Final Friday before 40
Hey, I wish I had my way
’Cause everyday would be a Friday
-Skee-lo, “I wish”
Thank you for kicking us of Skee-lo on our final Friday before 40. I love Fridays, but Skee-lo’s wish makes no sense. If everyday were a Friday, you’d have to work EVERY day and there’d be no Saturday. The entire appeal of Friday, the whole reason why me and pretty much everyone else loves Friday, is that it’s Saturday eve.
The Friday love goes back to my childhood, looking forward to spending the evening watching ABC’s lineup of “Full House,” “Family Matters,” “Step by Step” and “Perfect Strangers.” This block of programming was, of course, known as T.G.I.F. From ages 8 to about 10 or so, spending two hours with the Tanners, Steve Urkel, Suzanne Sommers, and Cousin Larry was a thrilling Friday night for me.
Some time around Uncle Jesse and Aunt Becky’s wedding, my Fridays shifted from sitting in front of the TV watching mainstream family sitcoms to sitting in front of the TV playing Sega Genesis. Nearly every Friday after school, my father took me to the local video store and eventually Blockbuster to rent a video game. For just a few bucks, I could play a game all weekend and give it back on Monday. And I would absolutely play it that game all weekend-long.
Once my brother entered high school, our Fridays became all about basketball. Every Friday night in the winter, I was in the bleachers rooting hard for my brother and the Kolbe Cathedral Cougars. I looked forward to those Fridays all week. I knew the schedule and knew what to expect from the opponents. The tone for the rest of the weekend was usually set by what happened on the court, a Cougars’ win would kickoff an upbeat Saturday and Sunday. A loss, well, I didn’t take losses well at any level of my favorite sports teams back then, and a loss by my favorite high school basketball team was no different.
Three years later, I would become a member of that team. In 1994–5, my brother and I played together on the basketball team. He was a senior, so he played much more than I did. I was a freshman, starting on the JV team and lucky to get a minute or so of garbage time. One of the best parts about Fridays back then was my father would find a way to get out of working his night shift job to show up at our games, especially the big games.
This would be how I spent my Fridays in the winter throughout high school, as a member of a very good basketball program. We won a lot. Sophomore year we were close to winning a state title but fell short, losing in the semi-finals of the tournament. By the time I was a senior, I was a starter but there were clearly much more talented underclassmen on the bench who got more minutes than me despite my starter status. I was more of a “glue guy,” than an elite talent like many of my teammates.
These were some fun Fridays, but again, only if we won.
As much as I loved basketball and winning, I knew my playing days were over once my senior season was over. I knew I wasn’t good enough to play in college.
That meant Fridays in college were wide open for… playing video games. Not always, I swear. But there still was a fair share of Friday nights that consisted of sitting in the dorm room playing way too much video games instead of going out and partying like a typical college kid, a typical college kid who doesn’t drink.
In my professional life, Fridays have had various meanings. In some jobs where the weekends didn’t really exist, Friday night was just a bit of a breather from the go, go, go of the week, only to wake up Saturday and continue to go, go, go. In the earlier days of my professional life, before the days of email on our phones (remember those days?), Friday was a kickoff to a much needed break.
These days Fridays are back to being all about sitting in front of the TV. But not network television. It’s Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, or possibly something on cable. While I may not be watching TGIF, I’m still thinking thank goodness it’s Friday every time I make it through the week. Although at almost 40, it seems like those weeks are flying by far faster than they did when I was eager anticipating video game rentals or going to watch high school basketball.
The flipside of Friday night, however, is Sunday night. Sure, all the good TV is on but man, I hated Sunday nights. And I still kinda do. I’ve gotten better at it, but I really struggled with, what I guess they call the “Sunday Scaries.” I always wanted the days on Sunday to go by as slow as possible, and never wanted the Sunday nights to end. I’d stay up all night because I figured the longer I stayed up the more I got out of my weekend. This, of course, would make Monday mornings even more brutal.
If only, every day was a Sunday.
Now, that would’ve been the thing to wish for, Skee-Lo.
Tim Hammill is a communications professional in the nonprofit sector. He’s turning 40 on October 20, 2020. He’s writing about the final stretch to this milestone age in 40 Days to 40, a collection of stories, thoughts, reflections and whatever else comes to mind each day. In addition to writing a blog, Tim has also decided to donate his birthday to This Is My Brave, an organization he very recently learned about that brings stories of mental illness and addiction out of the shadows and into the spotlight. If you’d like to support Tim’s birthday fundraiser, go here.
Additionally, there are three other organizations that are close to Tim’s heart: Save the Children, Stand Up To Cancer and the Bridgeport YMCA. Click on each to learn more and to support their work.
