Chips & Salsa and David

When left to fend for myself in Connecticut, my senior year in high school, I became good friends with David, who worked at Caldor, but attended the other high school in town. We were fast friends and realized that we had a lot in common. We shared the same interests which consisted of Madonna, Belinda Carlisle and many one-hit wonders that we just had to have the entire CD of, even if it was the last of our money.

We spent many of our afternoons in my little studio apartment after school. I remember Saved By the Bell being on for a marathon almost everyday and we would watch with a family-size bag of tortilla chips and big jar of salsa. We drank Cherry Cokes and Pepsi out of the cans, which was usually the only thing in my refrigerator. It is amazing to me, now, how much time we would spend doing things like flipping through the book that comes in a new CD's jewel case. We would remember a lot of that information, too. For instance, we knew that Rick Nowels, listed inside the Belinda Carlisle "Runaway Horses" CD, also wrote songs for Stevie Nicks on her "Rock A Little" CD. One of the things I remember laughing hysterically about was how David loved songs that included parentheses in their titles. For instance Belinda Carlisle's (We Want) The Same Thing. There is something about the parentheses that is funny- the words are enough to sort of include, but not really good enough to be a part of the actual title.

David knew everything there was to know about Madonna. Keep in mind, this is before we had computers, Internet, Perez Hilton and blogs. We had to gather our information through magazines, newspapers, tabloids, Entertainment Tonight and fan clubs. I was a member of the Heaven On Earth fan club and got periodic newsletters about Belinda's upcoming tours, videos, and albums. I think it's incredibly cool that he is now good friends with Belinda Carlisle.

On the weekends, we took off to different malls in the area, some of them being an hour away because they had better music stores. We would pour through every CD in every store and never left empty-handed. If we had another dime in our pocket, we spent it at crazy stores like Chess King and Merry Go Round, two stores that no longer exist, most likely due to their fashion sense. I am not sure, but I think rayon was our fabric of choice. There was nothing like an entire outfit of rayon- black pants with a printed rayon shirt, in wild circus colors like purple, Kelly green and magenta. It was always a blast trying to iron rayon too and you did need to iron it perfectly without burning it. Too much heat in the dryer would ruin it- and I used to see those kids who did that but didn't care or notice that it was ruined. David and I were not one of those kids. We used to always point out that even though we worked at Caldor, we did not buy our clothes there. Thanks.

When Madonna's Like A Prayer was released, I remember leaving school at lunch and walking about ten miles to Strawberry Records to buy it. I remember that David and I collected all of the 12" dance mixes on vinyl after that. I also bought all of the Belinda Carlisle 12" mixes on vinyl. If they didn't have them in stock, I paid a special fee to special order them. David was the only friend I had that shared the same thrill of the hunt. Since we did not have Internet blogs or fan websites to tell us when new music was being released, we either watched MTV, listened to the radio or came across a new CD in the store. I remember being in a music store in the mall and discovering that Belinda Carlisle had a greatest hits CD that we had never seen. It had just been released and was called Her Greatest. I had 15 dollars left and it was enough to buy it and stop at Burger King on the way home.

We would sit and look through all of our purchases, try on each other's clothes and try to figure out how to get a box of chocolates to Belinda Carlisle for her birthday. We would plan imaginary trips to Japan to see Madonna's new tour. We would dream of the days that seemed so far away that I would be in NYC and David would come visit. Many of our dreams have come true and I am proud that we made them happen.

Don't kid yourself, I think I have great taste in music and prefer classic rock, but there are those moments that I can sink into the 80's and early 90's. There is something about music that means absolutely nothing, that is carefree and fun. I think everyone has a sweet tooth for these kinds of tunes.

I now blame David if anyone questions why I have music in my collection like Martika's Greatest Hits (including Martika's Kitchen, written by Prince) or God Bless the Go-Go's (and really, God bless them). Recently I saw that Expose was on tour and did not want to go unless Gioia was touring with them, one of the original members of Expose and not the phony, ballad-singing Expose everyone somehow remembers. Only David would know who Gioia is and the importance of her inclusion in the group.

David and I were the best of friends for quite awhile. We were great friends even after I moved away and then David moved away to school in Philadelphia. What I remember most is the cheap chips and salsa in the studio apartment in Enfield, with Screech on the TV screen. What a dumb show Saved By the Bell was, but it was a reason for us to get together and allowed for a long friendship.

I miss David very much and think of him every time I hear songs from that time in our lives.