NKOTB: So Young and Yet So Wise part 1

A few months ago, my dear friend Ashley--who has a sense of humor better than most--sent me a package with all sorts of goodies in it, each one with a note attached as a caption. To the rather huge stack of New Kids on the Block trading cards she included, she wrote, "Ahh...NKOTB, so young and yet so wise."

 We were of a very impressionable age when New Kids came out. I knew I was supposed to like them, but I was neither here nor there with them, but wanted to appear like a normal kid, so I flaunted my NKOTB walkman all over that yellow school bus for a few months second grade. But, did I ever use the bookcovers that I got with said walkman for my birthday? Nope. (My brother ended up stealing them from me to use as gift wrap when I was in college.) Alas sooner rather than later, the sticker of the New Kids was peeled off and I continued to use that walkman to listen to Paula Abdul and Richard Marx (those were my jams!)

I digress. Ashley's present made me giggle, but I had no idea what to do with these precious gems. I was thinking about them this morning, so I got them out, took some photos, and will for the next few weeks share the best of the best.

Poor John, the only kid in the crew not part of the rat-tail chain. I bet he looks back in relief that even though he allowed himself and the band to be styled by the same person that styled Sinbad,* he didn't have a rat-tail, but it probably smarted at the time, being alone in the crowd like that. And Jordan looks so hot in his overalls, actually mostly it's his face. His face and that pose. What's he going to do next? Lean against a brick wall with one leg propped up like a flamingo's?

The reverse of those two cards (where the pearls of wisdom are, along with the factoids about the band):
#82: Donnie says, "There are lots of good reasons to stay in school. We're glad we did because that's how we met...and look at us now!"
#55: Jordan is quite the comedian! He cracks up the Kids on the tour bus with his impression of Elvis Presley!**


*I made that up.  "I hope he's wearing something made out of windbreaker!" -Charlie Kelly

**You know what's more obnoxious than being stuck on a tour bus with a guy who thinks impressions are funny? The only thing that comes to mind, being stuck on a tour bus with a guy who thinks his impression singular is funny. (Remember when Kareem Abdul Jabbar drove their tour bus? Yeah...me neither.)