Fahrenheit-182: A Memoir

Mark Hoppus opens his memoir by describing the place he was born and raised: Ridgecrest, California. He was born in 1972. Ridgecrest is a small town in the Mojave Desert located on a military base, where Hoppus’s father worked, and Hoppus recalls jets rushing by and causing the whole earth to quake. One pilot, Ted Faller, experienced engine failure and died while crashing his plane in the fields to avoid hitting the school. Hoppus recalls the extreme heat, often reaching 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and how the slides, car seats, and door handles were always too hot to touch. Hoppus remembers playing with scorpions outside the trailer where he lived. He thinks of himself as a rarity, because while most things cannot survive, let alone thrive, in such conditions, Hoppus did. Hoppus also includes several black-and-white photographs of himself as a baby; one photo depicts Mark crawling out into the desert sand.

Hoppus grew up in the 1980s as part of Generation X. His father was an aerospace engineer for the US Navy, while his mother worked hard raising the children. Hoppus remembers happily spending time with his parents in simple moments, including running garbage to the dump with his dad or learning to cook from his mother.