Back in the Day: Alan - 1986/1987

Alan gets super kudos for being the first brave soul to volunteer for public humiliation...  Errr...  I mean discussion of his senior portrait circa 1987.  Go Alan!  I'm assuming he actually had his picture taken in the early fall of 1986 though, if we are going to get all technical and stuff.  Clearly Alan is shameless and has no dignity either.  We should be BFFs. 

So, without further adieu...

   

Now, I've been looking at this photo for several days and the first thing that hit me was the butt crack hair part.  See, this is what has thrown me.  The butt crack hair part could go several ways. 

1. He could have been one of those guys in high school that drove a jacked up pickup truck with a gun rack, enormous tires and went 4-digging (mudding, 4x4ing) all the time.  I don't see a pathetic attempt at a mustache though, so I'm thinking no. 
2. Or, he could have been one of those "totally rad" guys who wore a lot of O.P. t-shirts and checkered Vans.  If this is the case, I'm pretty sure he drove a Subaru Brat with those awesome seats in the back and drank Strawberry Crush a lot.  I don't see any "party in the back" action going on with his hair, but his mom may have made him cut that off for his senior portraits.  I've seen this happen before.  (Chris looks like a chia pet in his senior portrait because his mom made him cut his Mohawk off.)      
3. Or, he was a jock, but was friends with several of the New Wave kids, like his childhood best friend "Steve" and secretly wanted to wear eyeliner and embrace his inner Robert Smith, but knew if he did he would get his ass beat by the entire football team.  So, he only listened to The Cure with his girlfriend, because she liked it and it was playing in her car stereo often.  I'm pretty sure that if you dug through his old cassette tapes you would find a mix tape that his girlfriend made him with plenty of The Cure on it.
4. Or, I could be totally off base on all accounts.
5. Any way you look at it, I'm pretty sure he wore tight 501s and tapped a few kegs in his day.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

I do wonder what exactly Alan was thinking about when this photo was taken.  It could have been a myriad of things.  Such as:

• How does one actually "Walk Like an Egyptian?"
• Are my lips TOO glossy?
• Why is it that "Boys Don't Cry?" 
• What is so awesome about "West End Girls" as opposed to East End Girls?
• I totally want to "Wang Chung" tonight.  Everybody else is.
• Hmmmmm...  What did I do with my maroon Member's Only jacket?
• I love my shiny, shiny watch.

Now, you will be happy to know that sometime between 1986/1987 and now Alan quit parting his hair like that.  I checked.  I totally poked around on his blog. 

Comments

[Lisa Dickinson]

oh my....laughing.....too....much.....
and you need to add me to the list of possible
photo submissions - if I can find my sr. prom pic,
it's yours :)

[sue Treiber]

good call. I am dying to know what Alan thinks.
His lips are very shiny!

[MadWoman Meg]

That's a hot picture man! Go Alan. I will send you my senior prom pic.

[Barb]

Gawd, who posed all of us in the 80's? Ridiculous! All he needs is a long stemmed rose in his teeth.

[alntv]

Okay...first things first...

I drove a beat up, 1967 primer red Volkswagon Bug. But most of the guys who went to my school DID drive 4x4's and had mullets. So I get points for that, right?

I was definately the jock looking to find his inner Robert Smith. Played basketball, golf and cross country. However I didn't discover The Cure until college, and that is where a girlfriend gave me a mix tape of Robert Smith's whining ways. (Not really...I worked at a college radio station. Thats where I got into alternative music). I listened to pop music and classic rock in high school in 1987 (nice research!)...mostly because that's all we had in my town.

The tight 501's did hava an effect on me. Fertility doctor bills 20 years later...

As you can probably tell, I don't have a natural part in the middle. My hair parts on the side. So that explains the butt crack head...dammit...

And I'm pretty sure when this particular picture was taken I was thinking that it would be really cool if my picture was the one this studio took that they decided to put up in our local mall (which didn't happen, thankfully).

Yes...I was a geek. But I got better! (or at least I would like to think that I did...)

LOL And now I can't wait to see what special torture you have for the next poor soul who has been suckered into your diabetical little plan Ashley. You evil, evil woman...(you are definately my kinda friend!!!) :-)

[alntv]

P.S. Best friends name was Chuck. Didn't drink beer til college (I swear it's true!)...

Seriously...Steve. Yer funny.

[Kelley Popp]

ok I scare myself-cuz I read up to the vote about the hair part stuff and I nailed it. See we who grew up in this era we just knew.

Ash this is so funny. Maybe I should send a photo of Kev and I for your analysis. Maybe I will. I'd love to hear your take on it... Ha!

[Kim]

This is simply fantastic. And dude, I'm sure that any mix tape I made for you in college did not have the Cure on it. Bobby Brown - absolutely. The Cure - not so much. Although I did listen to them.

Thanks to Ashley for this. It brought quite the smile to my face!