Thursday, December 29, 2005

Kristie's Crushes

I’m at work, I’m pretty much the only one here and I’m bored. That can be a dangerous thing as anyone who reads this may discover. I thought I would take a trip down memory land and share some of my celebrity crushes over the years. Many of my childhood crush memories are gone now so I’m only highlighting the ones I remember. Warning – I WILL be dating myself here so not many will know who I’m talking about but…… one or two of you might.

The first celebrity crush that I remember wasn’t really on a guy. No, it was on a mouse! It was on Mighty Mouse to be exact. Now this was no ordinary mouse. He was a SUPER Mouse- with muscles, lots and lots of hot mouse muscles! He saved the life of many a young nubile mousette from clutches of the evil and villainous cat gangs who had lustful thoughts about our young blond female mouses. And I so wanted to be one of those mousettes. To clarify in case anyone is wondering what on earth I’m talking about, Mighty Mouse was a cartoon that ran during my early formative years. Long before the maniacal Brain of Pinky and the Brain there was *sigh* Mighty Mouse. Now my crush on Mighty Mouse was so strong, I made believe that he lived in our house. My father (not a Mr. Fix-up) for some unbeknownst reason, made a mouse sized hole in the baseboard of my bedroom. I used to give small tours to the young children in our neighbourhood to show them where Mighty Mouse really lived. A few of the younger and more naïve of them actually believed me. I don’t remember explaining to my mother why I was showing groups of kids the hole in my baseboard, but I’m sure if I did, she must have looked at me rather oddly.





The next crush I remember was when I was older and could tell the difference between Mice and Men. I think that one would probably have been Bobby Sherman. Now there’s a name from the past of people in my age group isn’t it? I wasn’t the only one let me tell, you who had a crush on young Mr. Sherman. Google him and you will find all kinds of interesting facts. He came to my attention in a show called Here Comes the Brides. It was a story of 3 brothers, the Bolt brothers who owned a lumber mill in the old west. There was a shortage of women and to make all the lonely lumberjacks happy, they sent for women from the East to come and marry the lonely (and no doubt horny) lumber guys. Bobby Sherman played the role of the youngest brother Jeremy. Now when the show first started, he had a stutter and I just found that so darned endearing. By the second season though it was gone and I didn’t like the woman he chose for his bride, so being the fickle sort I transferred all my affection to the middle brother, the blond one, Joshua played by David Soul. This was before his Starsky and Hutch days. I was devastated when that show went off the air. Bobby Sherman went on to a music career but I was long over him by then.




Another huge yet short lived celebrity crush was on Illya Kuryakin aka David McCallum from the television show Man From Uncle. Now Napoleon Solo was the suave debonair master spy who always got the woman but my heart belonged to the taciturn Russian spy Ilya. Oooh, that Russian accent. It’s so odd to see him these days as Ducky on Navy N.C.I.S. Of course it’s even odder to see Napoleon Solo aka Robert Vaughn hawking sleazy lawyers.



As I started getting older, my crush of the moment celebrities started getting manlier – harking back to the old Mighty Mouse and the next one was the studly James T West of Wild Wild West – now I’m talking the television show of the 60’s not the Will Smith movie. I loved the whole concept of this show, the time, the setting, the train, the action, the music, Artemis Gordon, Dr. Migelito Loveless – everything. But most of all I loved James T West. I'm sure between this show and Here Come The Brides, my love of a good Western romance was born


Now in case you are thinking all of my crushes were on television stars – nope – I had them on musicians too. Like every other girl my age, I had one on Paul McCartney of the Beatles aka the Cute One. Realizing I was just one of a flock, I tried to transfer the crush to George Harrison, but it just didn’t work. This crush didn’t last too long though. I mean EVERYONE had a crush on Paul and I’ve always wanted to be a little different – dating back to the Mighty Mouse days.

My next musician crush was much stronger and lasted much longer and well…was the only crush whose pictures I hung on my wall. Now – knowing my enduring love of all things historical, can anyone guess who the musician in question might have been? He was in a famous band in the 60’s. Most people reading this will never have heard of this band (we called them bands in those days) or if they have, it would be in more of a mocking laughter kind of a way, but at the time crushes didn’t come any deeper than the one I had on Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Mercy!!!! It was a wild thing! He made my heart sing. He made everything……groovy (yes – believe it or not we really did use the word groovy – *shudder*). You could barely see my beautiful lavender walls, they were so covered in poster of him and the rest of the guys that I glommed from 16 Magazine, Tiger Beat and every other teen girl magazine. Everything about him melted my young teenage heart, his long hair tied back in a ponytail, the costumes they wore, the tricorn hats, the tight pants, the whole aura of the time period, the tight pants. I think that’s why even today my most favourite setting in books is Colonial America. In the back of my mind I almost picture every hero looking like Mark Lindsay. His voice as he belted out Hungry *shiver*, or Kicks or Just Like Me


Pause while I again remember


I started getting wierded out though when I began sprouting those little thingies on my chest. Somehow it just seemed odd to be changing my clothes in front of hundreds of staring eyes every evening and I eventually took them down. And then tragedy struck. Mark Lindsay left the band.




Heart sick and depressed, that marked the end of my celebrity crushes for many a year. I met, fell madly in love with and married my husband. The last thing I wanted during those days was a celebrity crush. But eventually they came back. Little ones of short duration which I don’t even remember anymore until one day I was struck down by another mad mad celebrity crush. Now everyone who knows me, knows about this one. My everyday friends, many of my on-line friends are all nodding their heads thinking “I know who she means” And I know for a fact I am not alone in this one. Many romance readers past a certain age I am sure have shared the same crush. I am referring of course to none other than (cue up the drum roll one more time please)


Hint: There can be only one; and may it be

Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod.

Good Golly Miss Molly!!!! did I have a crush on Duncan. A loner, a hero, a warrior, a lover, he was Romance Hero come to life and right there week after week in my living room. I watched the show every week. I watched the repeats. I watched the repeats again. I just couldn’t get enough of Duncan. I didn’t go overboard – not really – and join any groups or fan clubs or anything like that but like Mark Lindsay before him, he was the face of the romance hero. But alas, again my heart was to be broken when they moved the show around the final season and I couldn’t find it anymore. I still watched it in reruns but it wasn’t quite the same. A couple of years ago I tried watching The Tracker another series starring Adrian Paul – but the magic was gone. While no doobt a vera good looking mon, Adrian Paul is nae Duncan MacLeod.






I found out something fascinating while doing "research" for this blog for all those other Highlander fans I know are out there. They are currently filming another movie. Now the last one that came out in 2000 was terrible. Just terrible. But all the old cast is back. Joe, Mithos etc. Maybe.....finally.....I will have closure.
OH – any my newest crush??? Yep that’s right – Sawyer.

So, now you’ve all had a glimpse into my brain on a boring day at work.

‘til later

(as the theme music from the Mighty Mouse cartoon slowly fades into the background)

9 comments:

Tara Marie said...

I saw the words "Duncan MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod" and my heart skipped a beat and then went pitter pat. The be all and end all of crushes--I'm right with you on that one.

Anonymous said...

David Soul on the Man from Uncle.......sigh.
Paul was my fav from the Beatles as well.*grin

ReneeW said...

Oh. My. God. Kristie! I think we were twins! I too had the biggest crush on Bobby Sherman and David Soul and never missed a show.

Now I'm laughing my ass off, cuz I also had an even bigger crush on David McCallum. I was totally obsessed with him at the age of 12. I remember my girlfriends giving an 8x10 picture of him for my birthday! And Mark Lindsay from PR&TR, wow, with those tight pants. God he was HOT. Ok, I'll admit I had a crush on David Jones from the Monkees. And I also was a Paul McCartney girl much to the disgust of my friends who were John Lennon or George Harrison girls.

I'm at work now too and totally bored. I'm supposed to be writing a test plan (gag) and there's no one here. When I pulled into the parking lot this morning at 8:00 there were only 2 other cars.

Thanks for the memories!

Anonymous said...

My daughter is Kaitlin and she asked me to read this entry of yours because she thought I could relate to it, haha! Well, indeed I could! How well I remember every one of your crushes...except for "Highlander"...I've never seen an episode of it in my life tho Kaitlin definitely knows who he is! Anyway, I liked Fang of Paul Revere & the Raiders and even got a postcard from him, flutter flutter! I never missed an episode of "Here Come the Brides" (remember Bobby's "Julie Julie Julie...do ya LOVE me?") And didn't you write this on Dec. 29th?? My 52nd birthday! My first visit here and I enjoyed it immensely. Please stop by and say hello at my blog sometime if you get a chance...due to a mega-spammer I had to limit comments to Bravenet members but you can always leave a tag. Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

P.S. I also was in love with Paul McCartney but I saw George Harrison at the Portland International Airport here in Portland, Oregon, when I was 10 years old. Woooooooo hoooooo!

Kristie (J) said...

Tara: I still have a crush on Duncan and still check out the SF channel for old episodes but they don't seem to show them. I'm oh so close to ordering them on DVD. And I have a fellow Duncan fan friend who I shall be getting in touch with to book a date for the new movie when it comes out.

Janice: We'll talk over coffee *grin*

Renee: they were the hotties of our day weren't they. I had a crush on Davy of the Monkees too but since it wasn't as deep and if I mentioned all of them, this post would have lasted an eternity. But he was certainly one I considered adding. I also liked Mickey.

MissKris (like your name by the way *grin*, that's what my sister calls me) how flattering that Kaitlin wanted you to read this. I don't remember Fang nearly as well - and how exciting would that have been to get a postcard from him!! - but I also had one on Freddy Weller and he shared space on my walls with Mark. And you are simply going to have to catch at least one episode of The Highlander somehow!!! You will be hoooked! Not only is Duncan to die for (words coming out of a *gulp* 51 year old) but it's a darn good show!

Kristie (J) said...

PS MissKris: I do indeed remember that Bobby Sherman song. Now it's rolling around in my head and won't leave.

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