Johnny “Scooter” Cash

If you know my son,
you know what a
HUGE
M.J. fan he is.

If you’re a fan too, you know exactly who I’m talking about.
Of course you know who M.J. is!
For the less literate, (or more musically well rounded)
I’ll just tell you that M.J. is non other than
Michael Jackson.

Scooter used to take dance lessons.
He started at age 3 and danced until the end of kindergarten.
He wasn’t the only boy in his class.
At one point there were FOUR boys in the class with him!
Oh yes.
We were very progressive mothers in this ultra conservative town of Zion.

However,
when classes went from being a
“creative movement”
type of class
to a more
”traditional ballet”
(i.e. plies, fouette, glissade, etc.)
type of class,
the brakes were applied and classes for the boys skidded to a halt.
It was just too “girly” for their tastes.
(We tried to recruit more boys to have an all boy’s hip-hop class, but weren’t successful.
People around here are very resistant to putting boys in a dance class!)

Anyway….. I digress….
Scooter’s very last dance recital’s theme was non other than
MICHAEL JACKSON!

All the dances were choreographed to MJ or J5 or J.J. (Janet Jackson) songs.

(this dance was to Rockin’ Robin ^^)

(I have no clue what this dance was! ^^)

So, through his dance class, the boy was introduced to the musical stylings of M.J.
And the boy became a fan.
A HUGE fan!

And then, the biggest tragedy of Scooter’s short life,
M.J. died.
It was seriously, the month after recital.
Scooter was devastated and his obsessive fandom grew bigger.

° We listened to MJ on the iPod
° We bought MJ books
(disclaimer … all MJ books had to be approved by a parental unit!)
° He acquired an MJ calendar
° Scooter learned how to moonwalk
° A rhinestone glove came to reside in Scooter’s bedroom
and was worn outside of the home on numerous occasions
° Finally a CD was purchased so we could turn off the iPod and give mom a break!
° During soccer season, Flynn was trying to motivate our young player and bribed him.
Scooter was told that if he kicked a goal, Dad would take him to the store and buy
him an MJ Video.
Sure enough, Scooter actually scored a goal that night,
All the other parents chuckled when Scooter came running, at top speed, off the field yelling,
”Dad did you see that? Now you have to buy me a Michael Jackson video!”
° You get the picture, right?

So, this obsession went on for… 3.5 years.
Approximately.

Until…

One day….

The Man in Black
came on the iPod.

Immediately, the boy was entranced.
° The deep bass voice.
° That silly song about “A Boy Named Sue”
° (GASP!) A man that swears in music
° The deep bass voice
° A singer that was a “manly man”
° Interestingly enough, he can’t stand to listen to June Carter Cash!

All of a sudden, Johnny Cash was the main request when we were traveling down the interstate.
And then, Santa put a Johnny Cash CD in Scooter’s stocking.
After that, all bets were off.

Michael WHO?!?!?

(Time for a funny “Scooterism” story insert:
One day, Scooter’s best friend Bulls Eye was over playing.
They always get along and respect each other’s differences in opinions and tastes.
It’s really a great friendship!
Well, Scooter really wanted to share his love for JC
so he brought his CD player down to the living room and very excitedly turned on
his new CD.
At first, Bulls Eye was receptive.
But after a minute or two, he finally said,
”Ummmm…. this is gross!”
So then Scooter turned off the music,
had Bulls Eye sit down on a chair,
and started to read to him out of a new book he’d just gotten!
Poor Bull’s Eye!
Scooter really loves sharing things he’s passionate about!
I can’t wait for him to be a missionary!)

Back to our regularly scheduled blog:

Scooter now listens exclusively to The Man In Black.
He takes the CD player into the bathroom and blares it while he’s showering.
Flynn gave Scooter his (very) old iPod Touch and 90% of the music is JC,
so he carries it around the house listening.
(In case you’re wondering, the other 10% of the music is
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Ray Stevens.
There is NO MJ on his iPod!!
I’m still trying to figure this kid out.)
He listens to the CD or the iPod as he goes to sleep at night.
I’m not kidding or exaggerating when I say that one night he put
”Ring of Fire”
on repeat and that blasted (insert fave swear word here) song
played for an hour before I realized
it was on repeat.
If I have a song running through my head in quiet times, it’s
”Ring of Fire.”
(Are YOU singing it now?)

I had to video Scooter when we were driving to visit Flynn one weekend recently.
It was just too great of a moment to miss.
I’m going to share it with you today.
And yes, Scooter would be mad.
Today.
But hopefully, he’ll appreciate it in a few years.

(Yes, I lied at the end! I was videoing him! He gets mad at me!
But some of these spontaneous moments need to be captured and preserved.
And I would never get them if he knew I was videoing.)