Saturday, July 13, 1985 5:45am, Hawkins, IN.
BEEP…. BEEP…. BEEP…BEEP
Mike Wheeler groans at the sound of the alarm clock.
Why am I getting up this early on a Saturday in the summer?
Then he remembers why.
El Hopper, his 'official' girlfriend, after introducing her to his parents at their annual July 4th picnic, is coming over to his house to watch Live Aid.
The rest of the Party is away with their families on summer vacations, even his Mom, Dad, and Holly. Nancy is "babysitting" him over the weekend, but she's with Jonathan, so he and El will have the entire day to themselves.
He hurries downstairs after pulling on his new Back to the Future T-shirt and some jeans, making it to the front door just as the doorbell rings.
He pulls the door open and there she is, smiling and looking adorable in a pair of dark blue parachute pants, a hand me down from Nancy, who only wore them once, and his Tron T-shirt, now far too small for him.
(He knows if he told anyone they would say it was sappy, but every time he sees her, he falls in love with her all over again. He hasn't told her those three words yet, but it will be soon)
"Mike! I brought some Eggo's for us. Come on, it's going to start in a few minutes!"
El and Mike hurry to reheat the Eggo's and quickly sit down on the couch in the living room, munching on their breakfast.
(His dad had just bought a large screen tv with stereo sound for the living room. The guys were SO jealous.)
They turn the tv to MTV, since it was broadcasting in stereo, just as the Cold Stream Guards finish "God Save the Queen".
El looks over at Mike and grins, "I'm so excited!"
Mike was used to seeing El curious or in awe of the new things she experienced since the Snow Ball last year, but never this excited.
They sit back on the couch and get comfortable, Mike holding her hand as she snuggles up against him, her head resting on his shoulder.
The first two acts from Wembley Stadium, Status Quo and The Style Council, weren't familiar bands, but the spectacle of a huge stadium filled with people was fascinating. Neither of them had ever seen a live concert before.
The next act, The Boomtown Rats, starts with "I Don't Like Monday's", a song that they both recognized. El leans over and whispers, "That's Bob Geldof, he organized Live Aid and wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
Mike looked back at her, "Really? I've heard the name but didn't know what he looked like."
She replies with only a mysterious smile.
They take a break while Adam Ant performs and Ultravox performs their first few songs but are back and seated when they play "Vienna".
El leans over again. "That's Midge Ure, he wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?" with Bob Geldof."
Mike looks back at her, "I didn't know that either."
Another mysterious smile.
As the next few acts perform, Spandau Ballet ("True" is a favorite song of Mike's), Elvis Costello, Nik Kershaw, and Sade, El seem to have some bit of information about each of them that Mike didn't know.
Sting and Phil Collins are next.
El whispers again, "Phil Collins used to be just the drummer for Genesis until Peter Gabriel left the band. You like "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel. Also, Phil Collins will be taking the Concorde over to the U.S right after performing here so he can perform at Philadelphia later today."
(She doesn't tell him that she made up her own lyrics to Sussudio, the current #1 record in the U.S. There's a boy that's been on my mind, all the time, Mike, Mike, Mikee-oo, might be a little too embarrassing)
Mike can't take it any longer. "How do you know all of this?"
El just smiles. "Can we take a little break?"
Mike huffs a little in frustration, but he can never refuse her anything.
They take a break for a snack and don't really pay much attention to the television for a while, kissing is more interesting.
The next band they pay attention to is an up and coming band from Ireland, U2. They start their set with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and then conclude with "Bad" (with several other snippets of other songs). El leans over again," I heard they are really good. Their lead singer is named Bono.
Mike asks, "Like Sonny?"
El laughs, "No, just Bono. Kind of like just Cher. And the guitarist is named The Edge."
(After listening to them and seeing the crowd's response, they both expect that U2 will probably be successful in the future.)
The next band, Dire Straits, is a favorite of Mike's. When they play, "Money for Nothing", Mike leans over and tells El all about the technology used to create the video.
"At least I know a lot about that" Mike grins at her.
El beams back and snuggles up tight to him again.
The next band is Queen. This is one band that El told Mike, earlier that morning, that she was excited about seeing.
"They are supposed to be really great live. Freddy Mercury, their lead singer, is very theatrical."
As they listened to Queen's twenty five minute set, they kept looking at each other, astounded at the performance they were seeing. They both got chills and had tears in their eyes by the end of "We are the Champions".
Mike looks over at her, "I'm really glad you wanted to watch this today."
El wipes her eyes and hugs him. "Thanks for watching it with me. You know, it's only lunchtime. We still have a long day ahead of us. I think we might need a break."
"I agree! I got some pizza last night and have leftovers. Let's have lunch."
After lunch and some more kissing, they sit back down and keep watching, but after Queen's performance, everything else is a bit of a letdown.
Since the music isn't quite as interesting, Mike turns to El. "El, I have to know. How do you know so much about all of the music and the artists?"
El looks back at him, looking happy but a little shy.
"Everyone has been helping me and teaching me since December, so I can be ready for high school. I really appreciate everyone, but I wanted there to be something that I learned without tutoring. I wanted to be the person that everyone asked if they wanted to learn more about something, like Dustin with reptiles, Will with art, Lucas with astronomy, Max with oceans, or you with electronics."
"Anyway, when we saw the "Do They Know It's Christmas" video on MTV in December, I wanted to know who the singers were. No one else knew who they all were, not even Jonathan, and then when the "We are the World" video came out, there was a whole new group of American musicians to learn about. I thought, since I love music so much, this was the subject where I could be the 'expert.'"
"Of course, Jonathan and Will have a lot of knowledge about music, but they are kind of snobby when it comes to music that they don't think is cool."
Mike had to chuckle at that. "Yeah, they sure are."
El grinned and began again, "I started asking all of my tutors at the end of our sessions, you included, about what kind of music they liked and listened to. I also asked some of Dad's coworkers, since I've been spending time up at the station, and some of the Party's parents. Everyone has been so nice. I guess telling me about the music they liked made them happy. I've gotten a bunch of mixtapes; country from Flo; Motown from Lucas' parents; Prog rock and rock from you and Lucas; hard rock and pop from Max; The Clash, of course, and punk from Jonathan and Will; and classic rock from Dad. Dustin even helped his Mom make a tape of their favorite show tunes.
"Dad heard me ask Flo about her favorite music back in January and I told him what I was doing. He thought it was a great idea, since it might help me fit in at school, and he was happy that I wanted to do this on my own, without anyone telling me that I should do it. He called it "initiative", a new Word of the Day. He subscribed to Rolling Stone and a new music magazine called Spin for me. Jonathan has also gotten me a bunch of magazines when he goes to Indianapolis for concerts."
"I've been reading my magazines and listening to all of the mixtapes and bunch of different radio stations while I have been studying and, since we moved into our new house in June, watching MTV when I have a chance."
Mike looked at El with wonder. "Wow! I'm so impressed! Oh my god! I didn't mean to sound patronizing. I don't mean it like that at all. You are just so cool and smart and pretty and wonderful, and …. I'm babbling, aren't I?"
El ducks her head a little, shy but beaming at him. It feels like a good time to kiss him again, so she does.
After a few minutes of kissing, El looks up at him, "Can we watch some more?"
"Of course, and you can keep teaching me about all of the artists and music all day long."
"Teach?", El asks quizzically. "Me?"
Mike looks at her with his goofy grin. "That's what you've been doing all day. In fact, I think you may be my favorite teacher ever. Mr. Clarke doesn't hold a candle to you."
Her smile could light up a small city.
I really like teaching, especially cute boyfriends.
The rest of the day was full of music and teaching, about music of course, and kisses.
July 13, 2015
It's the thirtieth anniversary of Live Aid and Dr. El Wheeler's TED talk about the politics of the Cold War and Live Aid is being recorded in the main auditorium at the University of Chicago. Dr. Wheeler, the renowned history professor and author of several bestsellers on the Cold War (the Russian government was astounded with her knowledge of intelligence operations from the early 1980's. To hear them talk about her, it was like she had heard their agent's conversations herself) is very popular with her students. She seems to be able to make history come alive.
As she looks out from the stage, she sees many of her friends and family from Hawkins in the audience. The retired chief of police and his beautiful wife. The ice cream entrepreneur with the great hair. The Pulitzer prize winning wife (journalism) and husband (photography). The famous New York artist, with his partner (and future husband). The federal judge (eventually a Supreme Court justice) and his wife, the skateboarding pioneer and entrepreneur. The renowned biologist, famous for his television programs on lizards, and his wife, sister of the judge, and Governor of Indiana (she might be President one day nerds). And finally, the dark-haired, incredibly cute, bestselling fantasy author with two beautiful teenage children sitting next to him.
They were all her students in the past, learning first about music and then about history. She's had thousands of students in her classes and now she will have millions more.
Her first student, who she first taught thirty years ago to the day, will always be her favorite.
Author's Notes:
Live Aid was a benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, and an ongoing music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom (attended by 72,000 people) and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States (attended by about 100,000 people).
On the same day, concerts inspired by the initiative happened in other countries, such as the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan, Yugoslavia, Austria, Australia and West Germany. It was one of the largest-scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time; an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations, watched the live broadcast. Nearly 40% of the world population.
The music video for "Money For Nothing" featured early computer animation illustrating the lyrics. The video was one of the first uses of computer-animated human characters and was considered ground-breaking at the time of its release.
The Live Aid performance by Queen is considered by many music critics to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, live performances in history.
U2 were not yet a global phenomenon in 1985. The Live Aid concert was somewhat of a coming out party for the band. During the 12-minute performance of the song "Bad", Bono leapt down off the stage to embrace and dance with a fan, showing a television audience the personal connection Bono could make with audience.
Parachute pants are a style of trousers characterized by the use of nylon, especially ripstop nylon. In the original tight-fitting style of the early 1980s, "parachute" referred to the pants' nylon material, similar to parachute material. They were a short-lived fad, with the height of popularity in 1984-1985. I had a pair of them in dark blue.