Off The Wall

As I think back to my earliest childhood memories of Michael Jackson I still cant believe that he is gone, but the memories I have will definitely live forever. Growing up as the 8Th child of 9 we never had a lot of money but as a family we made it. I can remember being maybe 5 or 6 years old and one day I came home from school and my mother had done her best to rearrange our apartment. She was a huge Michael Jackson fan and used the colors that he wore most (red, white and black) at the time to decorate the place. The main wall in the living room was covered in glass so what my mother did was take maybe 25 of the Michael Jackson album covers and cover the walls. It was pretty much an entire tribute to the pop icon. The albums started out from his childhood and ended with his latest album which at the time was "Off The Wall". As we took time to look around at my mothers latest creation she put on his latest album and my brother and i began to sing and dance around. Now that I think about it my mother was feeling very happy that day with her latest decorating project and the alcoholic beverages she had afterward as an ode to her latest creations. From that particular day forward anytime my mother would have someone over to the house she would call on my brother and I to come out and sing and dance to the Michael Jackson tunes. We would always go to the front of the mirrored wall covered with the Michael Jackson album covers and sing and dance our hearts out. As we got better with our performances my mother bought us both the imitation jacket and glove that Michael wore. We did this routine for years and neither my brother nor I will ever forget the joy it brought to the people around us, or the joy we felt when my mother showed off her Michael Jackson decorating skills.