Comparing Past Februarys
February has always been one of my least favorite months as I'm usually over winter by this time of year even if winter is nowhere near over me. With that said, I've had some good and memorable Februarys over the years that stand out among the crowd. Here are the best in each category...
February 1984 vs. February 1994 vs. February 2004
Winner: 1984--Nothing overly significant here as I was a little to young to appreciate the Sarajevo-based 1984 Winter Olympics and was more annoyed than anything else that it was responsible for taking "The Fall Guy" off the air for a couple of weeks, but between the obsession with memorizing the weekly TV grid that continued from the month before and my afternoon, after-kindergarten viewings of "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe", this boyhood February narrowly edges the equally modest rewards of its rivals.
February 1985 vs. February 1995 vs. February 2005
Winner: 1985--After a few weeks of escalating interest in baseball cards brought on by the 1984 All-Star team cards available one at a time in cereal boxes that winter, my dad laid the gauntlet for a longer-term baseball card fascination one Saturday morning when I woke up with a fever. On his way to the store to buy medicine, he picked up a couple of packs of Topps baseball cards. A monster was born that defined most of the years ahead but 1985 in particular. A sport I couldn't have cared less about in years prior suddenly became my primary fascination of the first half of 1985 until it got upstaged by a certain new TV show I became interested in that fall.
February 1986 vs. February 1996 vs. February 2006
Winner: 2006--I have a couple of great options this year. In most groupings, 1986 would have won with my obsession with Ian Thorne's "Monsters" book hitting its peak, but in February 2006 I was still buzzing from my late January move to Des Moines and scoring of a new job (where I still work). I felt like I found my place right away and enjoyed immersing myself in my new city, visiting the Baskin-Robbins ice cream store in town--after years of watching every other Baskin Robbins in Minnesota and Iowa close--and sampling their legendary chocolate fudge cone for the first time since September 1997! I also really got into the 2006 Winter Olympics, something I get into every four years but which had more resonance for me that year than most given the memorable place and time in my life.
February 1987 vs. February 1997 vs. February 2007
Winner: 1987--Given that 1997 was the beginning of my spring semester of my miserable freshman year of college and 2007 was the month my dog died, February 1987 wins by default. It was a good month though, with my memories guided largely by my growing boyhood crush on a third-grade classmate along with my favorite TV nights, which included "MacGyver" and the Saturday night bloc of "Wonderful World of Disney", "Sidekicks", and "Sledge Hammer!" on ABC.
February 1988 vs. February 1998 vs. February 2008
Winner: 1988--A slam dunk champion here, my favorite cousin came down for a long weekend visit the first weekend of the year and on top of our visits to the arcade in the mall, we also found plenty of time to watch multiple hours of the Nickelodeon cable channel. I had been dabbling in Nickelodeon viewings for months when I went to my grandma's place (she was the only one I knew who had cable at the time) but that weekend really solidified the ascendancy of an obsession that defined the months to come. And later in the month of February 1988 came the first Winter Olympics I got into....and I surprised myself the extent to which I did get into every event except figure skating. Definitely one of the most memorable Februarys of my life.
February 1989 vs. February 1999 vs. February 2009
Winner: 1999--It's not typical that the winter months of my college years beat out the competition, but far and away my best semester at college was spring semester of my junior year which began in February 1999. I had a lineup of classes I really enjoyed and got to work closely with some friends in the class, and maneuvered a schedule in which I had a three-day weekend that began Friday morning at 10 a.m. I managed to drive my car into a ditch on an icy road early in the month but walked away with a relatively easy lesson and a $55 towing charge. Beyond that it was smooth sailing, however, with my favorite months of the semester still yet to come.
February 1990 vs. February 2000 vs. February 2010
Winner: 1990--Most years of 1990 were outstanding but this one wins by default. I have good overall memories of sixth grade being a new owner of a Nintendo that I was enjoying the hell out of and with "MacGyver" going strong. This month in particular was sweet because after getting his teeth kicked in by "ALF" for the better part of four years, "MacGyver" finally starting to win its time slot and beat "ALF" as the latter was in the middle of one of the quickest and most dramatic meltdowns in modern TV history. All that said, the best months of 1990 were definitely still yet to come.
February 1991 vs. February 2001 vs. February 2011
Winner: 1991--Pretty close race here with 2001 as I enjoyed both but 1991 wins the day, in the throes of the first Gulf War which was essentially had won by month's end. On a lighter note, I purchased the Nintendo game Mega Man 2 in a catalog that month and got enjoyment out of that and also had my most enjoyable ski trip to Mount Kato with a friend's church group. It was also sort of an end of the innocence moment for me personally as in the months ahead I slumbered through a period of early teen angst that wasn't much fun, and also the end of the innocence for my beloved "MacGyver" as the series was starting to lose its edge and that was soon reflected in declining ratings. But just in terms of February 1991, things were still good.
February 1992 vs. February 2002 vs. February 2012
Winner: 1992--I bounced back quickly after "MacGyver" was yanked from the airwaves at the end of December 1991 primarily because of the excitement surrounding the 1992 Presidential primaries and my preferred candidate Tom Harkin's candidacy, which got off to a great start with a landslide win in his native Iowa. Things came back down to Earth quickly with a fourth-place finish in New Hampshire and disappointing subsequent numbers out of South Dakota. It was still an exciting time though, even though I wasn't gonna like the outcome the next month had in store for me.
February 1993 vs. February 2003 vs. February 2013
Winner: 2003--Ick! This particular grouping always seems to have three pretty lousy choices and this one is no exception, although I will say that resurgence of former girlfriend Dana at this point in 2003 improved my mood a little. I was also pretty excited about the TV schedule at that point with some new series such as "Miracles" and "Mr. Sterling" premiering that intrigued me. I had a weird lark late in the month, as I approached my one-year anniversary at the newspaper, to put in my notice and look for a new job after an unsettled period halfway through the month, but thankfully I didn't follow through with quitting one job before finding or even searching for another.
Anyway, I have spring fever right now and that spring fever will accompany the spring months ahead in my decennial comparisons. Only three more months to go.
February 1984 vs. February 1994 vs. February 2004
Winner: 1984--Nothing overly significant here as I was a little to young to appreciate the Sarajevo-based 1984 Winter Olympics and was more annoyed than anything else that it was responsible for taking "The Fall Guy" off the air for a couple of weeks, but between the obsession with memorizing the weekly TV grid that continued from the month before and my afternoon, after-kindergarten viewings of "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe", this boyhood February narrowly edges the equally modest rewards of its rivals.
February 1985 vs. February 1995 vs. February 2005
Winner: 1985--After a few weeks of escalating interest in baseball cards brought on by the 1984 All-Star team cards available one at a time in cereal boxes that winter, my dad laid the gauntlet for a longer-term baseball card fascination one Saturday morning when I woke up with a fever. On his way to the store to buy medicine, he picked up a couple of packs of Topps baseball cards. A monster was born that defined most of the years ahead but 1985 in particular. A sport I couldn't have cared less about in years prior suddenly became my primary fascination of the first half of 1985 until it got upstaged by a certain new TV show I became interested in that fall.
February 1986 vs. February 1996 vs. February 2006
Winner: 2006--I have a couple of great options this year. In most groupings, 1986 would have won with my obsession with Ian Thorne's "Monsters" book hitting its peak, but in February 2006 I was still buzzing from my late January move to Des Moines and scoring of a new job (where I still work). I felt like I found my place right away and enjoyed immersing myself in my new city, visiting the Baskin-Robbins ice cream store in town--after years of watching every other Baskin Robbins in Minnesota and Iowa close--and sampling their legendary chocolate fudge cone for the first time since September 1997! I also really got into the 2006 Winter Olympics, something I get into every four years but which had more resonance for me that year than most given the memorable place and time in my life.
February 1987 vs. February 1997 vs. February 2007
Winner: 1987--Given that 1997 was the beginning of my spring semester of my miserable freshman year of college and 2007 was the month my dog died, February 1987 wins by default. It was a good month though, with my memories guided largely by my growing boyhood crush on a third-grade classmate along with my favorite TV nights, which included "MacGyver" and the Saturday night bloc of "Wonderful World of Disney", "Sidekicks", and "Sledge Hammer!" on ABC.
February 1988 vs. February 1998 vs. February 2008
Winner: 1988--A slam dunk champion here, my favorite cousin came down for a long weekend visit the first weekend of the year and on top of our visits to the arcade in the mall, we also found plenty of time to watch multiple hours of the Nickelodeon cable channel. I had been dabbling in Nickelodeon viewings for months when I went to my grandma's place (she was the only one I knew who had cable at the time) but that weekend really solidified the ascendancy of an obsession that defined the months to come. And later in the month of February 1988 came the first Winter Olympics I got into....and I surprised myself the extent to which I did get into every event except figure skating. Definitely one of the most memorable Februarys of my life.
February 1989 vs. February 1999 vs. February 2009
Winner: 1999--It's not typical that the winter months of my college years beat out the competition, but far and away my best semester at college was spring semester of my junior year which began in February 1999. I had a lineup of classes I really enjoyed and got to work closely with some friends in the class, and maneuvered a schedule in which I had a three-day weekend that began Friday morning at 10 a.m. I managed to drive my car into a ditch on an icy road early in the month but walked away with a relatively easy lesson and a $55 towing charge. Beyond that it was smooth sailing, however, with my favorite months of the semester still yet to come.
February 1990 vs. February 2000 vs. February 2010
Winner: 1990--Most years of 1990 were outstanding but this one wins by default. I have good overall memories of sixth grade being a new owner of a Nintendo that I was enjoying the hell out of and with "MacGyver" going strong. This month in particular was sweet because after getting his teeth kicked in by "ALF" for the better part of four years, "MacGyver" finally starting to win its time slot and beat "ALF" as the latter was in the middle of one of the quickest and most dramatic meltdowns in modern TV history. All that said, the best months of 1990 were definitely still yet to come.
February 1991 vs. February 2001 vs. February 2011
Winner: 1991--Pretty close race here with 2001 as I enjoyed both but 1991 wins the day, in the throes of the first Gulf War which was essentially had won by month's end. On a lighter note, I purchased the Nintendo game Mega Man 2 in a catalog that month and got enjoyment out of that and also had my most enjoyable ski trip to Mount Kato with a friend's church group. It was also sort of an end of the innocence moment for me personally as in the months ahead I slumbered through a period of early teen angst that wasn't much fun, and also the end of the innocence for my beloved "MacGyver" as the series was starting to lose its edge and that was soon reflected in declining ratings. But just in terms of February 1991, things were still good.
February 1992 vs. February 2002 vs. February 2012
Winner: 1992--I bounced back quickly after "MacGyver" was yanked from the airwaves at the end of December 1991 primarily because of the excitement surrounding the 1992 Presidential primaries and my preferred candidate Tom Harkin's candidacy, which got off to a great start with a landslide win in his native Iowa. Things came back down to Earth quickly with a fourth-place finish in New Hampshire and disappointing subsequent numbers out of South Dakota. It was still an exciting time though, even though I wasn't gonna like the outcome the next month had in store for me.
February 1993 vs. February 2003 vs. February 2013
Winner: 2003--Ick! This particular grouping always seems to have three pretty lousy choices and this one is no exception, although I will say that resurgence of former girlfriend Dana at this point in 2003 improved my mood a little. I was also pretty excited about the TV schedule at that point with some new series such as "Miracles" and "Mr. Sterling" premiering that intrigued me. I had a weird lark late in the month, as I approached my one-year anniversary at the newspaper, to put in my notice and look for a new job after an unsettled period halfway through the month, but thankfully I didn't follow through with quitting one job before finding or even searching for another.
Anyway, I have spring fever right now and that spring fever will accompany the spring months ahead in my decennial comparisons. Only three more months to go.
posted by Mark at 10:07 AM
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