Mood: crushed out
Now Playing: The Wanderer-Leif Garrett
Topic: Peaked Too Soon
FLASHBACK...1978-Flipside Records, Hoffman Estates, Illinois. My best friend and I, having perfected the art of the curling iron, and sporting the requisite hair flip and matching blue silk jackets with white sleeves, hike from my parents suburban apartment to see the teen hearthrob du jour-LEIF GARRETT (that's LAYF-not LEAF!!!). SSSWOOOOOONNNNNNN....
We approach the record store and it is brimming with squealing fans loooking to get a glimpse at the sleepy eyed, feathered haired, blonde California boy we watched in movies, plastered on our bedroom walls, and heard on records (or 8-tracks...). Oh, we immediately knew we weren't going to get close to him by trying to get into the store through this mob!!! But we are not just ordinary screaming girlies, we are cunning and clever. We sneak around to the back of the strip mall to find a much smaller crowd giggling next to LEIF'S LIMOSINE!!! (Almost Famous Style!) Teenaged Girl Heaven!!! We waited out there until he actually came out, and while he didn't stop to sign autographs or anything, WE got to see him up close and personal-which is more than I can say for most of the girls who couldn't get close enough to look into the front window!!! Aren't we cute!
FLASHFORWARD, 2006, Imagine my disappointment when I saw a bruised and battered mug shot of my teen idol flash onto the t.v. screen yesterday. Yes Folks, another one bites the dust. Old Leif. Balding. Scraped. Looking for all the world like the guys standing next to the stoplights with their cardboard signs saying "need $.57" or "it's 4:19". Sad. ARRESTED
The story goes, he was caught for trying to jump onto the train without a token, and their search turned up heroin. Nice. Another child star becomes an adult statistic. I don't think this is the comeback he was hoping for. It certainly isn't the way I thought his life would turn out! (Might have been different if he had hung out with me and my best friend for a while!!!)
Makes me glad that for me (and my gal pal too...you know who you are!) THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!!
Posted by mandalafly
at 12:01 AM PST