Awesome Saturday Squad

I have been obsessed with Saturdays since I was like old enough to know what they were.

When I was a wee lad, my brother and I would wake up at 6am to watch cartoons. The cartoons that are on now on Saturdays all blow. And that's not me being a cynical, jaded old man either. As a father of two young girls, I watch more cartoons than I do baseball (a crime really). There are some cartoons I really like a lot; Foster's, WonderPets, Jimmy Neutron, even Spongebob (despite the crass commercialism... who can't love a show where all the voice actors are Mr. Show and Carnivale alumni?).

When I got a bit older, Saturday became the day that college football was on and that meant going over my Pop-Pop's house to watch Notre Dame or Penn State and eating dinner with Grandmom (almost always 'Mac n Meat' or ham and cabbage). Man, I loved talking to Pop-Pop about WWII and baseball and just all types of awesome shit. He would tell me the best stories... taught me about boxing, and tried to teach me how to maintain a nice lawn, but that lesson was lost somewhere through the years.

I used to wake up on Saturday mornings raring to go... sometimes my Dad would take Francis and me to the Deptford Mall (pre-food court) and we would get cookies at the bad-ass cookie shop that sold cookies by the pound. Then we would play pinball and video games at the arcade. My Dad was a pinball master and tried desperately to get me to carry his torch, but I am a fair pinballer at best. I was really good at Tetris and Pac-Man and shit, though that didn't impress Dad all that much. Trips to the mall also meant comic books for me and baseball cards for Fran. This was the golden age... I was 8 or 9... 1987ish... Marvel was still awesome. There was only 3 X-Men books (Uncanny, New mutants & X-Factor)... I used to be obsessed with Walt Simonson's Thor too... his lettering was always so different than other books at the time, it made me feel like they were really special.

Then, the Deptford Mall started to change... food court, etc. Plus, I started to change... I no longer wanted to go to the Mall on Saturdays with my Dad, and especially not with my brother. Of course, the whole point of going to the Mall now was to sit in the food court and check out chicks all day. My friends would skate halfway to the Mall, then walk the rest of the way... those walks were amazing. We would talk about shit that would blow my mind... stuff I had never thought of until Bruno or Jay Stell would remark about it. I grew up so much by walking to the Deptford Mall on Saturday afternoons with my skateboard and like 4 dollars in my pocket (usually enough for a Snapple and a chicken salad sandwich from Chick-fil-A).

We would stack up our skateboards on the table like we were tough or something... then just sit there talking shit all day long. It was fantastic. I would pay a million dollars to just have one more Saturday afternoon at the Deptford Mall with those motherfuckers.

Once chicks became a fully realized part of my life, Saturdays turned into time with the GF. In high school, I always had a GF. Not that I was some stud or something (far from it, in fact), but I was the type of dude who stuck with people that showed interest in what I had to say... I am still that way I guess. Saturdays with the GF would usually be pretty awesome... there was no responsibilities, I had no job, school didn't matter to me (it probably should have, looking back)... we would hang out in my awesome attic room in Runnemede or just walk around, or spend the whole day eating frozen corndogs in Bruno's basement. Always felt great on Saturdays.

Even once I started working and was out of school, Saturdays were still always great. When I worked in the Mall (Echelon this time) it was as awesome as when I used to just hang out there as a younger kid. Work then was never stressful or difficult. It was just another place to hang out. I had an awesome job, I listened to my own music and sold comic books and magic cards. What was hard about that? Sure, I got paid shit... but I also had my own joint.

Since I turned eighteen I was living with Charlene in various levels of poverty. We always had a blast on Saturdays though, even though we were poor, we were always happy. Almost every Sat night in Collingswood would be a party. And not some bullshit frat-guy drink until you die party... we would actually really enjoy ourselves with a few friends and tons of conversation. Collingswood is where my lifelong friendships were cemented... but after awhile those Saturday nights with the Saturday Squad started getting Charlene and I thinking that maybe we could be better adults.

So we up and moved to Florida... to grow together, and learn about each other at a deeper level. I proposed to Charlene on a Saturday, in a mall... how fitting , right? Florida, though shitty, was still pretty awesome on Saturdays. When I was working at the Shell Convenience Mart, I used to occasionally take the open-close shift by myself all day. Though these days were long and arduous, but again, I have never had a job that I considered HARD WORK. I would sit in the joint all day and watch the denizens of Gulf Coastal Florida parade around in their pick-ups on their way to Wal-Mart or wherever the fuck. I used to love those all day Saturday shifts... I was allowed to bring in a radio, play my music (imagine walking into a Wawa and hearing Black Flag at 6 in the morning...HA) and sit on my ass all day. I used to keep a journal there... I should look for it.

So Florida worked... it turned Char and I into adults (kinda) and so we moved back to NJ looking for careers and plans to start a family. These Saturdays were seemingly the best of all. When I was working at Bally's AC, I always had to work the late swing shift (4p-Midnight) which was ideal for a people watcher like me... I would hang out in whatever store I was scheduled at and just watch degenerate gamblers and NY vacationers and elderly daytrippers and the faux-hip young set with spray-on tans and shitty hair. I used to look forward to working on Saturday nights because the walk from Bally's to the train station was always an adventure. This was before the Walk Outlets and Michigan Avenue used to be a fucking sad scene on a Saturday night. Aged hookers, homeless, broke-ass gamblers trying to scam motherfuckers... always a good time. I love to watch dystopia in action.

Once Char and I married, I started working at Borgata shortly after, then Jane came right after that... this changed me pretty considerably, I'm sure you can imagine. Saturdays started to become less of an important day to me because it meant that I was going to be away from Charlene and Jane, then Eleanor... my Saturdays became just another workday... it was better than say, Tuesday or whatever, but now Sunday was my favorite day. Saturday nights would occasionally be really fun... Schmib karaoke nights, various parties with old heads, what have you. But the day I looked forward to all week became Sunday. Sunday is the day I wake up with Charlene and the kids, make breakfast, lounge and play, maybe have an adventure like families do... always eat an early dinner together, and usually spend the nights watching Jane and Ellie dance or put on shows for us. I love my Sundays.

So since it is Sunday, but I am feeling a little old school Saturday action... here is The Four Mints - Gently Down Your Stream. The Four Mints were a soul group from Ohio in the early 70's... they are the second RnB group to use the moniker "The Four Mints"... but the jams are where its at. Its the kind of soul music i wish I had playing on the radio in my bedroom when I was 12, doing my hair before going to the mall... instead, I had shitty Tom Cochrane on shitty Eagle 106 playing shitty Life is A Highway.


So check out the Four Mints anthology... maybe wait til Saturday to play it.... my recommendation would be to play it after a shower while getting ready to do whatever you do on a Saturday.
YERP!