Today when I got the buzz on my Blackberry alerting me to the fact that Corey Haim had passed on to that little child-star cloud in the sky, I was a little disappointed. Once I mentally ticked off all the movies he was in and suddenly realized that he had played the title character in the movie Lucas, I was almost brought to tears.
Lucas, people. Lucas. The possible birthplace of the SLOW CLAP. The epitome of underdog movies where the nerd comes out on top (albeit awkwardly in this case). The movie with that cute little red-haired what's-her-name in it. The film where Leukoplakia (cancer of the mouth) was first (and last) used as a high school insult!
This movie touched me pretty deeply as a kid. Maybe it was because I too was a bit of a loner at times, hanging out and looking at bugs like Lucas. Or maybe I wanted to be the red-haired girl. Which would definitely explain why I kept dying my hair red for most of my young adult life. Whatever the reason, this was one of those films I would always pause on when channel surfing on a Saturday afternoon and enjoy for at least a moment or two.
So back to Corey. Poor, poor addicted Corey. He died this morning of a drug overdose. And at work, us late-twenties, early-thirties people bonded over the tragedy of our old teen idol's passing. We reminisced about which posters we had, which of the Coreys we crushed on (Haim or Feldman), how License to Drive blew our young minds.
At last, the youngsters (under 25 set) in the cubes next to us could not stand it any longer.
"Who is Corey Haim?" they asked in genuine confusion.
We were shocked. And appalled. And apparently, very very old. We offered movie titles and explanations of the era of "The Coreys," but the youngsters' faces were still vacant. They had no idea who he was! Which I guess should not be that surprising. But it was nonetheless.
Finally, in an effort to seek out a way to convey to them just how much this affected our generation, I wracked my brain for a comparable situation.
"You know that kid that was on Tool Time--no, that's not it, I mean on Home Improvement? Jonathan-Taylor-something?"
"You mean JTT?"
"Yeah, yeah! JTT or whatever. Well, Corey Haim was sort of the JTT of our time, in all the teen mags and stuff. And it would be like finding out JTT died."
A huge explosion of recognition, finally. A light bulb moment, of sorts.
"Oooohh. I totally get it now. Wow. WOW. That is really sad!"
You're welcome, Corey Haim. Now we can both rest in peace.
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