This film inspired me to commit wanton acts of vandalism and mayhem
I remember watching this movie for the first time on TV when I skipped a day of school during my 8th grade year in middle school. Needless to say, I was quite smitten with the film and it ended up inspiring myself and my friends to commit vandalism and mayhem as a result. We ended up getting one of my friend's water balloon launchers (basically a giant rubber band thingy) and we spent an entire afternoon launching water balloons onto the highway that was near our apartment complex. We were on a hill about 50 or 60 ft. above the freeway, hidden near the bushes that grew close to a billboard sign. We managed not to hit anything but had a few near misses; hitting moving vehicles with water balloons is extremely difficult btw, but it was still great fun!
A couple of weeks of staying out late...lighting dumpsters on fire, skateboarding through a Winn Dixie grocery store, smoking weed and cigarettes (for some reason my friends and I had a much easier time attaining weed than we did alcohol, weird huh?), saying perverted stuff to random women twice our age, harassing people at the local shopping mall, etc. The last day of middle school we stole fire extinguishers from our art class and sprayed them all over the school parking lot. We raided my friend Michael's stockpile of fireworks, which he was saving for the 4th of July, and haphazardly made our own bombs with them, blowing up mailboxes, trashcans, and other random stuff. I remember going into a sporting goods store at the nearby strip mall with my buddy Dustin and we set off a long chain of black cats. I vividly remember the shock on peoples faces and being chased out of the store by the store manager, haha!
I was pretty much the ringleader, always egging my friends on to do stupid *beep* with me. Not sure why I'm typing this, but I just happened to watch the movie again recently and it reminded me of the good ol' days back in Jacksonville, FL, 8th grade year and all the crazy *beep* I did with my buddies, all of it inspired by this film. Now I feel like I am drudging through life. I've become a conformist 9 to 5 worker. I lost touch with all my middle school buddies, I am sure they're all married now, have kids, and are working day jobs. I feel kind of abnormal, I don't want to marry yet, and I hate my job.
Those memories of mayhem during my 8th grade year, those were truly some of my best memories. Now what's a guy to do when he's almost 30 and life has lost most of its luster? I guess launching water balloons at cars on the highway is probably out of the question?