So, this one time, I met Marky Mark

In 1992.  Or '93.  When he was still Marky Mark.

Last week at work, someone was talking about Wahlburgers, the show and the restaurant, as a group of us headed to a meeting.  Then more of us began talking about Wahlburgers and I laughed to myself thinking of the things my friends (Jen and Jenn) and I did more than 20*** years ago. I was a HUGE New Kids on the Block fan.

HUGE.

And because we lived only a few towns away, my friends and I would drive by their houses.  (It's interesting to think about how information was spread via word of mouth back then because there was most definitely no internet.)  I don't exactly know what we expected to have happen but a security guard did chase after my friend's car with a flashlight one night after we drove by the Wahlberg's house (in the suburbs.)  Unfortunately, for everyone involved, they lived on a dead end street, which meant once you drove by the house, you had to turn around and drive by it again.

If you're from Boston, and old enough, do you remember The Channel?  Yeah?  Jen, Jenn and I saw a Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch perform there.



Note, as the ticket* states, that it was an afternoon show.  That was my only experience at The Channel, by the way

A year or two later, Marky Mark had one of those photo books come out.  It was a smaller version of the one** Lynn Goldsmith did for NKOTB.  We discovered, I think from the radio, that there would be a book signing, by Marky Mark himself, down at the Galleria mall in Taunton.  By the time we arrived, the line snaked around the inside of the bookstore and down the hallway of the mall.  We were one of the last ones to get our books signed and the one thing I really remember from that day, other than the fact that it was raining, was how messy the store was as we were leaving.  Displays were knocked over, books were scattered everywhere.  I think the turn out was much larger than anticipated.







* I like to think that I collect memorabilia but Rich says that I'm a hoarder.  You say I'm a hoarder, but I'm not the only one.

** Last year, as I was digging out an old NKOTB shirt from a storage container, I came across this book.  I enjoyed flipping through it, looking at the photos. All these years later and finally understanding how to properly use a camera, I found the book to be a bit, dare I say, inspirational.  I could see perfection in imperfection, the ability to embrace grain and I thoroughly enjoyed the photo journalism, my favorite, of course.

*** You only live once and you can't go back in time.  Have fun.