TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
GOOD EVENING
TXK COLUMN BY BAILEY GRAVITT
I remember exactly where I was in March, 2006, when the very first episode of Hannah Montana aired on Disney Channel. I was sitting in my Granny’s bedroom, laid out on her bed, anxiously awaiting the start of the show, to watch a then-unknown Miley Cyrus become a star right in front of the world’s eyes. Of course, I did not realize at the time just how massive an impact she (and Hannah Montana) would have. For me, nostalgia is everything. I bathe in it almost daily—meaning probably too much. It is a rush of dopamine to the brain, even now in 2022, for me to listen to the same songs I used to listen to on repeat in middle school. I feel like a child again when I watch my favorite VeggieTales movie again. Side note: I used to own every VeggieTales VHS, a proud accomplishment I will boast about until the day I die; put it on my tombstone. Also, who remembers VHS tapes, by the way?! That alone is nostalgic.
Even thinking about the McDonald’s playground that my friends and I used to LIVE on makes me yearn to go back to those simple times SO badly! Before iPhones, there was a night in fifth grade when I had my mom’s red slide-up Samsung phone, no touch screen insight, might I add (*gasp*), and I was obsessed—and I mean obsessed—with Britney Spears. I bought (without mom’s permission) a Britney Spears music video with that phone. It was a glorious night spent watching the video on repeat before she found and deleted it. Thanks, mom! That brings me to another nostalgic moment in history… MUSIC VIDEOS! They are a lost art, people! No one takes the time these days to pour into their visuals and concepts, which completely changed the way I heard the music when listening as a kid. What would Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” be without Miley swinging on an actual wrecking ball? I used to sit in front of the TV every Saturday morning when VH1 would air their Top 20 Countdown. 20 of the hottest music videos at the time, and I would EAT. THEM. UP! I
lived for every moment of it. But alas, long gone are the golden days of MTV in the 70s, 80s, 90s and early 2000s, when music videos were all the rage. When I pass my elementary school, I am eight years old all over again, walking into school every day without my mom, being loudly and proudly myself, or dramatically crying over the abandonment I felt when she went out of town with her girlfriends for the weekend. (I may have attachment issues.) When I listen to Ke$ha, I am 12 again with the radio up, leaving Texas Middle School on a Friday to go stay the night with my friends. When I see a pair of red Converse shoes, I am 16 again trying WAY too hard to be cool by wearing skinny blue jeans with a red sweater… It wasn’t cool, guys; it was CRINGE. I miss going to middle school dances in the gym and staring at my crush. At the same time, “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj played at a deafening volume behind me. I miss secretly watching Secret Life of the American Teenager (because I wasn’t allowed to watch it), then going to school and talking to my friends about what happened on
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SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
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