In 1989, I moved out of my childhood home and into a townhouse in Crystal Village in Attleboro, Massachusetts, with my friends Bengi and Tom. We called our home The Heavy Metal Playhouse, and for the next three years, we had a lot of fun while living in poverty and perpetual uncertainty.
We kept a communication log in a wire-bound notebook that Bengi blessedly saved. He passed it onto me earlier this year, so I have begun reading it.
I’ve written two posts about the pages so far. Today I turned to the next page.
On December 13, 1989, at “8:00ish,” Bengi writes that the power in our townhouse was out, and he walked to the mall.
This makes no sense to me.
The mall was almost five miles from our home and required walking on the highway.
It’s also December in Massachusetts. According to historical data, on Wednesday, December 13, 1989, the weather in Attleboro, Massachusetts, was very cold and dry.
The high temperature was 31°F. The low temperature was 15°F.
I can’t imagine he really walked to the mall.
Also, December of 1989 was Attleboro’s coldest December on record by average temperature, according to the city’s historical weather data. This was bad for Bengi, Tom, and me.
We could barely afford food.
Heat was a premium expense that we sometimes went without. Little did we know we were dealing with historically cold temperatures.
Two hours later, at “10:30ish,” Tom writes about our friend, Martin, and the destruction of our living room curtains. I don’t remember how it happened, and maybe I never did, but I remember Martin tearing the curtain rod off the wall and bringing the curtains down with it.
Tom makes no mention of the power being restored or if Bengi returned from the mall yet.
I’m almost certainly at work for most of this day.
The last note on the page is our stuffed animal, Hogleboom, voiced by someone (likely Tom but possibly Martin), who says, “Kingdom Come Forever.”
Kingdom Come was a German metal band that Tom liked a lot. They had just released their second album in 1989, and Tom listened to it constantly. Martin, too, I think.
The Berlin Wall had fallen just a month before, so bands like Kingdom Come and the Scorpions were gaining popularity as East Germany opened up.
Kingdom Come still exists today, though the members have come and gone with great frequency.
One other important note about December 13, 1989 that didn’t make our communication log:
Taylor Swift was born this day.
Little did we know what was to come.
