So I’ve never seen The Goonies. I know it’s tragic. Somehow I made it through childhood without seeing this movie. I managed to see most of the other 80s classics—some of my favorites star John Cusack.

The movie is basically about a group of kids who go on a treasure hunt. It reminded me of my own childhood when me and a bunch of other neighborhood kids owned the block where my grandma and grandpa lived.

The neighborhood on 19th avenue in Yakima, Wash was a training ground for top secret missions, prison breaks, “adventures” as we called them, this game called Spotlight, and tons of other mischief. I’ll never forget when Laser Tag came out and every kid on the block had a laser gun of some dimension. At any given moment you could see kids running up and down the block tagging each other. One kid got the laser sniper rifle which made the rest of kids vulnerable to secret attack—we all envied the rifle.

None of us found any treasure, but what we lacked in gold and jewels were gems of experiences that none of us will never forget I hope.

That demand for adventure never leaves us as we grow older. I still have that desire to run down my block with a Laser Tag gun weaving behind bushes and parked cars, heart pounding in my chest, a safe sense of terror, and a grin from ear to ear.

Those were the days when we were invincible. If we got “tagged” we knew we’d live to play another long summer’s day.