Interesting question today! I’m 42, which means it was 1992 when my dad was my age and 1998 when my mom was. I don’t know much about my parents’ lives in the B.S. era (Before Sarah as my grandparents jokingly called it). But I do remember a picture of me smiling next to my dad on his birthday. He’s holding a cake that says “Lordy, Lordy Mikey’s 40”. My dad’s name being Mike, of course. At that time, we were living in Georgia and I know they were both working at Kmart (see my previous post–Things My Secretary (Probably) Doesn’t Know (Part 2). They also had a side hustle working at Blockbuster Video. Let me tell ya’, that side hustle benefited me the most! Back in the day when renting VHS tapes of movies was the best way to spend a Friday night, my parents working there brought about some great perks. They were allowed 10 free rentals a week. Although, they couldn’t rent new releases for free on the weekends. I think that’s how I became a fan of watching the same movies over and over. If I was home sick from school, they’d ask me what movies I wanted them to bring home. Then they’d bring them to me on their lunch break. I was 10 years old around that time and a full-on latch-key kid.
Knowing what I know now about my parents, I can look back at that time and know with almost certainty what else they were doing that wasn’t so obvious. When I was a senior in high school, AOL helped me figure out that my parents were swingers. Which makes sense now that I remember all the Friday or Saturday nights they sent me to the other side of the duplex to spend the night with my grandma because they were having people over. I’m pretty sure those people were also of the swinging variety. It’s funny to also think about the thick mustache my dad had back then. He looked straight out of a 70s porn film. Obviously I would rather I didn’t know that about my parents, but that’s something I can’t unlearn.
So, in summary, my parents at my age? Swinging and working at Blockbuster. Yep. Those are my parents.
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