I was seven when I fell in love for the first time. I remember it vividly. He was a much older boy – a teenager in fact. I knew it probably wouldn’t work out between us, but that didn’t matter. I kept a picture of him in my room that I would stare at for hours at a time thinking how if only I was a few years older, he might show up at the door and whisk me off into the sunset. My parents would understand.
It was back in the time before e-mail, so I wrote him many letters, and finally worked up the courage to send one of them. I couldn’t believe it, but he wrote me back! I read it over and over and over and then put it in my dresser drawer for safe keeping.
Here he is in a picture with his friends from around that same time. His name is Jordan, and he’s the one in the middle.
Oh, maybe I should have mentioned… he was a member of New Kids On The Block. And that letter that he wrote me? It probably came from some volunteer in a fan mail center in Boston, but I don’t care. It was all the same to me. Around that same time, it was announced that New Kids were scheduled to perform in Birmingham. I’ll never forget the day my cousin Melissa and I sat by the phone trying to win front row tickets to the concert. We didn’t win, but my dad wound up surprising us with tickets later. It was the first concert I ever went to and likely the most memorable.
Following waning popularity and a name change to NKOTB, the New Kids eventually parted ways. As is life, my crush faded, and I all but forgot about my first true love. It turned out that another member of the band, Joe(y) McIntyre, was the lead in Wicked when I saw it on Broadway in the summer of 2004, and I never thought I’d have a reason to cross paths with a New Kid again…
Then on Monday, our local news affiliate announced that the revived New Kids on the Block tour was scheduled to come through Birmingham this summer. The tour was a huge success on limited run back in the fall and more dates were added to extend it in 2009. I immediately got on the horn with a few friends who were also New Kids fanatics back in the day, and we made arrangements to go. This reunion between Jordan and me is 20 years in the making, and you better believe I’m going to be there — in the fifth row of the second tier as a matter of fact (THANKS MELINA for snagging such great seats!). Who knows… I might even wear my vintage over-sized Jordan button. Watch out!
by Amanda
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