Mike
: What is your reaction to M.J.’s death?
Susan
: In 1983, at the peak of
Thriller
fever, my father said, “He’ll never be as big as Elvis.”
Mike
: Your dad may be right. For me, M.J. is associated with watching MTV. They showed his videos every 20 minutes. I still think gangland battles are fought in the manner of “Beat It.”
Susan
: I learned “Beat It” by its inverse, “Eat It.” It was the introduction to Michael Jackson for nerds.
Mike
: If it’s getting cold, reheat it. I also remember being acutely aware of which of my friends was the best moonwalker. I could never really do it.
Susan
: The boy who could do it best at our school owned a tie with the pattern of an electronic keyboard. It seems like both of our associations with Michael Jackson begin and end with
Thriller
.
Mike
: He kind of lost me with that face-morphing video, though I did think it was kind of cool at the time. Didn’t M.C. Hammer enter the scene at this point?
Susan
: Really the next thing I know about Michael Jackson is the child hanging from the open window. I often worry that someone across the way from us in Brooklyn will think I’m a Michael Jackson mother when I hold our baby seven stories above the street and he tugs at the window guards.
Mike
: At least we did not nickname our kid Blanket.
