What Pulled Me Away From My Beloved Chicago Cubs in the 1990's
In my recent post about securing Pearl Jam tickets for their Wrigley Field concert, several Twitter followers began discussing their favorite 1990's (and 1980's) bands.
One tweeter mentioned the Presidents of the United States of America. That brought back a flood of memories. The band that brought us "Lump" and "Peaches" was the first compact disc (CD) I purchased as an 8th grader in 1995.
It also took me back to a time in which I had abandoned my childhood love for the Chicago Cubs. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, my collecting memories take me back to sorting during the Friday night TGIF lineup of Full House, Perfect Strangers, Just The Ten Of Us, Boy Meets World, etc.
By the way, Perfect Strangers was set in Chicago, and Wrigley Field was in the opening montage.
I would pull aside my Cubs cards and make "card houses" with all the rest.
Basketball became my favorite sport in the early 1990's and I would spend every waking hour in my driveway shooting hoops. Then Shaq came along and basketball was my game. The strike of 1994 didn't help my baseball fandom at all, either.
A Saturday trip to Eagle Country Market (a regional Midwest grocery chain that is no longer) with my mom reintroduced me to professional wrestling. While mom shopped, I would head over to the magazine section. During the fall of 1994 on one of these trips I glanced at a WWF Magazine with Doink the Clown on the cover. I was intrigued.
This brought me into wrestling again. It also began my newest hobby. No longer was I after Shaq or Grant Hill basketball cards, or Cubs cards from my baseball card collecting days of the late 1980's. Wrestling magazines was my new jam.
Through 1995, 1996, and 1997 my weekly ritual was going grocery shopping in Kewanee, Illinois, about a 10-minute drive from my small hometown. It included a stop to the Book Emporium. I would grab two or three wrestling magazines each trip and sit in the car while mom shopped.
This practice ended around 1998 when the great home run chase brought me back to baseball. More on that in another blog.