Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Da Don't Ron Ron

When I was in elementary school, Shaun Cassidy was all the rage. (He was actually my first concert...followed closely by Yo Yo Ma...and then no other concerts until 9th grade when I went to see The Clash. Quite the musical timeline, huh?)

The era of Shaun Cassidy was also about the time the kiosks appeared in local malls that would take a picture of your face and then laser-jet it onto a t-shirt or coffee mug. One night, my family went to the mall and my dad, who never let a craptacular fad go by without participating (he got a CB radio and a dictionary of CB lingo), let my sister and I do this. My utter lack of any sort of fashion sense (I wore one shirt to school at least one day a week that had a glittery iron-on transfer proclaiming me a "Native New Yorker") led me to choose a mint green short-sleeved t-shirt and had my face laser-jetted onto it. I could not WAIT to go to school the next day so that everyone could see how cool I was. Seriously...I'm pretty sure I wore that t-shirt to bed that night and could barely sleep. This was totally cutting edge.

You never saw a prouder kid strut into school the next morning. I walked down the hall and into my classroom, waiting for the envious comments that were sure to come. Instead, however, Marie E. said to me in front of the whole class, "is that Shaun Cassidy on your shirt?"

I was totally deflated and never wore the shirt again. The only thing more humiliating? Re-telling this story to a younger friend a few years ago and having her say at the end of my story, "who's Shaun Cassidy?"

2 comments:

dilettante07 said...

I don't know if I should laugh or cry at this one. It's hilarious that you did that, but I can just feel how crushed you must have been. Kind of like when I wore what I thought were super cool Ked-like shoes to school and Caitlin Loeb made fun of them in front of everyone the second I walked into class. Talk about having your bubble burst.

And who is Shaun Cassidy? :)

Brutalism said...

And I still remember exactly who it was that said that to me...just like you do. Who would have figured that those would be such defining moments in our lives?

You're sooooo young...c'mere...let me shake your head vigorously.