The Summer of '84 - Ectoplasm, Parachute Pants and Clean Teeth  − 1 July, 1984

In 1985, Will Smith had his first hit single in 1985. He was still in High School then. In 1984, I was in elementary school, 9 years old, I had a rat tail, parachute pants and carried cardboard to school and back every day for a year because I liked to practice my breakdancing moves during recess. After I kissed Brandy Baylock in the second grade she fainted. After that, anything I could do to woo was an effort worth taking. Hence breakdancing. During the summer of '84 the biggest movie was by far Ghostbusters. I remember waiting outside the Cedar Center movie theater for an hour to get tickets. The lines were insane. People were dressed up for the premiere. That was a rinky dink theater too. By that day's standards a modestly large, three-screen theater at one end of a shopping mall -- but by no means a stadium-seating movie plex that you see in every mall today. I think they were showing Ghostbusters on every screen. The whole family went. It was one of the few movies I'd ever ben to where everyone cheered at the end. It was a like a high school pep rally. The other big movie that summer was Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. I actually don't remember seeing it in the theater though I must have. It was crap, no doubt. But I was a full-fledged , card-carrying sucker back then. I got wrapped up in the whole cultural shift of rap and breakdancing. I'm surprised I never took up grafiti or gangs. Alas, I'm a lover, not a fighter. At that time I started going to a new dentist as well. I'd had braces since the second grade and my old dentist used to lick his lips when he was cleaning my teeth. He creeped me out. Especially with this large fairy tale murals in his office that were supposed to be modern takes on the Brothers' Grimm cautionary tales like Hansel and Gretle. My new dentist was much cooler. If you got a perfect check-up with no cavities, then you got to put your name in for a drawing to win a gift certificate to a record store. Well that summer, I had clean teeth and luck on my side. What did I buy? The Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo soundtrack. Ah yeah. I bought the LP which came with a fold-out poster that had instructions for some breakdancing moves. I kept my brace-face clean. I practiced my moves all summer. I couldn't wait for school to start so I could wear parachute pants and pop-lock my way into the 5th grade.

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