One thing I remember well about going into 1985 was that I was fat. So understandably, I was rather camera-shy. There are photos of me during Christmas 1984 and then I really can’t find any more until the Summer of 1985. Not that there was much going on of which to take photos anyway. But as I collect my thoughts and transport myself to this time period, I realize that these were some good times, characterized mosty by my hobbies. If I had kept a time capsule at this time, these are some of the things that might be found in it from the year which began with New Years Eve. To ring in the new year, my friend Chris Demeter spent the night and we spent the late hours walking around the neighborhood lighting firecrackers, and perhaps cigarettes. But the rest of my memories are characterized by my hobbies and obsessions, rather than much specific activity.
Obviously, there is a seperate string of postings beginning here, which details my autograph-collecting hobby that I was fostering in early 1985. But there were even more hobbies and distractions going on during this part of the year which I will illustrate here.
I had met a new friend in seventh grade at Ankeney Junior High named Jeff Flinn
. He and I seemed to be cut from the same cloth, both of being rather intelligent, analytical, and having a disastrously sick sense of humor. He was also a fan of Stephen King. Meanwhile, in my study hall period, a guy named Kevin Rose was reading the latest Stephen King novel The Talisman. I became fascinated by this book and would ask to look at it during study hall, even though Kevin was trying to complete it himself. Then on one of my weekly trips with Mom to Lofino’s grocery store, where I would always hang around the magazine rack, I saw the book and talked Mom into buying it for me. This sounds strange, but I had never really read an ‘adult’ novel for leisure before, so the prospect fascinated me. I began reading it, but didn’t finish it…until several years later.
I had begun dabbling in collecting comic books back in late 1983 and found a renewed interest during this time period, especially when my friend Chris began collecting. He and his friends Tom and Andy were big collectors and we would all make frequest trips to Mavericks to hang out and browse the comic books. It was cool because you could have your own ‘box’ and specify what type of comics you would like placed in it when they came in every week. The when you visited the store, you could purchase all of the comics in your box.
Like many of my hobbies, I enjoyed the idea of collecting, even more than actually enjoying the items I was collecting. Therefore, I read very few of the comics I purchased. There were a few I really enjoyed, namely Web of Spider-Man (of which I still have about the first 30 issues), Tales of the Beanworld (which I remember reading in the balcony at church, where I controlled the sound; occasionally I would get so caught up in the comic that I would forget to turn on Pastor Flory’s mike after the choir sang), and most of all, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We got into this comic book in the days way before it became a cartoon series and movie. At this time it was an unknown, independent, black-and-white, and very violent comic book. I bought four copies of the first issue (third printing, but still rare), and sealed three of them in plastic, where they remain today.
Also on my list of comics to put in my box, was any 3-D comic that might come out. 3-D comics fans were enjoying a resurgence of this medium in 1985. These were relatively uncommon between the 1950’s and this time period. I even bought one vintage 3-D comic book, Rootie Kazootie. I always had a unique fascination with 3-D and had a book called Amazing 3-D that I had bought in early 1983. I did a report on 3-D during this time period for my seventh grade English class.
For Christmas 1984, I received a Nimslo 3-D camera, capable of taking lenticular 3-D photographs. As I recall, the first 3-D photo I snapped was on New Years Day 1985 at Bill and Dottie’s house (at left). Of course, viewing one of these photos in 2-D format doesn’t quite do it justice. But I did do a good job with this shot of framing an item in the foreground to stand out in the original print.
My beloved cat Jet became deathly ill with a urinary tract infection in the Spring of 1985. At the same time, my parents 
were having problems and a separation seemed imminent. I prayed that if one bad thing had to happen to me, it would be my parents’ separation and not Jet’s death. My prayers were answered and Jet recovered…and my parents did eventually separate in the Summer. I snapped a 3-D photo of Jet (at right), thinking that he wasn’t going to survive. I wanted to have this 3-D shot to remember him by, even though it was an unlikely pose of him lying on the bathroom floor, where he would often lay during this illness, looking as if he would never recover.
The face of music changed for me in 1985. When I look at popular music of this era, it seems to have lost the luster of vintage ’80’s music and became a bit more sugar-coated. I never got into the Whitney Houstons or the Wham!s of the music industry. We Are the World by USA for Africa seemed to be the only memorable pop music selection of this time period. My interest had returned to KISS around this time. My friend Chris again influenced me (or maybe vice versa) as he bagan to take an interest in the group. I had lost interest by about 1981 and recall being relatively indifferent to the fact that they had taken off their makeup, assuming that they were probably washed-up.
However, during one of my almost-weekly trips to Armadillo Records in Kettering in late 1984 to pick out 45rpm records, I bought the new KISS album Animalize. Chris and I liked the new stuff, but became fascinated by the makeup era, which already by this time had become ‘nostalgic.’ It wasn’t long before I began purchasing all of the KISS albums on cassette tape (the most modern medium at the time) and Chris began copying them. We lived, breathed, and ate KISS for a while. We would spend the night at each others house and listen to and critique the KISS music, thumbing through KISS magazines – including one unique fanzine called Strange Ways, that was based out of Dayton.
There were lots of classic movies from this time period including several of the classic Brat Pack movies like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science. Many of these I first saw on HBO. But what I remember most about this time period was an utter obsession by the short-lived TV show It’s Your Move. This great show, which I still LOVE today, only lasted 18 episodes. In late 1984, I began recording them and watching them repeatedly. I remember when the second half of the classic “Dregs of Humanity” epidode was pre-empted by an address from Ronald Reagan, I was devestated. It was not shown until more than a month later. Unfortunately, since this show was ahead of its time with inappropriate humor (a teenager getting the better of an adult), the show was forced to ‘tone down.’ The final five episodes aired weekly from January 26 – February 23, 1985. Since the show had lost its edge, it lost its audience. I watched my tape until it wore out and became hopelessy unspooled. I finally retrieved 16 of the episodes in 1991. I didn’t get the last two until 2000.
Another show I enjoyed consistently during this time period was Saturday Night Live. I hadn’t really ever watched the show before, but really enjoyed this unique season in which Lorne Michaels had recruited some amazing talent like Martin Short, Billy Crystal, Jim Belushi, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Rich Hall, Harry Shearer, and others. Of course, my friends and I would imitate the various Martin Short oddball characters like Jackie Rogers Jr., Nathan Therme, and Ed Grimley (right), who had become very popular.
I was still thoroughly into Laurel and Hardy during 1985 and was busy attending monthly tent meetings, as well as saving money for the upcoming 1986 Sons of the Desert convention. Earning money from my paper route, I would put $5 into an envelope marked as my “Laurel and Hardy Fund.” This would guarantee that I had $500 to spend on memorabilia by the time it rolled around. For the record, I did keep up with it and ended up raising (and spending) the full amount.
Outside of the pop culture arena, I was keeping myself busy getting into trouble with Chris and Jeff. We had begun dabbling with smoking cigarettes – a bad move, as this habit would linger with me for more than fifteen years.
More from 1985 later…
The rights to the Rootie Kazootie characters are now owned by Ray Frick and can be seen on the children’s menu and coloring pages at Fricker’s
Darlene
January 17th, 2007