The 43

There we were, in my friend John's Caprice Classic, in the parking lot of our high school on the night before our senior year began. I'm not sure how my friends and I ended up there -- likely, we were driving around and couldn't find anything to do on this last unofficial night of summer. We were about to be seniors, which must have felt a little daunting to me. We wouldn't be out too late, but we weren't going to let the last night be wasted. Finally, we had enough of contemplative conversation, and John did something in reverse, essentially, a reverse donut, for no real reason. He said, "That was fun" and did another. My friend Mike and I have differing memories of what happened next, but Mike uttered "light pole" a half-second before John hit it with the front right of the Caprice. And thus, the summer of 1987 ended. I kind of look back on this summer as my least favorite during the '80s. Being a teenager is rough -- something I remind mys...

 "Out in the streets there is violence, and-and a lots of work to be done." In the summer of 1983, "Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant was the absolute coolest song playing on the radio. And this was during a summer of cool songs, from "Rock of Ages" by Def Leppard" to "Gimme Some Lovin'" by ZZ Top to "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats. I can't quite explain what made it so cool -- it's not a musical masterpiece by any means -- but it was just different. Moreover, it might have struck a chord for me because it seemed to embody the heat of that summer. Before 1983, yes, I knew summers were hot. I'm not sure if 1983 was necessarily an unusually hot summer, but it was the first summer I think I really felt the heat, if that makes sense. I had to exist in that heat instead of it being an afterthought. I wanted to enjoy it but cool myself off from it. It felt inescapable at times. In the summer of 1983, I moved into my new ...