Back in 1984...

With all the stuff going on over the new Ghostbusters reboot/remake I got to thinking back...

In June of 1984 Ghostbusters was released upon the United States. I was 16 and had joined Police Explorers a bit after that as a result of a classmate who was also in Police Explorers and had asked me to join.

Of course Ghostbusters was a hit and a phenomenon so, when October rolled around a local haunted house needed someone to direct traffic at their super popular (and Ghostbuster themed) haunted house. I didn't have a uniform yet so they gave me a pair of white gloves and I had to hangout with a uniformed Explorer. Our Explorer group did this to raise money for our organization.

The haunted house played the Ghostbusters theme over and over. It was on non-stop repeat and, for a while, I grew to hate that song. It took a long while before I could listen to it again.

As the night went on and the Ghostbuster's theme played for it's umpteenth time I'd gotten into the groove of directing traffic. Probably was subconsciously grooving to the song too as some sort of Pavlovian response to the music. A car pulls up and rolls down a window. A guy who looked like he had just rolled off the set of Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo looked at me, white gloves and all, and asked me if I was some sort of white Micheal Jackson. I thought about it for a moment and replied, "yes, I think I am," which was unusual for a shy guy like me. The guys in the car, the other Explorer and I had a good laugh about it and then he continued on his way.

It's a funny story and I often think fondly back at it because now it reminds me of some sort of scene in an Adam Sandler 80s themed movie.

Those days were awesome!