. I had to deal with my children and the babysitter. It was the third degree from Mom, the kind where you sit your kids down at the table, stare 'em down and start pushing verbally. After some threatening and lots of voice raising, and per the phone company, it seemed my little daughters and the babysitter spent days trying to reach Michael Jackson by phone. The got started with the name of the record company on the record, yes, it was records and eight tracks back then. They didn't give up. According to my girls, it was all the baby sitter's idea and fault. Yeah, right. They told me they eventually got to his personal secretary. I was a bit impressed at their persistence but didn't dare tell them that. We ended up with the baby sitter getting fired, and my daughters scrubbing the bathroom floor on their hands and knees for one month every day when I got home from work. I fully carried thru on their punishment. But then, I had the magic motivator. I told them I would pay the bill, never tell their father, and they couldn't touch a phone until I told them they could, which was for quite a while!

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Last night DH was cruising with the clicker and found some obscure to us cable channel, FuseTV. All night long they were playing videos and TV show cuts of Michael Jackson. It was incredible. His talent was jaw dropping. I can't find the words to describe the music. We sang and swayed to "I'm gonna rock with you all night".His suit of lights emphasized every move of his body. His control of the most minute body movement was breathtaking. He danced like no other I have ever seen. We watched all night, all the videos. Our evening ended near midnight with the playing of the the Billy Jean video. I got up and danced....Bunny