My Favorite Year

I have had a lot of good years in my life. 2003, I got married and started a new job. 1998, I moved back to the south side and I met my wife. 1986, my junior year in high school, where I started to escape my geeky past and actually have a social life. However, when it is all said and done if I had to pick one year that was the best of them all so far, it would have to be 1989.

In 1989 there was nothing significant that happened, that I could point to as the defining moment. It was a time in my life when I was having fun and didn’t have responsibility. Here is a brief rundown of Nick’s life in 1989.

I was working at Kmart making about six bucks an hour. I split my time between the floor and working in the Pharmacy. The Mart was a social gathering point for me and my posse.

I attended Moraine Valley Community College. It took a year for me to warm up to the school but warm up I did. I loved my years at Moraine. I had a good old time there and was taking classes where I had friends in each. If I wasn’t at the Mart I was at Moraine.

I was still living at home. I was only twenty and I was not making near enough money to move out. It was cool though as my Mom and Step-Dad pretty much stayed out of my business and I was able to come and go as I pleased. I was driving an 82 Buick Skylark which I had purchased for $400 bucks. It got me around town and served its purpose.

On the weekends the question wasn’t is there a party, it was which party are we going to go to? I didn’t have a serious girlfriend, which was a huge plus as it allowed me the freedoms that I would soon give up. I could not call 1989 my favorite year without giving some highlights so here goes.

On Tuesday mornings during summer break from Moraine my friends and I would all go out to breakfast. Each week we went to a different place and we would rate each. (Yes, we were nerds.) We called ourselves the Tuesday morning breakfast club and after eating we would head back to the Hunger household. Paul, had printed out sheets in which we would rate each place. I think Jedi’s Garden was the best breakfast we ate and I know Steak and Egger on Central was by far the worst.

On Thursday nights, we would have movie nights at our house in Willow Springs. This usually entailed watching really bad and cheesy movies rented in the cult corner at Videomatic. I first saw Three on a meat hook, Psycho’s In Love, Suburbia, and Ilsa, Queen of the SS for the first time back on those Thursday nights.

Of course the Cubs won the NL East. Sure they lost in the playoffs but the Cubs gave me a great summer by coming out of nowhere to capture the division. The boy’s of Zimmer as they were called were led by Andre Dawson, Jerome Walton and Ryne Sandberg. They kind of remind me of this year’s Sox team in that they played way over their head all year and won when no one expected them to.

The year ended on with a great New Years Eve party that I threw. I have told that story before so I don’t want to bore those who already know it. That party was fifteen years ago and it still lives on in infamy. I could think of no other way to have ushered out the decade than the way we decided to.

All in all I guess 1989 was my favorite year simply because, it happened when I was young. I was twenty, still not old enough to get into bars. So, if I wanted to go drink, my friends and I were forced to bond by having a party and drinking at that. Once we could all legally get into bars the doors were opened. We no longer were relegated to trying to find a place to have fun. Instead of throwing a kegger, we could just go to our local watering hole and drink there. While, I loved that bar scene for a while and still enjoy it on some level there was nothing like the feeling of getting all your friends together and having a good old time. No one was married, no one had a mortgage, and no one had kids. We all just came and went, as we wanted. Sure, everyone gets older and responsibility is not a bad thing, it is nice now that I am older to be able to afford things I couldn’t back then. Still, in 1989 I had one hell of a great year.