Do we really need another dead celebrity fan post?

Apparently we do.

I didn’t give much of a thought when Farah died. She’d had cancer for a while. Besides which, I was too young to have watched anything she was on in her heyday so by the time I knew who she was, she was just another actress. Michael Jackson kind of bummed me out, but I didn’t go on and on about it. I mean, yeah, I listened to his music when I was a kid. I still listen to Thriller from time to time—it’s a good album. But whether he actually did or did not molest those children, I’ve always had a hard time respecting him from the ‘90s on. Even if he didn’t do it, it’s stupid to put yourself in that kind of situation. It’s just asking for trouble. I wouldn’t have trusted him in a room with my children for a heartbeat, and I feel terrible for saying that of the dead, but gut instinct has to come first when you are dealing with your kids.

So I didn’t stress too much over those passings.

I’m pretty sad about Patrick Swayze, though. He was a hometown boy from Houston who made it big and played some pretty iconic roles. I remember my 8th grade Reading teacher telling stories about she and he had worked together at the now defunct Astroworld and dated. If I remember correctly, she played one of the suited characters and he danced in one of the stage shows. This was huge news to all us girls, especially considering she told this story to us in 1988, the year after Dirty Dancing became the hit that it was. I remember wearing shorts—scandalously long compared to today’s standards—and rolling them up to the top of the knee like Baby and getting in trouble because they were too short. Yep, that was the ‘80s. :)

I know, as an adult looking back, that the movie was pretty campy and that it was not top level cinema. (I refuse to call it crap, regardless of how Robert feels about it.) However, my friends and I watched it over and over and over and over [and over and over and….] and for us, it was just short of movie Nirvana. There was a time in my life that I could quote the movie verbatim, and not just that crappy ‘Nobody puts Baby in a corner’ line that everyone knows. I cannot overstate how important this silly movie was in my life.

By all accounts, Swayze knew he wasn’t going to make it. He had said that he probably had five years, tops, to live.

What a waste of talent, energy and passion.

RIP Patrick Swayze and thanks for all the great memories.