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High School wasnt all bad. In between episodes of insanity and bad fashion there are bits and pieces that are worth remembering. Like the day I met wifey. Of course in 1990 when I met her, she wasnt called wifey. There was the time in the fall of 1988 that I found U2. (ed note. mom if you are reading this, the statute of limitations has expired for this infraction). Moving on.

It was in the summer of 1988 that I first worked. I had convinced my mom to allow me to buy a CD player on credit at Radio Shack. It was the size of the little I Book. But it played CD’s and had an AM/FM tuner too. By the time my Sophmore year started at LHS, I had two CDs. MC Hammer and Wilson Phillips. Long story there. Back to High School. I had given up on Latin the spring before and moved on to the more practical Spanish language. It was there that I learned that Spanish students had a Spanish Club. A bit geeky sure..but the girls were cute. So I joined. The first fringe benefit of being in the Club de Espanol was a trip to Cincinnati for an international Arts, Food, and Culture festival.

On the bus going to Cincinnati a couple of guys confided that they had planned to sneak out of the convention center so they could go to a theater in Cincinnati to see a new movie about a band called U2. They asked if I wanted to join them. Having never been cool, I quickly folded to both the peer pressure and the excitement of hanging out with these guys. The plan was hatched, as soon as we got in the convention center and Senor Jorge turned his back, we would u-turn out the door and run the 4-5 blocks to the theater. See the movie. Run back in time to meet the class at the front doors, board the bus and head home like nothing ever happened.
We got to the theater, no short of a miracle, a bunch of suburb kids running around Cinci. The movie was awesome. I was hooked. Songs with BB King. The intensity and sincerity of their work with the Choir. I was hooked. Did I say that already. I had to learn more about Bono, the Edge, Larry and Adam. That movie changed my high school life. The music was magical. We made it back and Jorge never knew the difference. I remember the day exactly. Where we ate, the running through the sky walk, making it back with one minute to spare. And I remember the music. Seeing those grainy film clips with Bono singing on the big screen. What a great day of High School.
I later bought that CD from Steve Smith. It was used. And scratched. But I played it over and over. Throughout highschool I would become more familiar with the sounds of U2. Joshua Tree, War, October, Boy, then Achtung Baby. By the time my college days ended I lost track of their music as Bono’s politics upstaged the very music that gave him a pedestal to speak.
Today I blog this after I watched their induction into the Rock -n- Roll hall of fame. A well deserved place for a great band. Heres to you U2.