What Michael Jackson Meant to One Teenage Kid

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How do you sum up a person that introduced you to a new world of music and dancing? I am talking about the King of Pop, The Gloved One- Michael Jackson. I remember being thirteen years old and hearing “Billie Jean” for the first time on the radio waiting in the car for my dad. It was incredible! I looked up some of the lyrics on the internet and found out that the name was “Billie Jean” and that it was on Michael Jackson’s Album “Thriller.” I went to a small record store in my South Texas small town and saw how much it would cost to buy the CD. It was $13 and some change. I went home gathered all my loose change, dug through the sofa, and asked friends and family for any spare change. I finally had enough and went back to the record store and bought the album -paying in coins mostly. I listened to it over and over and over again. I never got tired of the base line in “Billie Jean” or the awesome guitar in “Beat it” or the smooth sound of “Human nature”. Every time I rigged new speakers to my makeshift stereo system, I would test the quality of the speakers by playing “Billie Jean” on them. I wanted a great song to sound great.

            When I got to high school I performed in the Alamo Heights High School Talent show in San Antonio, TX, in the spring of 2002. I, of course, performed a dance routine to “Billie Jean.” I practiced and practiced in my room with some dress pants that I had, a white undershirt and a white long-sleeved shirt. I had a gangster fedora 20’s hat from a debut that I stood in (and the Quinceanera is now my wife). I bought some loafers at Payless and colored the gold-colored stone black with a permanent marker. I bought a flat slick-painted piece of wood at Lowe’s for about seven bucks and laid it down in my room. I practiced every day after school and my friends were curious about what the white dance floor in my room and the bottle of baby powder right next to it (I used the powder to make it slicker for all the glide moves in the routine). I was working hard on the routine and would think through the moves between classes during the day at school. Finally the day came and they forgot to put me in the lineup of acts in the talent show, even though I was included in the flyer for the show along with two other acts. This meant that no one except for the people I told knew that I was performing “Billie Jean.” The curtains were closed and the hosts called for the curtains to be opened and there I was standing in the classic MJ opening pose of one arm stretched out and the other on his hat. The music came in and I performed. I wore a homemade silver glove that I had made from a tuxedo glove and sprayed it with silver paint then glued silver glitter over it. When it dried it was very stiff and when I pointed, the glitter came flying off as if it were coming from my finger. The audience cheered louder for the “special effects”! I never thought such a cheap glove would come to my advantage. You can watch the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WykHYX_8Uwk