Most things you either love them or hate them well, in my case of the beads, you either thought they were cool or gay as Elton John. However, I am not and never have been gay. It was early 1994, spring I think on a lazy afternoon, sitting around my parents house, lounging really on the couch and watching MTV. This new band Offspring, had a new song, Come out and Play and as I watched the video I was struck by how cool the singer's long beads looked. I thought about having mine done. Besides I didn't have a real job, just working for friends here and there and whatever part time job I could muster at the time. It was also my first summer in a long time when I was single and/or not moping around because of heartbreak-- women who had broke up or cheated on me. This was going to be my summer of mayhem and adventure and I think that by getting the beads and switching things up, I was making a statement. Look out.
Between 1994 and 1996, I had done the bead thing, in variations. The whole head, just the back head and once or twice just one strand of beads coming down the side (which years later, on the release of Phantom Menace, young Ben Kenobi character has a similar strand on the side of his head however, his wasn't beaded just braided).
In the YouTube video above, it was 1994 and Kyle's birthday party at my parents. My mom was famous for walking around during parties or events with the camcorder and then having had enough, she would set it down somewhere and just let it record. I was walking by the camcorder heading outside. My friends were over and we were hanging out front drinking beers. Rich was there and Jamie and Kevin and Slabs. Kevin had a son Andrew who was also two years old and Jamie's girlfriend Gina had a two year old son as well. I saw the camcorder and as of that time had no pictures of the beads so I bent over and showed them off. Of course Ciz was right there with a joke like he always is. The "yummy" was referencing the new movie that had just come out, Pet Detective starring "the white guy" from In Living Color and it was one of the expressions from his Ace character.
The picture where I'm sitting on my sister's Blazer with her Friend Jen Cole was at Great Woods 1994. It was either a River Rave or Lollapalooza, in which case it was an all day musical event fueled by beer and good vibrations.
The four pictures of me in the Bruins shirt were on the same day at my parents as I was on my way out. That's Kyle with me. I had my camera and was heading out to take pictures-- of what or who I have no recollection but my sister took these photos.
The last one is a year later, at my parents house. It's me and Rich and it's late and we're drunk. My sister took this shot too. She was seeing Rich then as I was dating her friend, Dawn. We had just got back from the bar. Our shirts are off because it was a brutally humid summer night and I hadn't installed the air conditioning yet. Those were the days of sleeping with a fan three feet away from my face.
One particular memory I have in 1995. I was working in Waltham at the time, it was a janitor thing for a company called Work Inc. out of Quincy. Jamie Shea had got me the job. His job was to work with mentally challenged kids and train them how to vacuum or clean bathrooms and sometimes it included taking them out to a movie or baseball game. I was just a straight up cleaner/maintenance guy. Work Inc. had many scattered work sights and they needed me at Trapelo Road in Waltham. I didn't have a car then. It either had broke down or I sold it or both, I don't remember but I had no way to get to there. Dawn Roosa worked in Burlington and drove by the Trapelo Road exit , on 128N, everyday. She was kind enough to pick me up and drop me off at the gas station right off the exit. From there I walked the mile to the job sight. One morning as I was walking, a car full of kids drove by and started hurling insults at me from their open window, "Fucking faggot!" and I swear they were too angry and must have thought I was a flamboyant queer strutting down the sidewalk. I thought they were going to turn around and kill me. But I walked straight ahead and didn't bat an eye lash.
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