In fifth grade, I was sitting in Mr. P's classroom, which happened to be a portable because my South Florida school was well beyond capacity. I sat on the far right side of the room next to a large bookshelf where we kept a stereo. Some afternoons, if we were simply working on individual work, Mr. P would turn on the radio. This is about the time Ricky Martin's Living la Vida Loca first made its way to the American airwaves. We sat listening to his Latin heartthrob lyrics when suddenly: "...she'll make you take your clothes off and go dancin' in the rain, she'll make you go innnssannneee..."
Before any of us could register these scandalous lyrics, Mr. P ran to the stereo and quickly turned it to a classical radio station. That was it. No more Ricky Martin. From that day forward we never again listened to the Top 40 station, it was classical all the way.What is it with the teen heartthrobs of my youth coming to play a concert in Lima? The Backstreet Boys came in May, which brought me back to the days of my Sony Discman and tanning by my pool in Florida. And now Ricky Martin. I hope that Hanson and 98 Degrees is next. Then all my girl hood dreams will come true.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I remember from fifth grade. Besides the science experiment making circuits out of aluminum foil and having to swish with fluoride once a week, that's all I've got.
