1984d - Jam On It

 By Newcleus

And he started doin' this:
Wikki-wikki-wikki-wikki. Wikki-wikki-wikki-wikki.

Ah, man, this is too funky for me  - I'm goin' home
Hey, Mergatroid, let's go

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As me and my friends from Boy Scouts (Ward and Kurt) moved from RJHS to Reynoldsburg High, the world around us was in a state of flux.

For all intents and purposes, the Cold War with the Soviet Union was still on and we all thought the world was going to end the day after tomorrow. There were TV specials we watched that reminded us that either President Reagan or Premier Kruschev could “push the button” at any time, starting World War III.
 
Still, we participated in "Hands Around the World" – joining hands with family and friends and forming a continuous link “around the world”. It was a feel-good moment for everyone. It was also the era of Live Aid and one-word-named musicians like Sting and Bono and Geldof that had a conscious – and made us feel guilty if we didn’t have a conscious, too.

There was also “Beat Street”, breakdancing, and parachute pants. I never got into any of them, but Ward and Kurt both wore parachute pants on a regular basis and often practiced their breakdancing moves on Wednesday nights while I watched.

On Wednesdays at 7:30pm behind the United Methodist Church on Graham Road, Boy Scout Troop 279 had their weekly meeting. Some of us arrived early and went up to Ward’s house, which was located just at the top of the hill behind the church. The group of us (usually just the three of us) headed to the gazebo outside the Scout Building. It was situated atop a 20x30 foot concrete pad, so Ward brought an old flattened cardboard box and laid it on the cement so he could practice the latest breakdance moves without getting too scraped up.
 
When Kurt and Ward didn’t breakdance, we might play soccer in the large unmown field behind the Scout Building, or kickball in the old baseball diamond at the farthest end of the lot.
 
I never remember specificially hearing the song “Jam on it” in those days, but Kurt would sing bits and parts and talk about scenes from “Beat Street” with Ward.

Meanwhile, I just stood idly by and took it all in.

It is, after all, a funny thing that I remember that more than most other things, since I never really liked breakdancing or ever owned or wore a pair of parachute pants. Those just weren’t my things – still, I was around “the boys” as Scout Leader Jeff Wyckoff always called us. He always considered it a weird mix of three very different personalities. I guess it was, but somehow, we congealed quite nicely.

And if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change a thing.
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