Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five: Ninetysomething Days of Summer, #4 Summer of '93

Considering how meh the first half of the year was, 1993 improved exponentially in the second half.  However, even with the ninth grade signaling a sea change in the social aspect of my academic career, no season was more enjoyable than the summer.  Although it resembled the summer of '87 with good weather and great music--despite nothing holding a candle to The System's "Don't Disturb This Groove"--the 94 days of the summer of '93 involved more advancement of my strongest academic talents in fun and engaging ways, great field trips, pretty girls and exploration of my wacky teenage hormones.  So to all of y'all who absolutely love the 90s, get ready to take a trip down memory lane as we get into my No. 4 favorite summer of all time and the five things that made the summer of '93 so dope...
 

#5 "WORK THAT BODY!  WORK THAT BODY!!"  Usually when a channel played the same movie ad nauseam, I'd be over it after a few days and wouldn't want to see it for at least another five years.  Contrary to this trend, Class Act (starring hip hop dynamic duo Kid 'n Play) was always on HBO during the last half of summer break and I watched it in its entirety every single time.  Now don't get me wrong, the movie itself was filled with signature Kid 'n Play rhymes and dances, hilarious antics and quotable moments--one of those moments to which I clung the most was when Blade Brown (Christopher "Play" Martin) was sprung from jail and he told "Juvey Dick" Reichert (Rick Ducummon), "Unfortunately, I've got things to see and people to do!"  However, once one of my favorite TV girlfriends in the ever-alluring Alysia Rogers entered the picture as Damita, I, like many teenage boys at that time, wanted her to "play with my frog" and hoped that it was "jumping" in her direction.  (Take that however you want...I promise you it will apply.)  From the way she teased Duncan Pinderhughes (Christopher "Kid" Reid) with that pen to get his number to her stepping out in that red dress Johnny Gill "My, My, My" style on the way to dinner and the wax museum, she stole my heart for an entire summer.  Although Rogers was clearly playing a role, her swagger epitomized the type of girl that I wanted to date: irresistibly sexy, unexpectedly creative, undeniably confident and, as a bonus, unapologetically chocolate.  When Duncan was finally "making it with some sexy babe in his room", one half of me wanted to jump through the TV and congratulate him right along with his dad John (the late Meshach Taylor) while the other half was on that Richie Green from The Last Dragon "get your hands off my woman" tip.  Darn right Damita singlehandedly propelled Class Act into this countdown.  Work that body indeed...

#4 THE ARRIVAL OF THE SUMMER OF '93 MEANT THE END OF THE EIGHTH GRADE. Whether it was my first bad schooling experience in second grade, the largely-forgettable eleventh grade or suffering the sophomore slump in college, there's something about those follow-up and middle phases in any level of education that haven't been my strongest academically and the eighth grade was no different.  Despite abhorring the seventh grade socially, my grades didn't suffer.  I had to wait until the ninth grade to enjoy pleasant interaction with my peers and do well in school simultaneously as the eighth grade was my lowest point in junior high.  For whatever reason, I had no interest in excelling at my work and posted the most unimpressive marks of my academic career behind my sophomore year of college.  Worse than that, I ended up getting into an unnecessary fight with my classmate and friend over a misunderstanding at the water fountain two weeks before summer break that got me suspended for the first and only time ever.  Add insult to injury, I nearly got into another fight when I returned from suspension because some little punk decided to talk trash and test me after I lost the fight.  (I'm a lover, not a fighter, so I have no problem whatsoever admitting that I lost a fight.)  By the time mid-June rolled around and I didn't have to step foot in that school for another two-and-a-half months, it was one of the most relieving moments of my teenage years and had me hoping that the summer brought along some much better vibes.  Other than binging on watching Good Times during the day, here was one of the biggest reasons I got through those last two weeks...

#3 I HAD A GIRLFRIEND AND REALIZED JUST HOW "FRESH" I WAS.  So remember how I was cyber-drooling over Alysia Rogers moments ago?!?!  Well, when one of my best friends invited me to her school dance at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Southeast D.C., I met a girl who was a cross between Damita from Class Act and Pam (Tichina Arnold) from Martin.  Somehow and someway, the little shy kid who barely wanted to dance for fear of ridicule managed to get her number and made her my girlfriend by the beginning of the summer.  Before having my own line and prior to Momma Scribbler finally getting call waiting, I held her only line hostage for about two months as my summertime boo thang and I stayed up until 1 a.m. listening to the slow jam shows on WKYS and WPGC and mainly talking about what most 13-year-old boys and girls talk about: next to nothing.  If you were a fly on the wall, however, we did have several salacious conversations where we both talked bigger than what either of us were prepared to do--especially considering we only saw each other once during our entire relationship at the now demolished Landover Mall and both of us came with a crew of friends.  (To that last point, she didn't look as much like Damita or Pam in better lighting and my friends pulled no punches about it.)  Mind you, I had to get around my fear of kissing with my last girlfriend in the previous summer, so the way that my shyness was set up, jumping out there with sex was unrealistic.  Long story short, ol' girl and I broke up by late July/early August because we didn't see each other enough and lost steam to our relationship, but this experience confirmed that I wouldn't be a prude about sex and sensuality.  I simply wasn't bold enough or ready to be like many of my friends who claimed that they were already "hitting the skins" at such a young age.  (You know you wanna bring "hitting the skins" back into your lexicon.  Admit it.)  Speaking of the radio and talking "grown"...

#2 SEX AND MUSIC...WHAT ELSE MATTERED?!?!  As much as many folks of my generation are quick to criticize today's music for being so straightforward about sex, how soon we forget that it was the music of our generation that helped to create the new culture as well as the existence of this current generation.  Despite smash hits from vets like Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey or newcomers like Zhane and SWV, the summer of '93 was defined by four songs that 1) specialized in the art of seduction, 2) provided the soundtrack to the aforementioned as well as future fresh behavior and 3) helped to shape my views and approaches.  First, I remember listening to my Walkman radio, hearing "Come Inside" by Intro for the first time and instantly loving it; however, much like the uncut version of "Love Won't Let Me Wait" by Major Harris, the closet freak in me (at the time) was drawn even more to the album version that was a little more, um...well...vocal.  Second, when SWV came out with "Downtown", the gullibly green and laughably geeky part of me actually thought they were telling a dude to take them downtown to go shopping or sightseeing...yeah, even snails and turtles lapped me five times on that one.  Third, although "Knockin' Da Boots" remains H-Town's most popular song and biggest hit, "Lick U Up" was an inseparable part of my late nights of "phone boning" that were more phone and less boning.  Finally, the tour de force was "Girl U For Me" by Silk, which actually had the least suggestive lyrics of all but has the coolest story that never happened.  So in one of my "grown" moments, my girlfriend and I see the scene where the one guy pours movie popcorn on one of the ladies and my fresh behind says, "I wanna do that to you."  She says, "Oh really?  So when we are we going to the movies?"  As y'all can surmise from the previous paragraph, I never listened to T.O. and got my popcorn ready.  Ah well...

#1 THE LAST TRIP TO KINGS DOMINION.  My experience in the computer, math and science program Project C.A.M.P.S. at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) was an upward trajectory over three summers.  In 1991, getting tagged as the "boy most out of touch with reality" in a book of superlatives was the sum and substance of how much I felt like an outcast.  While participating in the fall/winter version of the program Project Y.E.S., I made more friends and gained overall cool points by the time 1992 rolled around.  A common theme that made every summer in Project C.A.M.P.S. worthwhile were the annual trips to Kings Dominion, but no trip was more memorable than the last summer that I was in the program in 1993.  Before we can talk about the actual amusement park, we must discuss my inner Big Dadi Scribbler who felt the need to sing out loud during most of our field trips; not saying I was K-Ci from Jodeci, the late Kenny Greene from Intro or the late Dino Conner from H-Town, but thank God I didn't get my pipes from my father or I would've been walking from Doswell to D.C.  Anyway, I already conquered the backwards Rebel Yell, the Anaconda and the White Water Canyon on previous trips; now it was time to overcome my fears of the Berserker (a giant looping viking ship) and the Shockwave (a stand-up roller coaster), which were two of the biggest thrills of my life.  I was also determined to win a prize for the first time ever at one of the booths and won a stuffed animal playing basketball, which I ended up giving to this girl on whom I had a major crush but never built up the nerve to get her number.  On one of the most beautifully sunny days I can remember, we were all on a high because a lot of us sensed that we'd never see each other again.  Therefore, we wanted to enjoy every moment around each other from the time the Firebirds charter bus left UDC that morning to riding the Red Line that night once the trip was over, laughing like tomorrow wasn't an option and trying to keep the good times going for as long as possible.

Was the summer of '93 as good to you as it was to me?  Was another summer on your list, but not quite the top dawg?!?!  Well, don't be shy...share your fun stories in the comments!  Please don't forget to return next week to find out which summer lands in the No. 3 in the "Ninetysomething Days of Summer" edition of "Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five"!!!