What it was like Growing Up in Michael Jackson's Home Town

Sweet Gary Indiana. Home town of the famous Michael Jackson. I was born in East Chicago, Indiana in 1983. My father was born in Gary Indiana in 1949. He was only a few years older than Michael Jackson. The entire Jackson Clan lived in the local neighborhood. And my father went to the exact same high school that Michael Jackson did.

Boy that's such an honor. My dad told me yesterday that he and his friends used to sneak into Michael Jackson's talent shows when he was young. Growing up in the neighborhood of the man who would change music and culture as we know it was anything but ordinary.

Perhaps even more spectacular was being the child of my father, a true Michael Jackson fan. I was born in 1983. Michael Jackson had already become popular and in 1996, when I was only 13, his popularity had begun to wan with all of the legal issues surrounding the child molestation case. However, since my dad had Michael's infamous albums, song's like "I'm Bad" "Dangerous" "Billy Jean" and "Beat It" were as familiar to me as "Row Row Your Boat" even though I was only a small child when Jackson hit Big time.

I remember dancing for hours to those songs. I remember trying to moonwalk, and I also listened to Michael's sister, Janet Jackson as well. Michael Jackson was probably the greatest performer of all time. He is called the King of Pop, but his influence reached all genres of music. All nations listened to him. those who did not even speak English knew of the music man called Michael Jackson who hailed from sweet Gary Indiana.

Now he is gone, and even though for the past ten years his star power had died down, he is at the top of music charts today. His albums are selling out in music stores. Sites like Itunes and others are experiencing a music download overload. He was on the verge of attempting a comeback by doing 50 concerts in London. Well, he didn't get to comeback that way, but now he is really selling some albums.

Is it a shame that we all could not look beyond some of the life trials he faced and celebrate him for his talent while he was still alive?

Well that's all water under the bridge now as people are scouring the internet looking for videos of Blood on the Dance floor and watching the anniversary concert where Michael Jackson took out his military jacket, his black hat, and his signature jeweled glove.

What can we say about a man who could make a rock solid hit song out of the phrase, "I'm bad......really....really bad. You know it.....You know? " He will be just so missed. And he was bad....really...really bad. In a great way of course. We know it. We know.

Here's to Michael Jackson.