Tag Archives: 1970’s childhood

My Feral Childhood: Part 2

Posted on May 25, 2025 | 4 comments

The whole Goonies movie could have happened to me and my childhood friends as we explored the woods surrounding our neighborhood. That movie captured the feeling of a summer in Twin Acres when I was a kid. So where was I leaving off in yesterday’s post…oh yes, that time I almost lost an eye to a big sword!

Actually this event happened in 1981 in high school, but the way it was handled was very 70’s. Maybe that was because my teachers were also 70’s parents. I was in tenth grade and on a normal day I walked into the classroom. As I walked in another student was swinging a Lord of The Rings sword and the tip of the sword caught my face about a quarter inch from my eye, leaving a little cut. I don’t have any recollection of being sent to the nurse or of the other student being sent to the principal. He had brought the sword in as part of some project. That was the 70’s/80’s for you. You could walk right into school with a lethal weapon and the excuse that “it’s for a project” always worked.

French Fries to Die For? Who doesn’t love salty french fries? But if you’re a kid, you can’t exactly drive to McDonald’s. So what do you do when you’re home without supervision during summer vacation? Of course you pull out the electric vat full of grease and throw some fries in! It was just me and my younger sister at home. I was about 14 and my younger sister was probably 12 and way too overconfident in her cooking skills. She started the fries and at some point she pulled back on the handle of the basket in the grease. The whole thing full on boiling grease overturned on her arm/hand. Did we call 911 or our parents? No! Of course not! There was no 911 back then! Kids in the 70’s clean up their own messes. I think I bandaged her hand that was shedding skin like crazy.

It’s stuff like this that made me write my novel “The Sneaker Tree.” Although the novel is an ode to the adventures of my childhood, the neighborhood and the great friends I was lucky enough to have, it’s also a fun, suspenseful ride that’s been compared to Stephen King novels. I honestly didn’t go into writing this blog post to sell my book, but I’m very nostalgic and I enjoy what I think was a wonderful time to grow up in a small town.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy a nice Memorial Day if you’re in the States. ~Phil

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Posted in pop culture

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Throwback Thursday! Should We Bubble Wrap The World?

Posted on July 14, 2016 | 6 comments

This was very popular the first time I posted it. In a rare moment of clarity for me, I actually got a little philosophical. I hope my new readers enjoy it as well, and if you didn’t see it before, it’s new to you! And seriously, if the bubble wrap picture from Friends doesn’t get you to read this, you’re dead inside.

funny-bubble-wrap

We all love bubble wrap right?  What we love about it is popping the bubbles, right? (Does anyone not see a metaphor coming?) In a post a few months ago  about the idiot that petitioned Facebook to remove the “feeling fat” emoji, I said that “nobody’s going to bubble wrap the world to make it safe.” In fact, I don’t want anyone to make the whole world perfectly safe.

Much like our immune system, unless we’re exposed to dangers, we’ll never learn to cope with them. Sadly though, I think that as a society we are doing our children a disservice by trying to bubble wrap the world. I rather liked when I was a kid and our parent’s seemingly didn’t give a rat’s ass about our safety. (How did that saying come about? Did anyone in history ever literally give a rat’s ass for something? How did a rat’s ass become a form of measurement or currency?)

bubble-wrap-1

As I was saying, when I was a kid in the 1970’s it seemed that our parent’s, all of ours, not just mine, didn’t really worry too much about our safety. Seatbelts? We didn’t need no stinkin’ seatbelts! I remember once when some of the kids in the neighborhood went to a summer day camp at the elementary school. When my mom came to pick me up she offered a ride to my friends from the neighborhood. Ten kids crammed ourselves into a Ford Mustang! Not a one of us had a seatbelt or an airbag. Other times I remember kids riding in the open back of pick up trucks. You just held on and hoped there weren’t too many bumps. That’s kind of a metaphor for life, isn’t it?

In the 1970’s so many of us were allowed to go home by ourselves after elementary school that they made up a phrase. We were called latch key kids. Nowadays there’s before school programs and after school programs so that every minute of children’s days are supervised and bubble wrapped. As kids that directed our own time, we learned about the world on our own and used our imaginations to come up with solutions. Sure, sometimes kids broke an arm or a leg, or once my sister tipped over a deep fryer of scalding hot cooking oil on her arm, but those were life lessons and mistakes we didn’t make twice.

bubble-wrap-2

Even bullying was allowed in the 1970’s! Everyone who thinks that cyber-bullying is the end of the world, guess what? Back when I was a kid we bullied and got bullied in person, face to face. I think that’s got to be a lot more traumatic than idiots typing bad words on the internet.  Because my birthday is at the end of the year, I started kindergarten younger than most of my classmates. As a result I was always the youngest, and until puberty, the shortest kid in my grade. Of course I got bullied! You know what? My parents didn’t know about 90% of it and I figured out how to deal with it. Yes, there are limits to what should be tolerated, but if all confrontation is removed or bubble wrapped into polite, non-offensive language, how are we going to learn to have confrontations and disagreements as we grow up?

In the 1970’s life wasn’t bubble wrapped and it was fun. We had Jarts, lawn darts; a toy that was outlawed because of people too stupid to play without hurting themselves. We just threw those sharp metal things around the neighborhood willy-nilly, day and night. If someone lost an eye, well, they learned to be a hell of a lot more careful the next time. That’s the way life should be. Life is one big, stupid learning opportunity that kids of today are deprived of. Let’s see…kids of my generation, grew up, moved out of our houses and got on with things. These days kids never leave their parents home, and maybe it’s because they were never given the freedom to navigate and make mistakes in the real world.

Sorry about the preachy, soap box kind of post today. The genesis was from a conversation I had with a co-worker about how much stupid, dangerous, fun stuff we did growing up that would never be allowed by parents today. In the comments I’d love to hear some of your funny stories about funny, stupid stuff you did growing up. Have a great weekend! ~Phil

6 Comments

Posted in Humor

Tagged , , , ,

Should We Bubble Wrap the World?

Posted on July 11, 2015 | 34 comments

funny-bubble-wrapWe all love bubble wrap right?  What we love about it is popping the bubbles, right? (Does anyone not see a metaphor coming?) In a post a few months ago  about the idiot that petitioned Facebook to remove the “feeling fat” emoji, I said that “nobody’s going to bubble wrap the world to make it safe.” In fact, I don’t want anyone to make the whole world perfectly safe.

Much like our immune system, unless we’re exposed to dangers, we’ll never learn to cope with them. Sadly though, I think that as a society we are doing our children a disservice by trying to bubble wrap the world. I rather liked when I was a kid and our parent’s seemingly didn’t give a rat’s ass about our safety. (How did that saying come about? Did anyone in history ever literally give a rat’s ass for something? How did a rat’s ass become a form of measurement or currency?)

bubble-wrap-1

As I was saying, when I was a kid in the 1970’s it seemed that our parent’s, all of ours, not just mine, didn’t really worry too much about our safety. Seatbelts? We didn’t need no stinkin’ seatbelts! I remember once when some of the kids in the neighborhood went to a summer day camp at the elementary school. When my mom came to pick me up she offered a ride to my friends from the neighborhood. Ten kids crammed ourselves into a Ford Mustang! Not a one of us had a seatbelt or an airbag. Other times I remember kids riding in the open back of pick up trucks. You just held on and hoped there weren’t too many bumps. That’s kind of a metaphor for life, isn’t it?

In the 1970’s so many of us were allowed to go home by ourselves after elementary school that they made up a phrase. We were called latch key kids. Nowadays there’s before school programs and after school programs so that every minute of children’s days are supervised and bubble wrapped. As kids that directed our own time, we learned about the world on our own and used our imaginations to come up with solutions. Sure, sometimes kids broke an arm or a leg, or once my sister tipped over a deep fryer of scalding hot cooking oil on her arm, but those were life lessons and mistakes we didn’t make twice.

bubble-wrap-2

Even bullying was allowed in the 1970’s! Everyone who thinks that cyber-bullying is the end of the world, guess what? Back when I was a kid we bullied and got bullied in person, face to face. I think that’s got to be a lot more traumatic than idiots typing bad words on the internet.  Because my birthday is at the end of the year, I started kindergarten younger than most of my classmates. As a result I was always the youngest, and until puberty, the shortest kid in my grade. Of course I got bullied! You know what? My parents didn’t know about 90% of it and I figured out how to deal with it. Yes, there are limits to what should be tolerated, but if all confrontation is removed or bubble wrapped into polite, non-offensive language, how are we going to learn to have confrontations and disagreements as we grow up?

In the 1970’s life wasn’t bubble wrapped and it was fun. We had Jarts, lawn darts; a toy that was outlawed because of people too stupid to play without hurting themselves. We just threw those sharp metal things around the neighborhood willy-nilly, day and night. If someone lost an eye, well, they learned to be a hell of a lot more careful the next time. That’s the way life should be. Life is one big, stupid learning opportunity that kids of today are deprived of. Let’s see…kids of my generation, grew up, moved out of our houses and got on with things. These days kids never leave their parents home, and maybe it’s because they were never given the freedom to navigate and make mistakes in the real world.

Sorry about the preachy, soap box kind of post today. The genesis was from a conversation I had with a co-worker about how much stupid, dangerous, fun stuff we did growing up that would never be allowed by parents today. In the comments I’d love to hear some of your funny stories about funny, stupid stuff you did growing up. Have a great weekend! ~Phil

34 Comments

Posted in Humor, Uncategorized

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