The town I grew up in got cable when I was eight years old. It consisted of three channels: WTBS-Atlanta, WGN-Chicago, and USA. Plus you got a free month’s trial of HBO and I remember straining to listen through the family room door while my father watched Bo Derek in Ten, which was deemed inappropriate for my sister and I.
I still haven’t seen that movie. But I remember a bunch of the dialogue.
MTV hit the air in 1981 but we didn’t get that in my town. On Friday nights, if we could stay up late, we could catch some videos on USA’s Night Flight or WTBS’s Night Tracks.
We had the same three channels up until my parents got divorced and I moved to the “city” with my mom and my sister.
And then, holy crap: there was MTV.
Between the summer we moved and the summer my grandma died from cancer, she came to visit us at our new apartment. That was my eighth grade year, highlights of which included seven Jennifers in my class (none of whom would speak to me), my locker number (666), getting mono, and wearing out the grooves on Duran Duran’s Rio and Motley Crue’s Shout at the Devil. My sister and I introduced Grandma to MTV, and her favorite video, inexplicably, was Van Halen’s Hot For Teacher.
This was the first thing to ever indicate to me that old people could be cool. It’s one of the reasons I’m staring down the barrel of 40 with anticipation rather than trepidation.
CC has a theory that you can’t be depressed while listening to Van Halen (and by “Van Halen” I mean everything up to and including MCMLXXXIV and not anything after that). I’ve tested this theory numerous times over the years and it appears to be true. Also, I have found that you cannot drive the speed limit while listening to Van Halen, and it is compulsory to scream sing along.
Grandma loved Hot For Teacher’s itty-bitty Van Halens, the ridiculous four-man choreography performed by a band containing only one member who could actually dance, and even the stripping teachers, but most of all she loved Waldo. Waldo in all his nervous, nerdy glory.
I love Waldo too. I feel like Waldo inside probably more often than not.
Grandma just howled every time Hot For Teacher came on- which at the time was approximately every 22 minutes.
I guess I have an extra reason to not be depressed while listening to Van Halen.
Every time I’m driving by myself, listening to Van Halen, blowing my voice out and shaving twenty minutes off my commute, I think of my grandma.
JM Randolph, accidentalstepmom 
You did have a super cool grandmother! My gram also used to watch MTV with us, but she spent most the time scowling, “What are they saying? I can’t make out the words!”
I saw Van Halen on their Monsters of Rock tour in the 80s. They flew in on a helicopter. I was impressed.
I saw that tour! I don’t remember the helicopter. There may be more than one reason for that.
Do tell……….
You know I have to say this, right? Even though it’s Sammy Hagar? The thing about not driving the speed limit. “I can’t drive… fifty-five!”
I can’t believe didn’t see that coming. I like Sammy Hagar when he’s not in Van Halen. Every time I need to put something in a 3-ring binder I look for my “one-two-three-hole punch.”
First of all, you got it all over Bo Derek, girl.
Secondly, how cool was your grandmother. But she was your mother’s mom, who gave birth to Julie Baby, so I understand it all perfectly.
I LOVE this!!!
You’re awesome. I miss you!
That was awesome. I had forgotten all about that video…the pan across all the kids was like every John Hughes movie I can remember. I’m glad you had a cool grandmother, and something so fun to remind you of her.
I remember wanting to be that girl with all the eyeliner and the spike bracelet.
I am trying to picture my own grandmother watching MTV and loving Van Halen. Very difficult. You must have had a really cool grandma!
I have to say, it was a totally unexpected reaction.
Uh oh, drivers beware (that includes you!) if I start listening to Van Halen in the car. I speed even to Glee soundtracks.
Love this 🙂
Sweet!
Makes you wonder what that model-teacher looks like now, 30 years later? Of course, we all secretly hope she’s fat and has dried-out straw hair. And I saw somewhere that David Lee Roth became an EMT after one saved his life during a drug overdose or something. Plus, Waldo is adorable. Especially like the squeeky sound his mothers fingers make smoothing down his oily hair.
Love this. I’m sure your grandma is rockin’ in the great beyond right now. This post has uncanny timing in that on the radio on the way to work this morning they played a mash-up of some random songs by David Lee Roth and the fat guy from Smashmouth with all the music taken out, just the vocal tracks. It might not sound like something that would be funny, but seriously, it was so hilarious my mascara was runny before I got to work today. The David Lee Roth parts were particularly silly. If I can track it down I’ll post it.
I’m about to become a grandma – and I like some pretty cool stuff……………..
Thank God there’s hope for all of us in the future…..I want to have purple hair too.