I was 10 years old in 1990. The world was trying to escape all things neon and scrunchy socks with tight rolled jeans. The days of Bananarama and Hair Metal were numbered and fast emerging were the New Kids On the Block and a white rapper, with incredible hair, who called himself Vanilla Ice.
What a classic The Ice was. I mean when you are born on Halloween and your name is Robbie Van Winkle, I think that sets some kind of cosmic stage that inevitably leads to this:
During his peak he held a concert at a large arena about 30 miles from my childhood home, on Easter Sunday.
That spring morning, my brother (14), older sister (12) and I woke up with stained fingers from dying eggs the night before and sought out for our "hidden" Easter baskets. Our younger sister was only about 4 and still very much in the Easter Bunny spirit of the season, so we all played along.
My parents would hide our baskets, well they hide them for a couple years, which eventually gave way to them just placing the baskets on the kitchen table. Over years it was not so much basketS, as it was one large shared basket filled with candy. It could be found on the kitchen counter, then the pantry, then the trashcan.
However, in 1990, they were still in the hiding mode. Once we located our baskets and dug through our chocolate eggs and marshmallow peeps, we found our true treasure. Tickets. Vanilla Ice concert tickets. My parents, on EASTER SUNDAY, were going to take the three of us (sitter for the little one) to THE Vanilla Ice concert.
How cool were they?!
We went. Van Winkle wore white overalls, one strap undone- of course, with some kind of vibrant multi colored spray paint design on the front bib area. I think it goes without saying that he was not wearing a shirt underneath the overalls.
It was my first concert and it was thrilling. I remember it fondly every Easter Sunday.
So Happy Easter to all and to all, in the words of the Vanilla one, "Word to your mother[s]."
