httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y
Even if he was the deciding factor to see Michael Jackson’s childhood home, Addarius Hudson didn’t want to get back in the SUV. Hudson, one of 11 family members who traveled all the way to 2306 Jackson Street in Gary from Birmingham, Ala., over the weekend, wasn’t exactly looking forward to heading all the way back home Sunday afternoon.
“I made the choice,” he said, smiling as the rest of the Hudson-Glenn-Tolbert family marveled at the tiny house in which the King of Pop and his giant family spent their formative years.
Sunday was the eighth anniversary of Jackson’s death at age 50.
Just as they have every year since Jackson died, throngs of fans from all over the world convened at the house-turned-museum Sunday afternoon.
Patricia Scott Johnson, whose mom, Annie Scott, was first cousins with Jackson Patriarch Joe, said people as far away as France and Sweden and as “Close” as Texas stop by her merchandise tent to peruse family pictures and meet other extended family members still living in the old neighborhood behind the Roosevelt High School football field.
The kids stared awestruck at the house, which Girtha Amerson said has changed so much since she last saw it in 1996.
Damien Hervey, 19, of Enid, Miss., was 11 when Jackson died and said he had no idea who the singer was until that very day.
“I’d heard some of his songs on the radio, but I was like, ‘Why’s my momma crying over this dude?'” Hervey said as his cousin, Bree Hardy, took pictures of the house.