Welcome to Flashback Friday, where I delve deep into the piles of my childhood memorabilia so that we can reminisce, laugh at the bad perms, and finally prove that merely throwing away your NKOTB door hanging does not diminish your love for Jordan Knight.
My birthday is Sunday. I will be 32.
Do the math. It should not surprise you that I was a huge New Kids on the Block fan.
I had shirts and a sleeping bag and the aforementioned door hanger. I had a beach towel and a giant button and all their tapes and a Jordan Knight doll with a rat tail.
Jordan was my preferred New Kid. People who liked Donnie were bad girls. Everyone knew that. Donnie was a trouble maker. After he set fire to the hotel room in Louisville, I let everyone know my elementary school girl thoughts on Donnie.
He was no good.
Jonathan was for shy girls. Joey was cute but too much of a baby. Danny...well, Danny was Danny.
Jordan was a dream. When my friend Jenny (yes, the same Jenny) had a party for their pap-per-view concert, I still remember him standing high on a platform with with a white button-up shirt being blown open by a fan. It is burned into my memory forever. I'm pretty sure I screamed.
When someone at the party took my seat in front of the television, I locked myself in the bathroom and cried.
I still maintain this was the only reasonable response.
My friend and I got in constant fights with the boys at our school over who was cooler - New Kids on the Block or Vanilla Ice. They constantly asserted that Jordan and the lot were gay. I got in HUGE trouble for explaining to my friend Erin what that meant.
My parents never took me to a concert because they didn't love me. Obviously. Finally, when the tree of nostalgia was ripe, New Kids on the Block went on a reunion tour (the first of many). I bought a ticket. I was INSANELY excited.
Then, I got pregnant and was so sick with nausea I couldn't go.
It is a multi-generational plot to prevent me from seeing Jordan Knight in person.
Again, only reasonable response.
I once argued passionately to my mother that the New Kids on te Block were going to be bigger than the Beatles. This argument is burned into my memory because my mother reminds me of it ONCE. A. WEEK. At least.
They were my first boy band. My first true pop music crush and the first time music and the emotion it can evoke really affected me.
Even after I get rid of the last of my memorabilia - years after the last reunion tour, know this.
New Kids on the Block, I'll be loving you (forever).
Were you a NKOTB fan? Who was your favorite New Kid? I promise not to judge...too harshly.
