On July 11, 2014 I had the unique opportunity to meet one of my childhood heroes, the original Red Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. When I initially heard about the event I was like “this is awesome” and I couldn’t wait for the event to occur. It really wasn’t until the event when I was standing in front of Austin St. John a.k.a Jason that I realized how huge something like this was to me. Anyone who knows me knows that on a long enough timeline knows that I will blabber on and on about Power Rangers. Ever since I was a kid I have to the point where I think people were just like “we get it stfu already.” I didn’t shut up and there were collective ugh’s and sighs whenever I brought up the topic. I didn’t care and looking back I realize that I shouldn’t have cared.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers hit television sets on August 28th 1993 and if I told you I remember exactly where I was when that show debuted that’d be a lie. During that time my miniature oversized self was going through a lot. My childhood home had burned down forcing my family to live in a homeless shelter for awhile. During which my mom became very ill and had to be hospitalized which in turn cause me and my older sister to live with our grandmother. Eventually my mother passed on to the next world subsequently making me a motherless and fatherless child.
Despite all this I was completely and utterly enthralled with this group of teenagers from different backgrounds who were summoned together because they had “attitude” and when they were in trouble they would reach behind their backs and pull out belt buckles hold them out and scream the name of an animal from the age of dinosaurs. Doing this would put them in a costume composed of tightly fitting spandex and really cool motorcycle helmets. They would fight for awhile, get beat down, strategize and finally defeat the enemy. Then the lady who called for the monster’s creation would throw her wand down from the moon to the earth, the ground would open up causing smoke to come out causing the recently defeated monster to grow to epic proportions. This was no problem for these spandex clad heroes because they would put their hands up to the sky, once again calling the name of their animals causing giant mechanized versions of them to appear. They would fight the giant monster separately with their beasts but that seldom worked so they would combine their animals to create a giant humanoid robot to combat this giant monster terrorizing the city.
Say what you want about this series or the concept I described, but to kids across the United States and around the world this was EPIC!! We all wanted to be Power Rangers and this caught on so well that we are 21 years removed from that original season and Power Rangers is still going strong. The children around the world like me grew up and still collect the action figures, some grew up to remake things like the morphers or weapons used in the show and some even grew up and donned the spandex of their favorite rangers to attend conventions and get opportunities to meet other former cast members.
I still love Power Rangers and even got into the Japanese source series titled Super Sentai. When I was a child I wanted to be a power ranger so badly, not for the spandex suits or the giant robots. As a child who recently lost his home and eventually his mother I wanted the power to bring her back. I look back at this and I know the show never said anything about resurrecting the dead, however that show gave me and millions of others hope. My hope at the time may have been unrealistic and looking back it most certainly was however if I had the opportunity I would still be a power ranger. There were episodes where the odds were most definitely stacked against the Power Rangers and in those insurmountable odds there was an air of hoplessness. However they were very resilient and continued to fight even when their odds of victory were slim. When they put their passion behind it and that theme song came on fans new that it was about to get real. It was that “never give up” attitude that inspired millions around the world. Not only that when they weren’t transformed in spandex they were generally good people. They did what they could to make their community better even without super powers. This is why if I ever had the chance to be a Power Ranger I would jump at the opportunity as would countless others.
My meeting with Austin St. John went somewhat like this. I walked up to him and shook his hand and he asked me how I was feeling. I wanted to be cool and collected in this moment, but I really couldn’t. The moment was almost surreal “This is heavy…” I responded. Austin immediately questioned my statement and I followed up with “20 years ago I used to rush home after school to watch you on TV and now I’m standing here shaking your hand.” He was cool, just smiled and said “You’re just saying this to make my ass feel old.” I was able to take a picture with him as I was holding my custom painted toy morpher and our interaction was over. The event went on, I got to chat with some cool fans of Power Rangers and Austin continued to shake hands, give out autographs and give special moments to others. The brevity of my moment is insignificant, the weight of the moment is. I couldn’t properly articulate it in the moment and it took me the rest of the day to thoroughly process what happened.
This is what I have to say to Mr. St. John, he may never read this but it is what I have to say: Thank you for being an inspiration, not only to me and other children my age but an entire generation. Some of whom are passing the hope and inspiration on to their children so they can grow to be better people. Currently my hope is that I can do something along the lines of what you did and become a beacon of hope to others as well. I’m not entirely sure yet how, but hopefully I will figure it out soon. Keep being as awesome and as down to Earth as you were in our brief interaction and continue being Morphenomenal.
Sincerely, A lifetime fan
