90210
- Wade
I have a confession to make. I do this only because I can trust you.
I got positively giddy when I read this today.
My calendar has already been cleared. And a friendly little tune is playing in my head...
I wasn't always like this, you know. In high school, I scorned Beverly Hills, 90210 as, well, a girl show. Jason Priestly... Luke Perry... just dumb. Girly. Dumb.
And then, in the fall of '93, I found myself on the phone with wadE. He (and Al) had started their first year at Saint Olaf (leaving me at Austin High to fend for myself, the jerks.) Anyway, wadE-o said he needed to take off to go watch 90210.
"Are you kidding me?"
"No, seriously. There's this guy on our floor who watches it every week. I watched it last week with him, and it was pretty good."
Huh. So that's what a liberal arts school does to a guy. While I briefly re-thought my plans for attending the college on the hill for fear I'd become a bit of a dandy, I quickly forgot about the conversation.
Fast forward one year. I find myself sitting in wadE's room on an early September Wednesday night. He now lives with Dan, a beer-drinking, bear-hunting lug from Lutsen-- who also happens to be the person who drew wadE into watching 90 the year before. The TV is turned on, and I hear that guitar riff from the theme. The thought of going back to my room occurs to me... but they've got beer. I stay.
And am converted.
90 quickly becomes a ritual. Between 1994 and the season finale in 2000, wadE, Dan and I take in most episodes together. We take our share of grief about the show-- but it's kinda like ice-fishing. You aren't there for the show, you're there to hang out (and drink beer with) your friends. The show is mostly secondary. Oh, except for idolizing Steve, ogling Val, and hoping to be like Nat when you grow up.
Good times. Great memories. And you know where I'll be when the reunion starts. Now if we can only find a place that sells Pig's Eye Lean in a bottle, we'll totally slip into the wayback machine...
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