Who, me?
It was such a big deal. Newspapers wrote about it, parents debated it. Latch key children: a fancy media term for kids who had their own house key after school.
Elementary schools, as a matter of policy, always found ways to hold on to kids after 3:30, for a half hour or so. Another way of bending over backwards to help the young post-war parents.
Well, mom’s schedule changed as I started fifth grade, no way she was getting home in time to let me in. So, I carried a key on my belt loop; I also carried all that awesome responsibility. Real awesome–please don’t burn the house down, son. Or go through the house to find the Playboy magazines daddy hid.
Hell, I was glad to just curl up on the couch with a large Coke bottle (oh, my tortured stomach), some Sturgis pretzels, and the channel 10 horror movie. I had no tolerance for the channel six ‘Dialing For Dollars’ movie, with the late Jim O’Brien spinning a silly-assed wheel. The Giant Gila Monster, The Giant Leaches, The Blob………I digested one after another of those cheesy fifties B&W films day after day. Of course, then that momentous day I decided to see why kids mentioned one movie with hushed whispers about nightmares and shaky hands. So I watched Psycho. Alone. Empty house.
During this time, I dove into the ‘model building’ fad, buying and assembling model kits for Godzilla, King Kong, Frankenstein, etc. Daddy tried to shift me to building model cars, but he looked stupid when he bought a model kit with instructions so complex he trashed the whole thing after an hour.
As soon as I got in, I had to call daddy to say I was home–the dysfunctional telephone dance. He was so agitated to hear my voice that (with no exceptions, even through high school!!) he reached for a cigarette (whacking the pack with free hand), flick his Zippo lighter, then fire up a Viceroy (and blow a acrid cloud) while mumbling syllables. Only later did I grasp the sick humor of a man who so hated fatherhood that my voice was an injection of tension and stress.
Sadly, I had to hold our dog through increasing seizures after school. Later that year, we had to put him down, so I had to get my canine fix with the ever reliable Hildy.
For Channel 10: