George Michael. I think I’ve been hanging out with my Spiritualist friends too much this year…

After Alan Thicke died, I saw friends on social media say “enough 2016!” And all I could think was someone else was going to pass before the end of the year. There are still many days to go and it’s going to be someone BIG. Someone from my childhood like Alan Thicke but big, more like Prince.

Carrie Fisher has a heart attack, but I don’t think it’s her…while she is BIG she isn’t really from my personal childhood, I know who she is of course, but only watched Star Wars for the first time last year. Nope. Big. My childhood. More like Prince.

And I have no idea if what I think is real, I just know it was in my head.

This afternoon, I drove past my childhood home…on the way to visit with my childhood best friends for Christmas. HWMMS checked his phone while we were all sitting around the table and said “George Michael died.” Nyah, that’s fake news. I don’t believe it. I checked Google and there is was, 6 minutes ago. BBC NEWS George Michael dead at 53.

Well.

Gulp.

George Michael fits that bill. My stomach sank. I kept thinking “big” the word “big” someone BIG. Wham! Make it Big! Morel like Prince. Music?

And now I sit here listening to George Michael song and I have a friend, a memory attached to every song.

We Are The World, Careless Whisper, Faith, I Want Your Sex, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Father Figure, The Edge of Heaven, Kissing a Fool…Last Christmas.

Damn.

53 is too young. And me saying this out loud makes me realize I’m old.

And I also realized HWMMS and I lived completely different musical lives in the 1980s. I think tonight was the first time he heard a lot of these songs I played. When I asked him what on earth he was listening to back in 1985ish, he said Ozzy Osbourne. Yeah, a different world.

One last thing, while I was thinking of all these songs…my gut sank and suddenly my brain went to my 80’s forever crush Michael J. Fox. Dear God, I hope I don’t have the spidey sense…

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