Barefoot Through the Goathead Patch

This story takes place in a small town in California’s Imperial Valley during the post-depression 1940s. A mischievous young boy overhears his mother tell his older brother that seeing a naked girl will cause him to go blind. His curiosity aroused, the boy embarks on a mission to discover what girls have hidden under their skirts that’s so powerful merely seeing it causes blindness. His dilemma is how to accomplish this without going blind himself. He learns just enough along the way to get himself into one hilarious predicament after another.

Failing to obtain satisfactory answers from his peers, the boy turns to the “good old boys” who hang out at the local barbershop. Second only to the Picture Show, the barbershop provides the best entertainment in town and is the focal point of this story. The old farmers gather there to banter good-naturedly with the kids; baiting them into trying precarious stunts while freely injecting their “two cents” into the ever-changing discussions.

After entertaining themselves with the boy’s misfortunes, “The Oracle,” a man believed to have special powers, answers the boy’s questions in rhyme, providing the barbershop crowd with what they enjoy most… a good laugh. In the end, however, the laugh is on them when they find the answers to the boy’s questions teaching them a “thing or two” about women.

The story resonates with the Silent and Baby-boom members who find themselves “laughing out loud” as the boy’s misadventures evoke nostalgic memories from their own childhoods. They also relate to the misinformation and ignorance passed down to them from their parents about sex; wondering how they turned out as well as they did, under the circumstances. It also provides enjoyment for the ‘X’ generation as it explains much of why their parents were the way they were.