'Flash'back to the 80's

The 80’s were a great time in music history. There were a lot of great bands that had a huge impact on the 80’s: Journey, Def Leppard, Michael Jackson, and most importantly, Madonna.

Although there were several other artists that I loved as a child, Madonna takes the cake. She was my all-time favorite artist growing up.

I can’t recall exactly when I first heard Madonna, but I was pretty young. My mother still has a videotape of me singing to my favorite song at the time, “Papa Don’t Preach”, and when she announced my name on camera, I corrected her and insisted that my name was not Rachel, it was Madonna. I was quite an entertaining four year-old. I’m also pretty sure I had no clue that the song was about an unexpected pregnancy.

One of my favorite memories of my childhood took place during our annual family trip to Lake Winnipesauke in New Hampshire. Every summer, my Mom and Steve would take Nikki and me to our cottage on the lake in NH. During the day, we would all go swimming in the lake out back. I don’t remember exactly what else we did during the day besides hang out on the lake, maybe that was all we did, but I remember always looking forward to going back to the cottage at night. That was where the real fun was. 

After our daily activities were winding down and the sun was starting to set, we would all pile into the cottage and occupy ourselves with board games, T.V. shows and most importantly, music.

Nikki would plug in the stereo, grab her cassette tapes, and then look at me for approval. “What should I play, Paula Abdul or Madonna?”

Obviously Madonna. Although I did like Paula Abdul too, she didn’t even compare to the Queen.

I can recall Nikki and I dressing in lace gloves and headbands, shutting off all the lights in our bedroom and running around with flashlights pretending they were microphones. We would sing along to the “True Blue” album and dance around our room pretending we were Madonna.

That was pure happiness to me.

Although I had no idea what sex was at four years old, I knew one thing: “Papa Don’t Preach” was the first song that ever made me feel something. So naturally, I listened to it over and again until the rest of my family hated it. They probably still do.

Recently, “Papa Don’t Preach” came on the radio, and my sister turned to me and said, ‘Does this song remind you of me?” I smiled and replied, “No, actually it reminds me of, well, me.” She laughed and said, “Yeah, it reminds me of you, too.” 
           

Although at four years old, I had no idea what the meaning of most of Madonna's songs was, I knew one thing for certain.

Madonna was my hero.