Because, Internet? I was obsessed, with a capital O.
I was eleven, and the movie(s) made me fall in love with ice hockey, with the Twin Cities, and, most especially, with one Charlie Conway, played by the just-gets-better-with-age Joshua Jackson who was then a veeeeery cute kid/teenager.
HOO BOY did I fall in love. Well, 'fall in love' - I was completely and ridiculously infatuated and he was my first actor crush (notice I didn't say 'celeb', seeing as barely anyone had heard of Joshua Jackson in the mid-90s, but if you mentioned "he played Charlie Conway," everyone would go "ahhhhh, I know him!").
This infatuation was so grand that I once forked out, like, 12 bucks of my pocket money (POCKET MONEY, people) on an imported US teen magazine ('twas either "16" or "Teen Beat"), simply because it had a two-page spread on him (this was pre-Dawson's Creek so finding anything Josh-related was virtually impossible). The article was about his Showtime movie "Ronnie and Julie," and when I read that he had (apparently, according to the article) started studying architecture at the University of Vancouver, I WROTE HIM A LETTER.
...True story.
I have a vague recollection of trying to sound all cool and mellow and interesting in this letter, and I may or may not have gushed about what a fantastic actor he was (heheheh) and how I also wanted to play ice hockey (oh God, I hope I didn't say I wanted to be a Duck like him). Oh, to find that letter now! I can only imagine the hilarity and how much I could snark it out.
I ended up addressing the letter to 'Student Joshua Jackson' (crikey) at the University of British Columbia, because the University of Vancouver didn't and doesn't exist (nice going, MAGAZINE). The letter came back with 'return to sender' scrawled over it, along with "No such student exists" next to Josh's name.
Needless to say, I was dismayed; in my mind, Josh would have read the letter, fallen madly in love with me, flew me over to Canada--
ANYWAY!
(Bwahahah.)
And then, circa 1998, Dawson's Creek blew up and it was like a gold mine: I could watch my crush every week and bask in his televisual glow. A few years into DC, I still 'loved' him, but the obsession of my preteen (tween?) years had long before begun to wane as I started getting unrequited crushes on, you know, REAL LIFE BOYS. (But I was always and WILL always be a Pacey and Joey 'shipper!)
What prompted this post, you ask? Lately, I've been seeing a lot of Joshua Jackson in the media with his girlfriend, the lovely Diane Kruger - they make an adorable couple and seem very down-to-earth. Plus, Josh just keeps getting more handsome and strapping as the years go by. (Ah, he'll always be my first ever movie crush!)
As for getting to play ice hockey as a kid, well...never happened. I brought it up twice or thrice, but my mother would fix me with a stare so firm, and maybe she cocked an eyebrow, and MAYBE she even burst out laughing, but the crux of it all was that she said, in no uncertain terms, "No daughter of mine will be playing ice hockey...I mean, are you crazy? You're a GIRL! Ice hockey is a violent, dangerous sport." In spite my sputtering, pre-feminist protestations to the contrary ("B-b-but...the DUCKS, ma, the Ducks!"), nothing ever eventuated and I was forced to stick to rollerblading in my yard and using a makeshift hockey stick in the form of a broom, which I used to practice the triple deke (I know, I KNOW).
You can imagine how THAT looked.
(Several months ago, however, a new, state-of-the-art rink arena opened here in Melbourne -- with not one but TWO Olympic-sized rinks -- and they're offering beginner ice hockey lessons. As a way of fulfilling a childhood wish, I am TOTALLY gonna do it. All they ask is that you know how to ice skate, which I do, so...SCORE!)
Anyway, I thought it'd be a swell idea (heh, 'swell') to do, for my next post, a review of "D2: The Mighty Ducks," because, my God, imagine the snark factor. How fun would it be to review a kids flick with many an eyeroll moment?
So I will...very soon. I promise snarkiness galore and a laugh or two. What do you reckon?
3 comments:
I used to love Mighty Ducks too. But I never wrote him a letter (even though SWOON, he's adorable) - instead, I wrote letters to Jonathan Brandis and JTT. True dat.
I wrote a letter to Olivia Newton-John when I was 9, I addressed it to her c/- Koala Blue (her store, remember?), Los Angeles, The World.
Needless to say that letter was returned.. I'd cringe to read it now!
@Aly: Great minds. ;) Jonathan Brandis...SeaQuest DSV, I remember that show. JTT = as a kid, I'd scoff at the mere mention of him because all the girls loved him, and I felt all different and shit for liking an obscure boy. :P
LaLa: Weeeelcome, thanks for visiting! Olivia, eh? Heheheh. Unforch, I don't remember Koala Blue...but that might have something to do with the fact I didn't move to Oz till July '94. :D (Of course we'd both cringe reading those letters...but it'd be hilarious!)
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