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New Kids reunion brings back memories for fans
April 13, 2008 by Matt Manochio
A colleague told me on Tuesday that New Kids on the Block are reuniting for a tour later this year.
 Our newsroom sometimes has a stiflingly quiet feel to it. The reporters and editors focus on their monitors while the click-clacking sound of keystrokes fills the air. Someone will occasionally cough or complain about the air-conditioning being too cold and then they'll instantly revert to silence. Hours can go by without anyone speaking.
So please understand that I am not exaggerating when I say that the mere mention of a New Kids reunion ignited a discussion between two coworkers -- "Really, they're getting back together? Didn't one of them die?" -- into a frenzied, near newsroom-wide gabfest related to five teen heartthrobs who haven't released a CD since 1994.
It was as if the Wave that you'd see baseball fans doing manifested itself into New Kids chatter that circulated from the metro desk, to features and beyond.
I'm certain that the photo department, which is on the other side of the building, eventually debated who was cuter: Joey McIntyre or the Knight brothers?
I witnessed smiling colleagues in their 20s and 30s discussing something completely unrelated to how the newspaper business will be totally defunct in 40 years. It was almost as beautiful as that piece of paper swirling in the wind in "American Beauty."
The conversation then blossomed into what other 1980s bands we remembered, the first album we bought, and what were our senior prom songs. (Queen: "The Game," for the CD, and Boyz II Men: "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday," for the song.)
The newsroom was so happy and excitable that I thought someone was going to yell at us to pipe down. But it didn't happen. The sun cracked through the blinds and songbirds sang. Never in my eight-plus years at the Daily Record did I think the loudest, most involved conversation among colleagues would center around the Lazarus of boy bands.
 Amy Petraccoro also felt the pleasant nostalgia.
The 31-year-old Florham Park resident took the Wayback Machine to sixth-grade when she schooled in Summit.
"It brings back good memories," she said. "I can remember just singing in my room. I had posters wall to wall. I had posters on my ceiling, New Kids on the Block dolls, sheets. I was just a crazed fan like the Beatles (fans)."
Petraccoro saw the boys in concert about 20 years ago and said she wouldn't mind seeing their first live reunion performance on the "Today " show.
"They were my first crush. I think that's what it was," she said. "I think in sixth grade, that's when you start discovering boys."
She said her favorite "boy" is the 35-year-old Joey McIntyre.
"The big blue eyes and the curly, curly hair -- I love it," she said. "And he's the best voice out of all of them."
Cara Restaino, 28, who grew up in Montville, emailed me about the "drunken giddiness I feel at the prospect of seeing NKOTB reunited again."
She said a NKOTB sticker still sticks to the base of a ceramic tschotke container that holds her bobby pins.
"I stuck them all over stuff when I was little," she wrote. "I was 9 when I saw them at the then Brendan Byrne Arena. My mother took me for Rutt's Hut first. ... It was a night unparalleled to date. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but I think you get it. "
Restaino said hearing about the reunion brought back memories of her school bus.
"I used to bring my 'My First Sony' to school every day so that we could listen to the tape on the playground," she said. "So, on way home every day, the entire bus would sing along to 'Hangin' Tough' while swinging our right arms over our heads, as was the thing to do whenever it was played. Even the bus driver would sing along."
I doubt any of the reporters who gabbed about NKOTB will actually go see them. But the fact that just the NKOTB name brought me and others back to a simpler, more carefree time is enough for me.
Maybe 15 years from now, providing newspapers still exist, a colleague will mention to another that 'NSYNC is reuniting. I can hear the chatter beginning to bubble now.
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April 7, 2008 5:36 p.m. by Mike Burr 
heartthrobs are almost in their 40s, yet fans have been clamoring for a reunion for some time.
