Thursday, November 20, 2008

Teen Beat Revisited

You know I love Disney Channel, so I've enjoyed watching Cody Linley on Dancing with the Stars this year. "Dude, I slayed you once. Don't make me slay you twice." Today's his birthday. I saw it in my morning newspaper. He's 19 today.

On the same page, I see that People magazine has chosen their Sexiest Man Alive. It's Hugh Jackman. I saw him on a talk show recently, and I'd have to say if not THE sexiest man alive, he's at least in the running for it. I can't say for sure. There are probably quite a few sexy men alive who I've never met.

But what else I find noteworthy is that listed as runner up for Mr. Jackman's crown is Zac Efron. (Oh, I'm going to seriously get Tween hits on my blog today!) And while I would be the first to agree that Zac is absolutely adorable, Sexiest Man Alive seems a little...I don't know...Mrs. Robinson-esque? Okay, I just looked him up and he's almost exactly one month past twenty-one, so it's not quite as icky, but still...

So I was thinking about the men (or boys) that we considered cuddle-licious when I was a Tween - and that's LONG before the word was coined - and here's who I remember most:



Yes, of course there was ELVIS. But I let my sister have him. Ricky was by far the cuter. And the way he closed his eyes when he sang...oh, my little Tween heart could barely stand it. I learned the word "swoon" at an early age.

And let's not forget the boys on Mickey Mouse Club, including my favorite from the Spin and Marty series, Tim Considine. Wasn't it neat when he later showed up on My Three Sons? Speaking of those other sons, how about Don Grady? Yeah, there was a swoon inducer, all right.

I could go on and on: Fabian, Ed "Kookie" Burns, Frankie Avalon, Tommy Kirk, Kurt Russell, and Mickey Dolenz - when he was Circus Boy, not a Monkee.

Those little Tween girls got nothing on us. We were pinning up pictures of cute boys when we had to buy magazines at the drug store to get them. We didn't have the Internet and 300 cable channels to bring us images of our crushes all day long. Still, we understand. The feeling is the same.

Happy Birthday, Cody.

3 comments:

Mark Wolfgang said...

I'm trying to remember my equivalents here. Let's see, there was Agent 99. And an actress I recall being named Dani Saval. I should look her up on IMDB. OK, done. Make it Dany Saval, and she was born 10 years before me, so that might be a bit creepy. But, as you say, still...... -Mark

Susan Cody said...

How about Annette?

Mark Wolfgang said...

Nope, not Annette. There was another girl, a blonde... Debby, maybe? I didn't really ever watch the MMC. My sister was addicted to the Hardy Boys tho.