Friday Follies - Seriously, I'm Crushed

This week, an actor that was the subject of many teenage crushes passed away.  David Cassidy wasn't one of my personal childhood crushes, but believe me, I had a few.

Every generation has their celebrity crush.  The year that I was born, Sidney Poitier was the popular love interest and the year after was Paul Newman, one of my mum's personal favourites.

I think my first childhood crush was Peter Brady from The Brady Bunch.  Boy, when I was in grade 2, I thought he was the bees knees.  So cute, so funny and a little bit mischievous.  In fact, I loved him so much that I named one of my hamsters Peter Brady.  Not Peter....Peter Brady.  He was a pretty cute hamster too.

You know you're good when a hamster is named
after you.

As I got older obviously my crushes changed.   To say I still had a crush on Peter Brady might be a bit weird.  I remember being quite taken with Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid.  He was pretty great in The Outsiders too.  The Outsiders was a great vehicle for many typical teenage heart throbs of the 80's - C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon,  Patrick Swayze, Leif Garrett (remember him and his long, feathered locks?), Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and of course Tom Cruise (before he got all loved up and strange with Scientology).

Ralph Macchio - Junior High Crush

However, my biggest crush of all time, and still one that I like to keep on my 'freebie' list is  Billy Idol.  Oh Billy!  My bedroom was covered in his posters - spiked platinum hair and defiant sneer. Before I went to sleep and when I woke up, there was Billy, clad in leather and watching over me.  I'm pretty sure it must have been the bad boy side of him that attracted me.  And the trademark sneer.  I can sneer too, so I'm sure this made us compatible in every way.  If only he could meet me, he would love me.  I know it to be true.

Billy!

I went to quite a few Billy Idol concerts, and loved all of them.  Even though during the 80's he was at the height of his drug use, and his concerts definitely suffered for it, I still loved him.  I have since read his autobiography and quite truthfully, he was not a very nice person during this time.  If I had actually ever met him, this innocent and naïve 16 year old would have been shocked beyond belief.  The fantasy would have been ruined.  But crushes aren't about reality, they are about dreams and escapism.  Reality would ruin everything.  I'll stick with my posters and my rose-coloured glasses, thank you.

In all of his 80's glory.

Crushes never leave you, and listening to a Billy Idol song can bring back a lot of memories and feelings from my teenage years.  I feel like he was along for the ride with me - Sweet Sixteen and Rebel Yelling while I was Dancing With Myself, dreaming of a White Wedding and hoping he would Catch My Fall.

I'm older now, but still not immune to the odd celebrity crush.  I'm a bit partial to George Clooney, Jason Momoa, Channing Tatum (who isn't??), Tom Hardy and Travis Fimmel.  Sigh........uh, where was I? I lost focus for a minute there.  I'm even equal opportunity - I might consider changing teams for Sofia Vargara or Katheryn Winnick of Vikings fame.

Two for one

These crushes are a strange thing and serve no purpose in human evolution or survival, yet everyone has one at least once in their lives.  They are illogical but fun.  Psychologists actually have a name for it - parasocial interaction.  Well, that sounds more boring than 'crush', way to take the fun out of it people. 

These one-sided but intense relationships aren't necessarily a bad thing - which is good or we would all be in trouble.  We are free to have these feelings and these 'relationships' with no consequences, no chance of being hurt and their presence is constant and predictable.  I suspect that if we actually did meet our crushes and get to know them, we would end up being disappointed.  They are only human, and the image that we get of them is highly managed and contrived.  We don't get to see that they fart and belch, leave clothes on the floor and get snarky with bad moods. 

Although seriously, would you actually kick George out of your house if he let a bottom-frog loose?  I think not.

Did he or didn't he?