Back in the 80’s all the kids were wearing parachute pants. Well at least the cool ones who were into break dancing. I remember I had three pair, black, grey, and black/red combo. They were actually really comfortable and made your junk look big so it was a win win. My friends and I were always short on funds so we would go around looking for bottles to take back for candy and comics on the weekend. Our best spot was the Suds Factory, an old disco club, located in Ypsilanti Michigan. One day I decided to jump into the big garbage can for some bottles and damn if I didn’t rip my gray pair or pants. Seriously I was crushed that I had ruined them for a meager ten cents.
Another favorite, and around the same time or a little after, was the Michael Jackson Thriller jacket and Beat It jackets. Now for those of you who had one of these you know there were two versions of each, the good jacket with real wire mesh and zippers and made of leather and the pleather jacket with fake mesh and zippers. Can you guess which one I had? No matter because in my neighborhood I was the envy of all the kids. In fact, years after it went out of style and was hanging in my closet I gave it to one of my friends littler brothers who wore it proudly even in the summer months.
Of course no Michael Jackson jacket was complete without the glitter glove. Sure you could go to the store and pick one up but for a kid like me I had to settle with one of my mothers dress gloves. That’s right! I wore one of my moms dress gloves but so did all the other kids in the neighborhood. In fact I saw a photo a while ago of a bunch of us all sporting our fake Michael Jackson gloves.
Those were in fact the days.
The Mystery Meat 
