Motownphilly Back Again!

Shortly after take off and before we were allowed to use electronic devices, I swapped out my Nike for a moon boot. Since my flight into Miami had no seats in first class, I was sitting in an Exit Row.  Illegally in airline terms.  In order to actually board the plane I was told by the agent to put on a shoe. So - shoe on, board plane, shoe off, moon boot on. Easy. If the plane went down I'd have the door open faster than the blue hairs sharing the row with me.

Seated immediately to my left on the other aisle seat and in a serious funk was a former AUC student. I say former because I overheard her telling the flight attendant the reason for her tears was because she'd failed all of her First Blocks and was leaving the island. Her parents had pulled the plug on her 'financial aid'. Damn.

Our flight reached cruising altitude and the movie 'Pitch Perfect' began to play.  OK, I love this movie. I think it's witty and when I'm at home I listen to the soundtrack to do my ab workout. I would have been singing along, off key of course, except I didn't want to call attention to my boot in the Exit Row. My AUC neighbor laughed along with the movie. She's obviously not as dumb as the Block Exams made her feel.  We started chatting it up about the movie and the conversation took a strange turn when I mentioned something about the 'Foot Notes', a group in the movie.

"That kid singing in the front of the 'Foot Notes..." I started.

"Oh my gawd! That was one of the best parts," she jumped in.

"Totally agree!  Love, love, love the dancing in that part. Anyway, that kid in the front totally reminds me of prime time Bobby Brown."

"Oh!" She pounced, suddenly animated.  "I love her foundation. It's like, the only kind I buy."

"What?"  I asked, momentarily halted. Then I got with the program. "Ohhhhh, you mean Bobbi Brown cosmetics. I'm talking about Bobby Brown, the singer."

I stared at a look of confusion and raised eyebrows.

"You know, Bobby Brown? He was a singer in the 80's. He used to be in that group 'New Edition', they sang 'Cool it Now'. Any of this sound vaguely familiar?"

Nothing.  Wow.

"OK, have you heard of Whitney Houston?"

"Yeah," she answered in a pissy tone and rolling eyes. If Whitney was so obvious, how had she not heard of Bobby?

"Whitney was married to Bobby.  His face was all over the media when she died last year. I'm sure you've seen him."

"Oh. He was famous because they got married. Did he sing with her?"

I channeled my inner-Yoda. Know this, she does not.

"Not that you'll need any of this info for a job application," following up on our previous discussion about her looking for a job when she got home, "but you may need it for Jeopardy."  I smiled and continued, "Bobby Brown was in a group called New Edition. He also had a solo career.  There were other groups like Boyz II Men, ABC, or Another Bad Creation, and Bel Biv Devoe. All great 80's music. Oh, and I guess like early 90's. You should look it up on iTunes."

I was busy in the land of nostalgia and my neighbor was soaking up what I'd told her. Or - she was trying to figure out how to politely ignore me. Probably both. Maybe.