Through the Past Dorkily: Jump

Editor's note: Through the Past Dorkily is a recurring feature that looks back at the embarrassingly dorky diary I kept as a 16-year-old in 1984.

Wednesday, January 18, 1984

WAAF Top 5 at Five
1. Jump - Van Halen
2. Changes - Yes
3. Middle of the Road - The Pretenders
4. Looks That Kill - Motley Crue
5. I Want a New Drug - Huey Lewis and the News

They announced Van Halen is playing the Centrum on March 16. One show only. There's 2 shows at Providence, though. There was a big article on Ozzy in the Globe today. It was pretty good.

We had a sub in Geography today. The same one we had for French yesterday. Still had to take a test, though. I think I did pretty good.  

I got a letter from Andy Monko the punker. Man, is he gone!

I sat with [redacted] and [redacted] again today. [Second girl] likes me now, too. Awesome! I tell ya, there's girls galore here! [Third female] was sitting with us, too. WOW!

I heard a rumor that [a different girl] had an abortion. I don't know whether it's true or not, though.

It's been snowing since 2 o'clock. Actually, I hope school isn't cancelled. Guess I'm just in a good mood.

Tomorrow, man.

- The Barbarian 

Postscript: Van Halen was THE concert ticket to get back then. That show ended up selling out in minutes. Not that I could've gone. My first rock show wasn't for a few more months. The Worcester Centrum was the main concert venue in the greater Boston area back in the '80s. It was a hockey rink that held about 12,000 and all the big acts played there. It's now called the DCU Center and is the home of the Worcester Sharks AHL team. Occasionally there are concerts there, but not that often. 

Andy Monko was a good buddy of mine from Washington state. When we were hanging out in '82-'83, he was the biggest REO Speedwagon fan around, but also dug Rush, Def Leppard and lot of the bands I liked. Right after I moved away, he got into punk rock. A few months after this, he started a punk zine called Bowling for Humans and sent me copies for a while. I actually got to see him for the first time in almost 30 years when I was in Seattle a couple of summers ago.

Such was the dismal state of my social life previous to moving here that I was moved to joy just to have attractive girls sitting with me. Not that it's ever a bad situation to be in.