The Summer of Congo

Welcome to the Rad Years Summer Vacation 2020! I’m kicking things off late on a Monday night/Tuesday Morning. I’ve been on a “merch” making kick, getting exclusive, limited edition stickers made as well as working on a new pin set exclusively for the summer. I know most of 2020 has been a giant kick in the gut, but we’re not here to talk 2020, we’re here to talk about better times, tonight in particular 1995. Enchantress and I watched Congo as our “Sunday Night Movie” a few days ago and I loved every second of it. So 2 years prior, in 1993 (27 years ago) Jurassic Park hit the theaters and we all became re-obsessed with REAL LIFE DINOSAURS. I spent that summer SUPER INTO everything JP. We would play with the action figures, and pretend our whole neighborhood was Jurassic Park and we were working there always on the run from various dinosaurs. The Texaco gas station behind the house had the whole candy end cap dedicated to Jurassic Park candy and we literally ate it all up.

I bought the book by Michael Crichton from the used book store “Books N More” behind my house. I rented the NES game, my buddy Matt got the Sega game for his birthday, we were obsessed with everything Jurassic Park.

The next summer Flintstones was the big summer movie, but I won’t go into detail about that here, lets move on to 1995, when another movie, based on a book by the techno-thriller expert Michael Crichton came out. CONGO.

Released in June of 1995, this gave us the adventure we were craving! It gave us Kenner Action figures, a Taco Bell tie in, and a movie chock full of adventure and intrigue. Critics panned it, but Ernie Hudson said it is the project he enjoyed the best! I LOVE this movie, and loved it when I saw it that summer. I went back to “Books N’ More” and picked up my worn copy of Congo. I tried my best to read it but wouldn’t read it and fully understand it until 5 years ago when seeing Jurassic World prompted me to start doing a completion of all Crichton’s work.

I was 12 going on 13, and while kids who are 13 now a days are making rap videos on tiktok, I was still lost in my imagination. The world of Jurassic Park turned into the Virunga region of the Congo and instead of ferocious dinosaurs, our enemy was killer grey gorillas. Of course I would need a companion, I would need my Amy. I had lifelike gorilla stuffy that was about 10 inches high, and looked a lot like Amy, so I decided to make her a speech glove with construction paper, cardboard, and toilet paper/paper towel rolls. She was my second best friend that summer, always good for a laugh and to share Taco Bell Congo Volcano Burritos with.

Oh yeah, in 1995, my favorite food in the world was Taco Bell, and they had a Congo tie-in. I didn’t read reviews, there was no Rotten Tomatoes, we had no clue critics hated this movie. And neither did anyone else because a lot of people went to see it. It made its money back and way more! I was so into this movie, I used one of my 13 for 1 penny CD’s via Columbia House to get the Congo Score on CD! No Lie, I LOVED this soundtrack! still do! I have almost all of the Kenner action figure line on card, and hopefully can pick up the line mint on card from my friend Zombie Sailor!

Thanks for reading the kickoff to Rad Years Summer Vacation and Happy Summer! In a world quarantined, lets live summer the way we did back then. We didn’t get big trips, and lavish vacations. We had our imagination. Take a week off for a stay-cation and make it an old school, no school summer vacation! Get a kiddie pool, a slip and slide, some super soakers, bikes, sprinklers, fire crackers, hot dogs, kool-aid busts, little barrel juices, ice pops, ANYTHING that reminds you of summer! Thanks again for reading and summer on!