Author: 610rrandtr

“Hate me, or HATE Me’ It was strange to grow up next to a wacko. Kids would talk about nice neighbors and I was ‘Huh??’ The idiot next door (we’ll call him Mr. D) was the only person on the block more hated than my father. He thrived on hate. He and his frail, stern… Continue reading The Psycho Neighbor

The mega-hype, mega hit. Impossible to miss in the sixties. There were some excellent ploys marketing of this film. Coming on the heels of Goldfinger, which was a bona fide smash. Connery was now a huge mega-star–women adored him and every man wanted to have a beer with him. First, the theme from Thunderball was… Continue reading Thunderball

Watch our childhood Fly…. With Fifth grade came the recognition that two kids I knew from the bullshit kids’ football charade also lived up the block. Dan was the heavier of the two, with dark hair and a musical curiosity that fit with mine. His neighbor, Bob, had been in Catholic school but now joined… Continue reading New Grade, New Friends

Taking the pace I’m going through…. There is a very clear delineation of the beginning of the transformation of my neighborhood and my life –the summer following fourth grade. Like the turning of the tide, eventually all that was unique and wild about our neighborhood evaporated. A gift to our generation, wiped away by the… Continue reading A Change is Gonna Come

‘That Car Was the One I would be remiss without mentioning 60’s cars. Daddy saw cars as a way to show people how successful he was–classic ‘my dick is bigger than yours.’ He flipped cars every 3-4 years, just ’cause he could. When he still had friends on the block, he’d park the shiny vehicle… Continue reading Let’s talk about cars

Six Finger and Vac-U-Form, etc It’s crazy the useless stuff we made parents buy!! I remember a cardboard ‘city’ that had cars you drove around on it. The cars had a magnet under them and you moved them by using a wand with a magnet under the board. See the problem? The board had to… Continue reading Toys 3: Useless crap

Listen to the children of the night, how sweet is their music When we last left our hero, he was naked and sweltering in his upstairs room, occasionally sleeping half naked on sofa pillows in the living room, near a monstrous air conditioner. Earlier, I alluded to our female neighbor, Mrs. Overstreet. One summer evening,… Continue reading Neighbor enlists Nature for Revenge, Film at 11

It’s Vengeance She said, That’s the law By fifth grade, we’ve had to deal with her ego-eccentric behavior for 5 years and 8+ programs for the adults. I remember one had us crooning about scientific things, like rocks, evaporation, and the colors of the rainbow; oh joy. Another was a sing along show with songs… Continue reading Music Class: The Worm Turns

or, ‘Teacher Leave those kids alone’ When it comes to the worst teacher I had, it’s no contest. The Music Teacher. Which is odd, cause I’ve been collecting rock and jazz music for over 50 years. Mrs. H had a long horse face, a third-eye cheek mole and a frozen hair perm. She favored blouses… Continue reading Music Class–A Tale of Revenge in 2 Acts

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.… Continue reading Latch-Key Children