I am a true 80’s girl… the prime of my childhood, 7-17, took place in the 80’s.  I wore leg warmers, stir-up pants, big oversized fluorescent sweatshirts, black and white rubber bracelets, and jellies for shoes and of course a Swatch Watch.  My hair was teased and sprayed with aerosol cans of Aqua Net.  I played with the original Smurfs, Strawberry Shortcake, Shrinky Dinks, EasyBake Oven, Cabbage Patch Kids.  I played PacMan on the Atari and Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo.  I watched the original Duke’s of Hazard, A-Team, Red Dawn, Karate Kid, Dirty Dancing, Star Wars Trilogy and of course Footloose.

When I see something from my childhood resurface I usually have 1 of 3 different reactions, depending on my mood of course: 1.  It was a bad idea 30 years ago, what makes anyone think it’s going to be any better now.  2.  That is something sacred from my childhood and it should not be messed with.  3.  I embrace it with a sense of nostalgia.  Jellies and big oversized fluorescent sweatshirts and leg warmers were a bad idea better left in the 80’s.   Thoughts of a Dirty Dancing remake makes me a little upset – that is one of those sacred things.  But the Footloose remake, I am embracing.

Footloose brings back one of my sweet childhood memories… I was in 4th grade, I’m pretty sure, I could be wrong, but anyway… a group of girls, including my best friend Amy and myself, planned to go see Footloose.  I had no idea what the movie was going to be about, didn’t really care, I was just excited to be going to my first movie without parents.  But then in gymnastics, a bad dismount off the balance beam left me with a sprained ankle and crutches.  So my mom didn’t think it was a good idea for me to go.  I was crushed and so disappointed hearing my friends later talk about how much fun they had and how great the movie was.  I know, I know, that doesn’t sound like a sweet childhood memory… but here’s how it became one.

After a couple of days of me moping around, my mom announced that she and I were going out.  It was a school night, so this was definitely not the norm.  Where did we go?  She took me to the local movie theater (back when movie theaters were those rinky dinky things in shopping centers) and we saw Footloose – on a school night!  (I’m pretty sure it was a Thursday night… that’s how much it is ingrained in my memory.  I loved the movie!  And although, I didn’t get to see it as my first movie out with friends, I love that I got to see it with my mom – on a school night!  (Can you tell that to a 4th grader, going to the movies on a school night is a big deal?)  So whenever I hear songs from Footloose, I think of my mom taking me to see it and I smile.  (You know, I wonder if my mom even remembers that… do you Mom?)

Now that I’m a mom of boys, I don’t think I’ll be taking them to see Footloose… but there’s always Transformers…