Lakeland Hammer Time
Lakeland has an event going on downtown nearly every day – from food trucks to first Friday events – but did you know we have had a parachute pants dance off in our streets?
My boss moved her office above Mitchell’s Coffee House and Black Swan Bazaar in September and naturally became friends with the landlord Jerry Herring. He collects art and Lakeland history.
While exploring one of the vacant spaces for fun’s sake, my boss Lorrie and my co-worker Barbara found a framed newspaper clipping of when MC Hammer came to Lakeland to film a KFC commercial in 1991. After approaching Jerry about the article, he granted permission for the piece to be hung in Lorrie’s space.
The article, like many pieces of art in Lorrie’s office, has become a great conversation piece for the peanut gallery. While I was showing off the most coveted article to my friend, he confessed to being present for the filming.
“I think I was in my freshman year of high school, me and my buddies all went down to see if we could see MC Hammer – it was packed with spectators,” said Shane Mahoney of Lugo’s Travel.
This got me excited and I made him take a photo with the article. I love hearing stories of legitimately cool stuff taking place in Lakeland, no matter how trivial. So next time someone says, “ugh Lakeland,” slide in that Lakeland is not only cool, but freaking MC Hammer walked our streets.
Trust your Gut.
Karin Munkacsi-Whitley was there and she has the photo to prove it. Here she is standing in front of the “Lake Edna Barber Shop.”
