It wouldn’t be Christmas without Tracy Chapman’s haunting rendition of O Holy Night.
Merry Christmas!
26 Tuesday Dec 2023
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in26 Tuesday Dec 2023
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inIt wouldn’t be Christmas without Tracy Chapman’s haunting rendition of O Holy Night.
19 Tuesday Dec 2023
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inJust discovered episodes of Degrassi junior high on on Amazon Prime and decided to watch them. I hadn’t watched this show in thirty years and seeing it again was like being transported back to such an innocent time. A time when no one had cell phones, social media or the internet, guys donned fedora hats, girls wore long scarves, everyone’s hair was caked in hair spray, music was played on record players, and you literally had to dial phone numbers.
This show was such a huge part of my childhood. I remembered counting down the years until I got to seventh grade so I could be the same age as the characters and the same age as my older cousins who watched the show religiously, some of them even living not far from the legendary gentrifying Toronto inner-city where the show took place.
I remember a sissified close friend who wanted to buy a fedora hat and sleeveless jean jacket because he wanted to look just like Joey Jeremiah.
Although the show seems corny by today’s standards, that’s part of it’s charm. Each episode centered around some coming of age dilemma like a girl discovering she’s pregnant, or a beloved teacher suspected of being lesbian, or a mulatto girl getting caught shop-lifting, or an Asian student suspecting he’s been stereotyped, or a supply teacher seducing said mulatto girl, or the school secretary phoning children’s aid because a boy is being being beat by his dad. The show is so pre-internet that she literally looks up Children’s Aid in a deck of alphabetized cards on her desk.
And there’s an authenticity about the characters. They all looked like real kids and real teachers from that era.
And of course the theme song. I remember literally dancing to this as a kid at the start of each episode: