The Life Of A Single Mommy

“I revisited my childhood and saw my daughter there”

In April of 2008 I found out New Kids On The Block were reuniting. It was exciting for me since I grew up a Blockhead.
Yes, back in the late 80’s and the 90’s I was one of those little girls who were “obsessed” (as some would call it) with New Kids On The Block. I had those VHS tapes that I watched over and over. I bought every “Bop” magazine I could, collected every poster or picture I could find. I made countless scrapbooks with the guys photos. I watched those New Kids On The Block Saturday morning cartoons, I had a New Kids On The Block comic book or two, and even a Joey doll. I kept a few momentoes from my childhood but I had thrown away those VHS tapes. In the summer of 2008 I found them at a garage sale and I bought them. I saw the same obsession I had in my daughter’s eyes as she watching those tapes and an almost 2 year old Justice tried doing all the dance moves and sang, “Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!”. I told her how my mom had taken me to see them in concert when I was about 11 or 12 years old and how they were going to be in Saint Louis, Missouri that winter. She threw the whole, “If your mom took you, then you have to take me” guilt trip on me. I knew there was no way I could afford tickets to take her but I didn’t know if I had the heart to tell her that.

I had some property that I had been trying to sell for a few months. I received a call about the property from some buyers who wanted the property as soon as possible and we got the ball rolling. Most of the money I got from selling the property went to paying bills, but there was one thing I had to splurge on, New Kids On The Block tickets. I purchased four tickets, one for me, my daughter, Destiny, my “adopted” daughter, Shanna, and Shanna’s friend Sami. The anticipation waiting to see New Kids in concert again liked to kill me.

On November 10, 2008 we left Higbee, Missouri and we were NKOTB Saint Louis Concert Bound! All that day Destiny kept asking me when we were leaving. She kept saying, “I’m just gonna die if we don’t leave soon”. I had to smile because I was feeling the same way. She even told me that she wished Donnie would bring her on stage and sing “Cover Girl” to her just like in the “Hangin Tough” concert VHS tape. I knew the feeling, I dreamed that would happen to me when I was a girl.

The concert was better than when I seen them as a child. Our seats were amazing, the seats I had as a girl made them look like little dots floating on stage, the seats this time were right beside the stage and they looked like men instead of dots. I paid $500 for those tickets, $40 for gas to get to the concert, $50 for a “Property of Donnie Wahlberg” shirt and a New Kids On The Block pin for Destiny, but I will never be able to put a price tag on rocking out to New Kids On The Block with my daughter!

“Helping make my children’s dreams come true, make my dream’s come true”

Driving down the road just me and Destiny. New Kids On The Block’s song, “Single” blasting on the radio, the chorus,
“Girl, I’ll be your boyfriend”. Destiny looked at me and said, “Oh my gosh, Mom. If Donnie said that to me, I would just die”.

I said, “Oh yeah? What if Donnie said that to me and I was his girlfriend?”

She said, “I would be so jealous”.

I chuckled. Then she said, “But if you and Donnie got married, I would be so happy because Donnie would be my step-dad.”

I asked, “So, you would want Donnie to be your step-dad?”

She said, “YES! Then I could go on tour with New Kids On The Block and see the world”.

I said, “Well, I don’t think you would get to do that because you have school”.

She replied, “But Mom, it would be a once in a life time thing, so it would be okay for me to miss school”.

I laughed and said, “No, I really think school is more important than touring the world with New Kids On The Block”.

This conversation took me back to the dreams I had as a little girl. How I was so in love with New Kids On The Block that I wished I could have toured with them. I wanted to grow up and marry them, well, I would have had to chose just one of them, but I was willing to sacrifice four of them just to have the love of one, it would have been well worth it. I never had that opportunity and frankly, I’m positive I never will but it is dreams that keep us going in life. I would do anything to make Destiny’s dreams of touring with New Kids On The Block come true if I could and if she had that chance, I would back her all the way. Because seeing my children happy is the best dream that I could ever have come true.

© 2008 LaDawn Cossey

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