The Goonies

My parents rented The Goonies in March or April 1986. That weekend, we watched the film three times on glorious VHS. We never re-watched anything like that.

I grew up across the street from a corn field, several miles north of Muncie, Indiana. When Muncie is the nearest city, you know you're in trouble. We were like a bunch of hobbits out there — we never went on any adventures.

My family didn't have much money to travel or provide us kids with extravagant toys. My siblings and I just had each other, our imaginations, and a few neighborhood kids to keep us company. And our imaginations went wild when we saw The Goonies.

I saw The Goonies at the perfect time — our time, as the Goonies say. I was 11 years old — just the age when independence was new, and we could run around the back yard looking for buried treasure without our parents hovering around so much.

Parents aren't really like that anymore.

Anyway, around that time, I found this engraved medallion in a box of my parents' junk. I pretended the medallion was sort of like the headpiece of the staff of Ra. Tonight, I did my own little treasure hunt. Look what I found:

Of course, that piece is only part of the full survival set, if you're an 11-year-old growing up in my neighborhood. Here's the rest:

You need at least two knives(!), one of which is full of other gadgets such as a spoon, a fork, and a serrated blade(?), as well as a flower ring that sprays water(?), and a Falls City Beer bottle opener. You can't hunt for treasure without this stuff. At least, I never did.

Nearly 25 years later, all that stuff was in a box in my closet, packed away for no good reason except to take out now and then and remember. This is my buried treasure.

The Goonies captured everything awesome about being a kid. I never had to look for buried treasure to save my town. I never had to run from criminal families. But if I wanted to imagine all that stuff, I could (and sometimes did).

The Goonies was (I think) the second DVD that I ever purchased. At the time, most of the cast came back for a commentary track, which quickly devolves into people talking over each other, sort of like you threw a party and invited them all over. All the Goonies are around 40 years old now, some with kids of their own, and yeah, Kerri Green is still hot.

I love watching this film, even after all these years. I know there's no buried treasure, but try telling my imagination. I still have my medallion, Astoria is still in Oregon, and those rocks still rise out of the sea.