Life echoes 'The Wonder Years'

A key to my early adolescence was a TV program you might remember called “The Wonder Years.” I didn’t grow up in the 1960s and 1970s like Kevin Arnold did. But I was also named Kevin, and that was enough for sixth-grade Kevin Wilson to relate.

It was also enough for my non-creative friends. Whatever happened to Kevin on “The Wonder Years,” my friends applied it to me the next morning in school. The episode where somebody nicknamed him “Kev-bo” lived on for years.

I liked the show even though I didn’t have a Winnie Cooper across the street and my youth wasn’t set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. I related because the problems Kevin Arnold went through were pretty universal, like “The Pimple.”

As you might guess, Kevin develops a pimple on his chin. The episode conflict is that it comes at the worst possible time. The Arnolds’ family friends, the Pruitts, are visiting in a few days and the Gina Pruitt Kevin knew as a toddler has grown into a cute girl.

Kevin tries to hide the blemish at school by putting a bandage on it and telling everybody he got in a fight — a plan that’s obliterated when Winnie grimaces that it must have hurt to be punched right on the pimple.

Kevin’s concerns were overblown, because when the Pruitts arrived poor Gina had developed a pimple as well.

It’s amazed me how many times this type of scenario happens to me. I’m about to go to some major gathering, or I’m meeting somebody for the first time and self-inflicted misfortune visits my face or other important body part.

• Cut my hand open on a broken bottle right after telling a friend I’d make a lunch run for her, and finding out no bandage does the job.

• Just 15 minutes before an important meeting, I feel the razor nick my face in a way it shouldn’t, and there’s that tiny bit of time before it starts bleeding where the stages of grief set in. File this under “things that happen most Tuesdays.”

But I always try to find new ways to bring misfortune upon myself. I’m meeting some friends I haven’t seen for a while Sunday, and an unrelated package came my way Friday. It’s a blackhead remover, so I don’t cause irritation pinching that pore-clogging stuff out of my face. Every online review said it worked great, and I couldn’t wait to test it out in the car.

The miniature vacuum clung to one side of my nose, then the other. The pores were a little cleaner, and I was seeing the effects. The skin was clearing up ... until it turned red, and a little purple. I believe “The Wonder Years” had an episode about a hickey, and I’ll have to review that for the two small ones on my nose.

Hopefully, it’s cleared up by the time you read this. If not, I hope you and my friends believe the ill-fitting bandage is because of a fight I got into. You should see the other guy.

Kevin Wilson is editor of the Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him at 575-763-3431, ext. 320, or by email:

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