Tis the season … for Casey’s top 40 countdown, arcades, movies at the mall and an endless run of 1980s pop music. That’s what I’ll always remember when I think about Christmas with my mother.
In particular, the Dec. 17, 1988, edition of the American Top 40 is lodged in my memory. That school year (1988-89) was our last in Lebanon, Missouri, the location of many of the blogs in the Twelve Days of Christmas series, and it was the last year my parents did shows in different cities during the holidays.
That was also the last Christmas we had a lengthy trip to a mall my parents were working in December. In this case, while my father worked the Mall of Columbia, my mom had a booth at North Town Mall in Springfield, Missouri, a little more than an hour from our house in Lebanon.
Every Sunday, my brother and I hopped in our father’s red van and hit the road with Mom. The mall opened at noon, so we left between 10 and 11 a.m., giving us a full hour to listen to Casey Kasem’s countdown.
At 12, I’d recently discovered music and was all-in. I loved late 1980s pop and hair metal so much that I faked being sick one day just to listen to the radio all day (sharing that story for the first time). Bon Jovi, U2, Poison, Bobby Brown, Def Leppard … I couldn’t get enough.
My mother had a hand in inspiring that newfound love for music. My first memory of listening to a song on the radio is watching her sing Madonna’s “Borderline” on the way home to Joplin from a craft show.
By the Christmas of 1988, we often listened to the radio together. On that December day in 1988, we sang our asses off to dozens of songs. As I look at the top 40 songs on that countdown, I can’t imagine a better era for an introduction to music:
- No. 37: “Kissing a Fool,” George Michael.
- No. 31: “When the Children Cry,” White Lion (an underrated tune).
- No. 26: “Bad Medicine,” Bon Jovi.
- No. 22: “Desire,” U2.
- No. 21: “Armageddon It,” Def Leppard.
- No. 20: “Smooth Criminal,” Michael Jackson.
- No. 14: “Finish What Ya Started,” Van Halen.
- No. 11: “The Promise,” When In Rome.
- No. 9: “Welcome to the Jungle,” Guns N’ Roses.
- No. 4: “My Prerogative,” Bobby Brown.
- No. 2: “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” Poison.
- No. 1: “Look Away,” Chicago.
I miss those days with Casey Kasem. I miss singing along, loudly, and cheering, or booing, when a song reached No. 1. On Dec. 17, 1988, my mom, brother and I pumped our fists when Casey announced “Look Away” as the top song.
We pulled into the North Town Mall parking lot as the song ended. The rest of that day was a typical one for my brother and I. We checked on Mom several times, but really we were kids in a mall. We spent most of our time at the Nintendo station in a department store and in the arcade (Mom always gave us more quarters than the old man).
I have dozens of memories of my mom at Christmas, of course. She always let us run wild at the various arcades in the malls she was working, handing out quarters like they were pennies. When she could tell my brother and I were bored, she’d give us $5 to go to the movies in said malls (for some reason, “The Golden Child” and “Crocodile Dundee” stand out). To this day, she loves to give nostalgic gifts like the first “book” I wrote in grade school.
But none of those memories is as good or vivid as singing along to Chicago. To this day, when I hear “If you see me walking by, and the tears are in my eyes, look away, baby, look away,” I think of Christmas with my mother in 1988.
Merry Christmas, Mom.
TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS SERIES
Twelve Days of Christmas, Part VIII: Thank you, Hannibal
Twelve Days of Christmas, Part VII: A letter to Brenda Keller
Twelve Days of Christmas, Part VI: Booker the Cat
Twelve Days of Christmas, Part V: About Joplin, my hometown
Twelve Days of Christmas, Part IV: Christmas in Arkansas
Twelve Days of Christmas, Part III: From the archives
Twelve Days of Christmas, Part II: The Pine Tar Derby
Twelve Days of Christmas, Part I: Rest in peace, Dan Ascheman
2022 finale: The search for James “Danny” Hollingshead continues